After the fact, when I was getting ready to hose down my muddy old running shoes I began to think back on the experience and I realized how many parallels there are between the race and the past 33 years of our marriage.
I started the day a little apprehensive, just as I did the day we got married. I didn't know what was ahead of me in the race, as I didn't know what I would face in marriage with Scott, but I knew I was in love with him and wanted to do this thing called life together.
We started the race out a bit more independently, kind of doing our own thing and not matching strides at all, until we hit the first obstacle, just like our early married years. When we started to hit those obstacles, things got real. We had to go over ladder like pyramids, and at first we were tackling them alone and feeling pretty confident in doing so. As in life, the early years we were still very independent and relied on our own opinions and experiences instead of working as a team.
Following the pyramids we began to experience more difficult challenges that involved concentration, balance, and often times crawling through mud and gunk. I found that I was relying on Scott's care and encouragement more and more. When I was a bit scared, he would go ahead of me and then hold my hand to help me along. He has done this all throughout our marriage, and that is just one of the reasons that I love him so much.
I found myself getting really shaky and tired as the race progressed, there were some climbing obstructions that I knew I had to go around, because I might injure myself otherwise, but I didn't abandon Scott, I cheered him on as he tackled them so that he wasn't alone. That's like life as well, sometimes we have to know our limits but just because one of us can't do something doesn't mean we face the event alone, we still support each other along the journey.
Finally, we had to cross the deeper water and the current was fairly brisk, our shoes were being sucked into the muddy creek bed and it was really hard to walk through the water, so we held on tight to each other and took turns supporting each other allowing each other to walk alone when possible but holding on when the going got too rough. We have had times in our 33 years that we had to hold on tight and be a constant support to make it through the hidden sink holes but as long as persevered together we made it through the adversity and sad times.
Our final obstacle was racing up a small dirt mound then sliding into the mud in the bottom, hand in hand with a smile on our faces, before we pulled ourselves out of the hole to finally jog across the finish line.
The race was enjoyable because I had Scott by my side, I was never alone.
He encouraged me to keep going, try my best, and cross the finish line. I feel like our marriage and family life has had the same rhythm. All the conflict or struggles in life have been faced together and because of this, have been more manageable. I'm glad we did something outside of our comfort zone... together. Not only did I enjoy spending the beautiful fall Saturday morning with him, but I also appreciate the fact that it made me look at our life together in a different way, and feel blessed.
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