Isaiah 40:31 – But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

The fighter stumbles to his corner. With what energy he has left, he spins around and flops into his seat. It’s the early rounds of the fight but there appears to be little left in the tank. The corner team descends on him, cooling his body, checking his hydration, massaging his muscles. In only a whisper, his ring man is in his face trying to penetrate the dead stare with a commanding mix of reassurance, encouragement and challenge. Time is short. The bell will soon ring. Will the fighter answer the bell? My money said, no.

But wait! This is not some stuffy, smoke-filled auditorium with a center ring hosting a boxing match. We are in a sun soaked field of tall, golden billowing grasses in the midst of the Green Mountains of Vermont. This is the Vermont 100, an excruciating endurance race – an ultra-marathon stretching for 100 miles.

Last week I had the chance to get a close look at the world of the Ultra Marathon. This is a world that most people, including myself, could not fathom even for a millisecond. But, this is my son’s passion. When I share it with others, the typical reaction is complete disbelief that anyone could do this, never mind a field of over 350 participants. My son, Alex and his running partners, brothers Mike and Andy had been training and planning for months. While it is an individual challenge, they run as a team to support, encourage and challenge each other on.

A critical part of that team is the “Aid Crew”. For this race it was Brittany, Ketlie and Hannah. Along the race route are aid stations where the crew sets up for when the runners arrive. The crew is there to meet whatever need is required – refill water bottles, ice, food, drink, medication, antacids, muscle message, change of shirts, socks, shoes or any clothing due to a change in weather. To meet their need and to get them back in the race asap. I was there, along with my wife Eleni and the brothers’ Dad, Tom. Our job was to stay out of the way and to provide a healthy dose of cheering and encouragement.

When the boys jogged into the Aid Station, Andy stumbled in looking particularly dazed. The word was that only a quarter mile in and Andy had developed stomach problems. He had now ‘gutted’ it out for about 30 miles but I wasn’t sure how much longer he could continue. He looked shot. Another runner came in and waved his fingers under his chin signaling he was done. Sometimes, no matter what the preparation, on a given day a runner just may not have ‘it’ and whether it’s 30, 50 or 80 miles, better to call it quits and plan for another day. I was growing certain this would be the case for Andy. But, with his “ring man” Hannah’s encouragement, after about 8 minutes Andy was back up leading the boys out of the station and back on the trail.

We packed up our stuff and headed over to the next Aid Station at mile 48 of the race. Once again, the boys jogged into the station. As you could imagine, Andy only looked worse. He folded into his seat. His wife, Hannah worked to cool him and provide relief. We moved him over to a shadier spot but Andy looked lifeless. One moment he was hot, the next he was teeth-chattering cold. I have gone through serious dehydration and it’s debilitating. I couldn’t walk to the bathroom never mind run another 50 miles. This is what I saw in Andy.

What else could we do for him? We decided it might be a good time to pray – to ask Jesus to come in for a rescue. So, we gathered around Andy and prayed that God would cool him with His living waters to revive and restore him. To give Andy the strength and power to finish the race – to provide the wind beneath his eagle wings to carry him to the finish line.

We concluded our prayer and I looked into Andy’s face. He weakly nodded back to us. I turned away and said to myself, “This boy is done. Caput. Stick a fork in it!”

If it were me I’d have considered calling an ambulance. But there were 3 medical professionals amongst us, so I would let them make the call. Alex and Mike spoke with Andy. They agreed to press on and allow Andy more time to see if he could recover. Most of the Aid team moved on to the next station leaving Hannah to continue giving aid to Andy.

Hannah joined us later at the next station and reported that Andy had pressed on and was now about an hour behind the others. We continued to pray.

The end result was that Andy somehow finished the race. Though he finished behind his partners, his time after we prayed was on pace with them. One big reason was that his wife, Hannah joined Him at mile 70 as a ‘pacer’ to be that wind beneath his wings we had prayed for. Hannah is not a runner but, amazingly, she ran 30 miles by his side having never run anything close to a marathon before. We prayed – God supplied.

My question is, why did God respond? We didn’t pray for salvation, world peace or to eliminate hunger. Andy’s pain and anguish was brought on himself, for his own pleasure. Why would God care?

I believe the answer is two-fold:

Firstly, all three guys have a passion for and calling for God’s ministry. It’s not a big leap to see how this passion for fighting through adversity and pain to something beyond our limits can carry through to anything God would call them to do in the future.

And secondly, our God is a God who wants to give us the desires of our heart and wants to be included in all that we do. No matter how big or small or how personal. We draw near and Jesus shows up with something often beyond the level of our expectations.

Now, with the race finished, we pray that God would replace the toenails that fell off during the race. And, I secretly pray that God would give them a new passion with less risk to life and limb.

But, wait! There’s more to the story. One of these guys, physically, has no right to be straining his heart this way. In a future post, “He’ll tell . . . the rest of the story.”