Navy Cross

Crossing Finish Lines

Crossing Finish Lines

By Carrie James

 

“GO CARRIE!!!”

 

I heard and saw about 15 of my teammates in blue and yellow active.com jerseys screaming from the sidelines.

 

“SPRINT!!”

 

I heard my best friend yelling, as she joined me on the course to run the last few blocks with me. I sprinted to the finish line, through cheers and screams, and the announcer said “I believe that was Carrie James!”. I fought back tears, lifted my hands to the sky to thank God for getting me through the run when my legs were gone and all I had was prayers, and bit my quivering lip as I handed over my bib number and tag. The first face I saw as I passed was Mike Reilly, the “Voice of Ironman” - the inspiration and the leader for our company in the sport of triathlon; the man who had motivated us to take up this sport. What a great greeting. He welcomed me with open arms and I tried not to sob. I wanted him to think I was tough, after all. I’m sure he already did.

 

I held it together pretty well, I thought, considering the 3 months of training, the emotional and physical hurdles, and the friendships I had experienced on my way to this finish line. I joined my teammates on the sidelines, because I realized that even though my celebration had begun, there were still members of my team who were in later legs, still pounding the pavement to get to the black and white checkered FINISH banner. I waited in anticipation…..”who’s next?” and cheered as loud as I could with the little lungs I had left as each team member crossed the finish line. “GO MIKE!” “GO CONNORS!!” “GO SCOTT!!” I had been sick for the last 3 days and this day was one of the worst, so I screamed as loud as I could even though my lungs were burning with every breath from the physical feat I had just put myself through. It felt like this was part of my race; I wasn’t done until I had cheered every one of my teammates to the finish. After all, cheering each other on has been part of our race, part of our story.

 

?

 

In March two of my buddies at Active, Mike and Steve, cornered me and convinced me that I was being a wuss for not participating in our thrice weekly ActiveX boot camp workouts. They promised me that my body would see more changes than the little runs around the bay and kick boxing classes I was doing with my girlfriends. I thought I had been doing pretty well physically this year; I was meeting one of my girlfriends at the gym twice a week for kickboxing and weights, and I was taking Pilates classes twice a week. Mike and Steve assured me that all of those workouts combined would not equal three days a week of ActiveX. So I joined. And I immediately loved the workouts.

 

First of all, the workouts were social. That’s what got me the most. I heard “everyone’s doing it” enough that I wanted to be part of the crowd. It was fun sweating and grunting on the top of the parking garage together, laughing when our legs were wobbly from squats. Second, I loved how my body was changing. The cardio I was doing at home was helping to slim me down, but the ActiveX workouts were carving my muscles; making me leaner. Even though I was sore every day for the first month, my body eventually got used to the struggle and started to feel strong. My three mile runs on the bay turned into five mile runs, and by the end of June I had finished my first 10K. It was the first time I had ever ran 6 miles, and it felt awesome. Once again, it was my ActiveX teammates, this time the ladies, who had cheered me through and ran the race with me to the finish. I crossed the finish line with my friend and fellow ActiveXer Karen, and realized that with my team, together, I was able to do what I might never have been able to do alone. At the end of that race I felt invincible, and honestly, pretty impressed with myself.

 

Then we started brick workouts on the weekends. There were about thirty of us from the ActiveX Charity Team who met on Saturday mornings to train. We rode our bikes around Fiesta Island, did swim clinics where we practiced dolphin diving in and out of the waves at La Jolla Shores, and did bike-to-run workouts at Glorietta Bay on Coronado Island. There was something about riding my bike down the Silver Strand, across the street from the beach where the Navy Seals train, that really inspired me. On one of these brick workouts my CEO, Dave Alberga, rode the whole ride with me, giving me tips on my cadence and efficiency on the bike. He is a very accomplished athlete, and it felt great to be a part of his team.

 

Our brick workouts eventually turned into full triathlon-distance workouts. Swim-bike-run. By this point my training team had read my “I am an athlete” e-mail and they knew how much of a big deal this training was for me. I was always in the back of the pack, often the last person to finish the workout, but I would run into the park where everyone was recovering, and they would all cheer and say “way to go, athlete!” I was greeted by huge smiles and high fives, and colleagues who were obviously proud and to my surprise even impressed with me.

 

I realize now that this whole process has been a series of finish lines. I can’t speak for my teammates but I personally have crossed athletic finish lines I never thought I would cross, training my body for this race. I crossed emotional finish lines, realizing with every grueling workout that I was doing things I never thought I was created to do; things I never thought were part of my identity.

 

?

 

I held it together pretty well at the finish line that Sunday afternoon, until I saw my good buddy Chris pass the finish line. I felt hot tears start to stream down my cheeks. He had been such a motivation to me through this whole process, telling me “you can do anything you put your mind to” even when I’m sure he believed at times that I might not be able to complete the task at hand. He would e-mail me motivational forwards during the day to pump me up, he would tell me things like “you will never regret a workout; you will only regret not working out”. He was always at the finish line of one of our brick workouts, with a big high five and a smile, encouraging me the whole way.

 

The reason I broke down when Chris crossed the finish line wasn’t really about him necessarily, although he had been an amazing friend and teammate. It was about the whole process; this team of individuals I never would have grouped myself with athletically, who had believed in me, cheered for me, cried with me, screamed encouragement at me, busted my butt during the ActiveX workouts. The collective team as a whole had been the exact positive peer pressure I needed to take myself to another level athletically. If it would have been one friend or one colleague pushing me, I don’t think I would have gone as far or done as well as I did having an entire team behind me. The positive unit that was the ActiveX Charity Team was such a strong group, I think we all encouraged each other to places we didn’t think we could go. And we had fun while we were doing it.

 

I decided through this process that my life from here on out is going to be about continuously setting finish lines out in front of me, farther than I think I can reach, and doing everything in my capable power to cross them. Setting goals for myself at work, with my family and friends, with my community service, with my character as an individual. Keep pushing, keep improving, keep impressing myself. It’s never about the other people. It’s about what I am capable of doing. I think God puts us on this earth with other people (and luckily put me in this great company with these amazing people) because we need each other to help us reach our finish lines, our life milestones. I think God will continue to put people and opportunities in my life to encourage me to finish the race strong. I am so thankful to Him for this experience, for giving me strength, great new friendships, and a unique experience I will never forget. One that I have to repeat, like, several times a year now.

 

 

“It's important to  know that at the end of the day it's not the medals you remember.  What you remember is the process-- what you learn about yourself by challenging yourself, the experiences you share with other people, the honesty the training demands -- those are things nobody can take away from you whether you finish twelfth or you're an Olympic Champion.”

~Silken Laumann - Canadian Olympian

 

1 Cor. 9:24   “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

 

Heb 12:1   “…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

 

"What we have is based upon moment-to-moment choices of what we do. In each of those moments, we choose. We either take a risk and move toward what we want, or we play it safe and choose comfort. Most of the people, most of the time, choose comfort. In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."~ Anonymous

 

“The Creator has not given you a longing to do that which you have no ability to do.”

Orison Swett Marden

About the Author

First time author. Employee of The Active Network. www.active.com. Triathlete. Woman of God. Not necessarily in that order.

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