Entry 29: Outreach Stories #5 pt. 2 (The Marathon)

  Here it is! The second part of the two-part "Outreach Story Series: The Marathon." If you haven't read Part 1, I highly recommend taking the time to do so. That way, you can fully understand the significance of Part 2. (Entry 28: Outreach Stories #5 pt. 1 (The Marathon)). Part 2 picks up right where we left off in Part 1, just moments before the starting gun fired to begin the race.

Miles 1-9

    3-2-1, bang! The starting gun fired, and just like that, Micah, Devin, and I were running a marathon. As stated in Part 1, I did not plan on finishing the race but intended to run until I needed to stop. I told myself I would keep going until I passed out, so I could be confident knowing I gave it my all. The race began in a stadium, with one lap around the track. I’m pretty sure every racer, including us, started with a hot 6-minute/mile pace for the first quarter mile due to the excitement and nerves. We eventually settled into a 9:30-10:00 minute/mile pace, which was a little fast but manageable since the first two miles were slightly downhill. Micah, Devin, and I were feeling great in those first couple of miles. We were having fun and even shared the gospel with a few racers before we all scattered into our own paces. The first six miles flew by, and I felt fantastic. One important lesson I learned while running the half marathon was to keep my mind focused on the present moment. I realized that if I became prideful about the miles I had already run, I’d speed up, leading to burnout later on—as it is written, "Pride comes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall." I also learned that if I became fearful or anxious about the tough miles ahead and focused too much on the future, I’d be defeated before even reaching that point—as it is written, "Worry about nothing, pray about everything." I chose to mentally prostrate myself before the LORD every moment I could. I placed my mind in the present moment of His presence, thanking Him for the strength in the miles I had already run, and I prayed for an increase in strength for the miles to come

   God graciously imparted great peace in my present-mindedness and gratitude, but around mile 6, I began to feel discomfort in my stomach. My heart rate, breathing, and legs all felt strong, but something I ate the day before was making my stomach uneasy. I pushed through for a couple more miles, hoping the discomfort would subside, but it only worsened. It didn't help that after roughly 4 miles of downhill and flat ground, the course transitioned to about 9 miles of nearly all uphill running. Around mile 8, Micah, Devin, and I split off from each other. I knew I could not try to keep up with them. If I wanted to finish the race, I had to run at my own pace. By mile 9, the stomach pain became unbearable, and I desperately needed a bathroom. Thankfully, a volunteer quickly helped me find one. I had a large amount of diarrhea, but afterward, I felt much better. I started running again, overflowing with gratitude for the relief. However, what I didn't realize was that I had already been sweating for about an hour and a half, and now I had lost nearly all the liquids my body would later need.

Miles 10-19

   Every 3-4 miles, my outreach team provided protein bars, quick sugars, bananas, and water if needed. There were also water stations roughly every half mile. Despite feeling like I was constantly drinking water, it was not enough to keep me hydrated after having diarrhea. The water stations were set up by the business owners of the buildings along the marathon course, many of which were Hindu temples. As I passed them, I prayed over them, asking God to impart His Spirit so they might know the one true living God. I made sure to give the biggest smile when people cheered me on as I ran by the water stations. I knew that positivity and joy would be powerful in helping me push through the miles to come.

  Around mile 11, I felt really good physically and even stronger in the spirit. The halfway point, 13.1 miles, came, and from there on, it was mostly downhill for 7 miles. Every mile after 13 felt like a gift from God, and each one seemed like a victory. Just a few days earlier, I had never run more than 6 miles; then I ran 13.1, and now I was running 14, 15, 16 miles! I knew that gratitude is one of the most powerful ways to plant yourself in the present moment. Because of this, I started whispering a phrase over and over: Thank...You...God. I matched the cadence of my stride to the words. This helped me stay present and kept me running at a steady pace

   I started becoming quite fatigued around mile 17. This was when I began walking for the first time. I walked for a little less than a quarter of a mile to slow my heart rate and rest my legs, then started running again. At mile 18, I saw Dillon, a friend from another outreach team. His team had come to watch and support us, and he stayed at mile 18 to help encourage and run beside me. In most races, having help from an "outside assistant" would lead to disqualification, but where we were, they did not mind. Dillon ran alongside me despite feeling very sick himself. Through Dillon's kindness and sacrifice, God displayed the power of relationship and community. Dillon did an excellent job distracting me from the pain and fatigue by telling stories and encouraging me. However, I was gradually becoming more and more weary.

Miles 20-26.2

  I continued running with Dillon, and though I was weary, I remained conscious. We eventually reached the final checkpoint our team had designated, where Gracen and Abby were waiting for me. Due to my watch dying and a misunderstanding, I thought I only had 2 miles remaining, but I actually had 4. This is when things started getting a little intense. Up to this moment, the race had definitely been physically hard and mentally demanding, but the last 4 miles truly tested my character and courage. I faced a seemingly endless, slightly uphill, two-mile straightaway on black pavement, with the sun beating down relentlessly. Just outside the city, I was surrounded by nothing but barren emptiness. The desolate landscape made each step feel heavier, as if I was making no progress at all. The emptiness of my surroundings began to infiltrate me intrinsically, but the power of friendship encouraged me to keep pushing. I finally re-entered the city around mile 24. I assumed the finish line was just around the corner due to my previous misunderstanding of the mileage. In hindsight, I believe this confusion was pivotal to the outcome. If I had known how much was left in the race, there is a good chance I would have given up. However, because I was present-minded and thought I had just a little further to go, I continued on. At this point in the race, I had genuinely pushed myself to the maximum. I honestly feel that if I had not willfully fought to stay conscious, I would have passed out. The only thing that kept me going was the power of the Holy Spirit and my friends.

   In the final two miles of the race, the symptoms of the diarrhea from mile 9 began to manifest severely. Due to dehydration and heat stroke, my body started showing signs of rhabdomyolysis. My muscles were deteriorating, causing harmful substances to enter my bloodstream, which in turn led to near kidney failure. My heart, having worked so hard for the previous 4.5 hours, became extremely weak and almost stopped pumping blood. Despite the excruciating pain and near unconsciousness, I resiliently pushed onward. Sadly, the race officials had other plans. Around mile 25, an ambulance noticed my unsteady, almost drunken running and pulled up in front of me, clearly intent on taking me to the hospital. They could tell I was not doing well and were prepared to stop me from finishing. What happened next is a blur to me, but my friends who were running alongside me recounted that the ambulance pulled up, opened the back door for me to get in, but instead of climbing aboard, I staggered alongside it. In a moment of sheer determination (and perhaps stubbornness), I slammed one of the doors shut while leaning against the vehicle for support, and then continued to stumble on.

Win Win

  The moments that followed the race are ones I will never forget. I believe they are some of, if not, the most profound and impactful hours of my entire life. As you can see in the photos above, I was not looking well. I was quickly attended to by race volunteers, medics, and Emma, a former nurse and one of my outreach leaders. I was swiftly placed on a stretcher and taken to a tent near the finish line. Amid the crowded confusion of multiple languages and medics trying to assess my condition, I overheard Gracen speaking to Emma. He said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let him finish the race." Emma, who is usually like a loving, overprotective mother, replied, "No, this is good. I can see the victory this was for him. He has just overcome challenges that will impact him for a long time." At that moment, I began proclaiming to Emma how it was all God and how He had given me the strength to finish. I could barely speak and lacked the strength to even think, but I remember all I wanted was to give God the glory. My body was at its weakest but my spirit was at its strongest and it revitalized me to exalt God and lay the beautiful accomplishment of what was just completed at His feet.

   Emma and the medics continued to help me and gave me water. Shortly after taking a drink, I started vomiting. This caused Emma to become extremely concerned. She later told me that though the medics thought I was just fatigued and exhausted she had heard from God that I needed to be taken to the hospital. Emma insisted that I be taken in the ambulance to the hospital, and so it was done. When they closed the doors of the ambulance, I said to Emma, "I feel like I forgot something." She replied, "What is it, Cody?" I told her, "It is the oppression of the flesh. The anxiety and depression; they are gone." My body was so weak, and I had willfully died to self (almost literally) for four and a half hours straight, which caused my spirit to radiate with the glory of God's nearness. I lay in a state of depleted paralyzation as my body experienced the euphoric release of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. It was in this blissful state that I began to realize the severity of my physical condition. I knew I should not be feeling this good after the strain I had just endured, and that is when I understood that death was closer than I might have realized. I told Emma, "I need you to write my book for me. When I die, write about the marathon and my life." Emma knew I had always dreamed of writing a book and now heard the sobering request I had entrusted to her. She replied, "Cody, you are going to write your own book. Keep your eyes open and stay with me." Aware of the power of the tongue and positivity, I responded, "I will write my book, and I am going to live." In my pain and weakness, I realized that I had no greater honor or desire than to worship the King of kings in that moment, and so that is what Emma and I did. I then looked out the window of the ambulance and gazed at the sun. I said to Emma, "I am not sure if that bright light is the sun or if I am seeing God, but either way, it is a win-win. Either I die and enter into eternal glory, or I live and have a beautiful story to share." Weeks after the ambulance ride, Emma, who is strong in discernment, humbly shared with me that she was actually righteously jealous of me while I was in the ambulance. She told me that she could sense so strongly the closeness of God to me in that moment and that she could tell my spirit was elevated to profound heavenly places.

  The year and a half leading up to the race was marked by a sense of fearlessness in my life. However, this fearlessness was in vain because it was rooted in the desire to escape the suffering of life through death. As I confronted the very thing I had been recklessly pursuing, I realized it might not have been what I truly wanted. God began to reveal to me my purpose in life, sharing with me the secrets of how He wanted to use me as an instrument of His will. He imparted His heart for the lost and presented me with a choice. He showed me His glory and offered me the option to enter fully into His presence now, or to continue living and allow Him to use me to point others to God's eternal glory. He revealed that I was fully known, and I could have chosen to see Him "face to face," as Paul describes. Yet, I chose to live, so that I might lead others to see God face to face. In that moment, I recognized that my desire for death had been selfish and that God had so much more in store for me. For the first time in a long time, I felt a genuine desire to fight for life, and that is precisely what I did. God replaced my desire for death with a passion for seeing others truly live. His heart for the lost became my own, and I understood my purpose in life at the core of who I am: to know God and make Him known. I no longer had to live out of vain fearlessness. Instead I could live from the eternally greater motivator that of which is every virtue at its testing point: courage, which was now rooted in the soil of sacrificial love.

Conclusion

   I arrived at the hospital and was stretchered to the emergency room. There, they conducted various tests and provided treatment. My blood pressure had dropped to a dangerously low 50/30 mmHg. Due to the muscle deterioration, my potassium levels had soared, my white blood cell count was doubled, and my creatinine level, which should have been around 400, was measured at 40,000. These conditions made me highly susceptible to kidney failure. Even if I appeared to have recovered, there was still a risk of death in the days that followed. Consequently, I was fitted with a catheter to accurately track my fluid intake and output. I spent three days in the hospital and underwent 30 IV infusions. The catheter was removed on the second day and was dang near more painful than the entire marathon, but thankfully it was a much quicker experience.

   I did indeed receive a medal, finishing the marathon with a time of 4 hours and 48 minutes, placing 69th out of roughly 200 racers. Micah and Devin did not have diarrhea and ran exceptionally well. Micah powered through and finished with a time of 4 hours and 30 minutes. Devin completed it in a remarkable 4 hours and 6 minutes. Both Devin and Micah continue to inspire me to this day, and I would not have wanted to run an untrained marathon with anyone else. I believe we all learned something profoundly impactful during that brief one week of training. We discovered that if we could achieve something as challenging as running an untrained marathon simply because we desired to do something difficult, imagine what we could accomplish if we pursued a mission with actual purpose. God showed us that when we take big leaps of faith, he will show up in incredible ways.

   Thank you all for taking the time to read and reflect on God's miraculous works and how they continue to impact me to this day. I pray this story edified your spirit and I hope it displayed a new facet of God's intricately eternal character. 

Outreach Team from left to right: Gracen, Emma, Devin, Micah, Malia, Naomi. Not pictured Abby and Bree