WoooooooHooooooo!!!!! 

Ok now that I got that out of the way I can tell you what happened.  Well we had a meet in Laramie Wyoming today, at good old 7,200 feet, not the ideal distance altitude.  Before I get to the exciting part I need to tell what had happened the day before.

Yesterday was possibly the worst weather there could have been in Laramie the day before a track meet.  It was 23 degrees, snowing sideways, with 50 mile per hour winds.  Yah thats exactly what I want when I know I have to run the steeplechase the next day.  Well down here in Fort Collins it wasn't much better, although it was warmer and we didn't have the snow but we still had the wind.  I was getting a little frustrated and thinking that it wouldn't even be worth racing if the weather was that bad.  Well our bus departure time got moved back an hour so I got to sleep in a little bit, all the while praying for better weather.

When I woke up the next morning I checked my computer to see how the weather was looking in Laramie.  It was sunny, but 17 degrees.  I thought to myself, "there is no way that I am going to be running the steeplechase today."  Well nonetheless we loaded our bus around 8:30 and headed out.  On the bus ride I kept pushing the weather out of my mind and tried to focus on the goal that I wanted to hit.  This was getting harder and harder the closer we got to Wyoming.  There was snow on the ground and the ponds were frozen over.  And when you see a frozen pond, there is not a whole lot of hope for a nice water pit.  But I still tried to focus on what I needed to do.  

When we finally arrived at the meet, the sun was out and they were shoveling snow off of the track and trying to make the ice melt quicker.  Well once we got off the bus, we found that it wasn't really all that cold.  This made me very happy, because there was no wind and it looked like it was just going to get warmer.  And get warmer it did.  By the time I started my warm up it was almost 50 degrees, which was just fine with me.  By race time the temperature had risen to 52 degrees.  

It was time, all things left my mind except my goal, as I took off my warm ups and headed towards the starting line.  There were six of us in the race.  2 guys from Wyoming, 2 from the Air Force Academy, and my teammate Kurt and I.  They called us to the line and gave us their instructions.  Then the guy realized that they hadn't set the computers up for the race, so they told us to take some strides.  Well it took them about 10 minutes to set up the computers for the race.  They then called us back and it was time to go.  

The gun went off and I quickly moved into third place behind the 2 Wyoming guys.  I followed them to a 72 second first lap, which I thought was a little fast but tried to keep my mind off things, and just stay focused.  The pace slowed down for the next few laps and I just settled into a pace.  I kept hearing my coach say that we were on pace as the laps went by.  Then an Air Force guy, passed us and I made a move with him.  We quickly dropped the rest of the pack and kept moving forward.  I followed the Air Force guy til one lap to go.  My coach was yelling at me to give it all I've got so I went and went all out.  as I came off that las water jump I really started to push it, I got over the last hurdle and gave everything that I had left to cross the line.  I ran through the line and placed my hands on my knees.  The air force kid came in about 5 seconds after me, and I congratulated him on a great race.  

Then I turned and looked for my coach, when I found him he was walking towards me with a huge smile in his face.  I then threw my hands in the air and knew that I had accomplished my goal, I had qualified for regionals in the steeplechase.  My coach came over and gave me a hug saying that it was because of my last lap that I qualified.  I can't express how excited I was.

All in all though, I am so very grateful for my savior who gave me the gift of running.  After watching that video in my last blog I was so excited because of God's greatness, and thats when I realized that it was possible for me to qualify for regionals, for "I can to all things through Christ who gives me strength" Philippians 4:13