A Miracle on the Track

I just finished competing in the Canada West Championships in Saskatoon where I won a gold medal in the heptathlon.

This was a miracle.

Three years ago I arrived at university depressed, broken hearted, guilt ridden, shame filled, addicted to nicotine, addicted to porn, addicted to weed and a complete newb at track.

You may be asking, what happened?

Here is what happened.

I met Jesus, and He has made all the difference.

I am no longer depressed. I am no longer broken hearted. I am no longer guilt ridden. I am no longer filled with shame. I am no longer addicted to nicotine. I am no longer addicted to porn.

I am now a child of God, and a friend of King Jesus. Here is my account of this miraculous track meet and why it means so much to me.

A Miracle on the Track

If you ever decide to seriously pursue track, you’d make a good decathlete.

The seed had been sown. It was delivered on the way home from my grade twelve provincial track and field championships by my coach at the time.

That seed remained untouched until the end of the following year when I would finish my second season of Junior B hockey with the Chase Heat. I had lost my faith in Jesus over those two years and wanted Him back. I was presented with a road home. Trinity Western University.

Coming to Trinity I was going to have to give up hockey. Having played Junior B wasn’t a good enough pre-requisite to play on the Spartan team that was moving up to the CIS division in USPORT. The seed that had been planted the previous year began to sprout as I had the thought,

What if you give track a shot.

I emailed Shane Wiebe who is the track and field coach at Trinity with my 800m and Javelin personal bests from high school (which were nothing special) and asked if I could come and train multi events. He said yes. That yes has opened the door to the most marvelous adventure.

As a child growing up, I always connected to God through movement. There was a famous quote by Eric Liddell who was a Scottish track star and a devout Christian. He said,

God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure.

I can remember playing hockey when I was around eleven years old and before every game, I would ask God to feel his pleasure on the ice. It was in those moments where I felt the pleasure of my creator that I performed my best. My prayer going into this meet was to experience God’s pleasure again in competition. I had lost that pure joy of competing when I ran away from God. I had returned to Him and I wanted to feel His presence in this competition.

Leading up to this meet I felt as though it was going to be special. I could feel this nervous excitement beginning to build inside of me during the two weeks leading up to the event. All during this time God was taking me to new levels in my training, nutrition and mental preparation. I’ve learned that following Jesus is not just a Sunday morning ordeal. It involves following his lead twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I have learned that He wants to help me succeed and this means He provides guidance in all facets of life. In the school cafeteria, I began to embrace a simple habit that I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to follow.

Just drink water.

I tend to enjoy pop or juice with my meals, I embraced this change and going into the entire track meet I felt as though I did a great job of staying hydrated which helped me perform to my highest ability. Another action I was prompted to do every day was spending time at the gym to bike, stretch and roll out the whole week leading up to the competition. Something that had previously not ben a part of my daily routine.

One of the coolest teaching moments with God occurred at the swimming pool a few weeks prior to this competition. I had been going to the pool every week with one of my teammates. I typically just used this time to relax and recover in the hot tub and steam room. On this one particular day though, I heard Jesus say,

Why don’t you go do a gainer off the 3m.

I was terrified. I hadn’t tried this flip since I was ten years old when I almost smashed my head off the board. Despite my fear, I still went for it, I ended up under rotating and basically belly flopped into the water. I walked up the stairs again and did it one more time… SUCCESS. I had conquered my fear. This simple action sent ripples throughout my spirit. I heard that still quiet voice once more.

You are capable of more than you know.

The night before we left for Saskatoon, I was pondering a question related to this experience.

How can I be fearless?

I received my answer from the Lord and wrote a blog on it that night. I went into the competition with a confidence that God was going before me, behind me and beside me.

Another lesson I had been learning leading up to this meet was how to embrace my competitiveness once again. Growing up I was always intensely competitive, to the point where I would burst into tears if I lost a game. I suppressed that competitiveness as I got older for fear of being different from the societal norm, which would frown upon ambition and drive, or at least so I thought. However, I felt God supporting my competitive side, affirming that my drive to be the best and compete hard was a good thing. A gift from Him.

In the airport on the way to Saskatoon I began to train my mind for the competition. I had to do a presentation on visualization the following week and so I was doing research while waiting for my flight. As I was reading about how world class athletes such as Michael Phelps utilized visualization on a daily basis to improve their performance, I figured I would try it out on the flight to Saskatoon. So, as our plane motored down the runway, I closed my eyes and began to envision myself within my competition. What I discovered was fascinating. As I was trying to visualize myself within the 60m sprint, I couldn’t see myself doing successful until I faced my fears of failure in that event. I had to watch myself trip out the blocks, tear a hamstring and lose by a landslide in order to finally visualize my success. However, by facing my fears, they lost their hold on me. I went through every single event on the plane and faced all my fears surrounding them. After that, I had little to no fear of failure going into the competition, because I had already faced it and recognized that even if I did fail it actually wasn’t all that big of a deal. If I did fail, I still had the creator of the universe who would love me and call me His own.

Before the competition I also watched a couple motivational videos. The first was shown to me by my younger brother, Ethan. A YouTube video called God Hates a Coward. This video referenced many of the great men of faith in the Bible and how they walked forward in courage despite facing serious adversity. Watching this video added fuel to the fire of determination that had been building inside of me in preparation for this weekend. I also watched a documentary on Kevin Mayer, who is the world record holder in the Decathlon. I couldn’t help but notice that his body language and mindset reflected his confidence in his own abilities. He displayed a competitive drive in every event and allowed his competitiveness to manifest itself within competition. I resolved in my mind that I was going to embrace being competitive in my own competition.

The day before the competition I was at the Saskatoon field house doing a warmup and a few strides in preparation for my events the next day. Being on the track, seeing all the banners that Saskatoon had amassed over their years in USPORT made me feel like David facing a Goliath. This thought motivated me. I knew that in these moments, just as in the story of David and Goliath, the following verse would prove true.

For the battle is the Lord’s. (1 Sameul 17:47)

Reading through the story of David and Goliath is always motivating. I would continue to re-read this story in between each event on the first day to stay motivated and driven to continue competing with a confident expectation of the good.

Just before the 60m dash, which is the first event in the heptathlon, my pole vault coach Jamie Sinclair came over and prayed for me before I got into the blocks. I had never felt so much build up to an event in my life. I felt as though there was so much potential energy stored up just waiting to be released by the starting gun. I wanted to win this race. I could feel that God was with me, that pure joy that only God can provide was flooding my body as I got into the blocks. As I was in the blocks, I visualized myself in a setting by the waterfront on a grassy field. I love the sensation of running on grass. I feel so free running barefoot over a grass covered field. I visualize myself in this moment before the gun goes off. I picture Jesus standing at the finish line waiting for me with open arms. This is my motivation for the race.

On your mark… Set… BANG

I exploded out of the blocks and didn’t look back. I finished in first place with a massive personal best of 7.13s which beat my previous best by .15 of a second. A huge improvement for a race as short as the 60m. I pumped the air with my fist and let out a burst of joy.

Moving into the long jump I had a goal of wanting to hit 7m. This was a lofty expectation as my personal best was 6.56m. I remember a cool moment with God during this event occurred as I was pondering whether or not to start a clap with the spectators to try and build up some extra energy for my jump. To this thought I heard the response,

There is a great cloud of witnesses here in heaven watching you, we’ll clap for you.

For each of my jumps in this event, I could feel the rush of the hosts of heaven cheering me on in my spirit. It was an exhilarating experience. Similar to the first event, I imagine myself in a heavenly setting with Jesus jumping alongside me. In the physical, I was jumping in Saskatoon, but in my spirit, I felt as though I was jumping in heaven alongside my best friend. My first jump was a personal best of 6.69m. This was another huge improvement to build upon what had just occurred in the 60m dash. My next two jumps I would end up faulting from running to fast and overstepping on the board. I felt as though they would have been huge if they would have counted.

During this whole competition I was encouraged to get to compete alongside fellow brothers in Christ. Getting to experience moments of encouragement and excitement with one another was special. In the long jump, I experienced one such moment with Brendan Ritchie (a heptathlete with the Saskatoon Huskies) as we were urging each other to jump further with God’s strength.

In the shot put I had to exercise some faith. My first two throws were mediocre. Within a heptathlon, you only get three attempts in the Shot Put and so I needed my third throw to be huge. I felt as though I was overthinking things on my first two throws and so I went into the third throw with the focus of just letting go and letting the throw flow. I asked the Holy Spirit for a surge of strength and He delivered as I threw a solid mark of 12.38m.

The high jump felt great. I had been working hard in practice at improving my bar mechanics to contort my body in a more organized manner over the bar. In preparation for this event, I read through the story of David and Goliath once more to give myself a boost of encouragement for the last event of the day. In the warmup I cleared a 1.70m and 1.80m bar with no issues. I had a lot of fun during this event. It’s an exhilarating feeling to get up and over a high bar and I was trying to soak in every second of the experience. I would end up clearing 1.83m in the competition. This was 3cm below my personal best. I had some solid attempts at 1.86m but ended up just clipping the bar with my heels on my final attempt to put the stamp on the first day of competition.

I cooled down for about twenty minutes after high jump and then headed back to the hotel to unwind, eat and recover to get ready for the next day of competition. I ate some sushi and a bowl of chicken and rice for dinner and then sat in an ice bath for two minutes to help with recovery. Before bed I spent some time alone in the bathroom thanking God for the day and reflecting upon some moments from the competition. I then turned out the lights and dozed off to sleep, dreaming about what the next day would hold.

I woke up before my alarm energized and excited for the upcoming day of competition. I did my morning devotion before heading downstairs to get breakfast from the hotel lobby. The hurdles were being held earlier than usual so I headed to the track right after breakfast to start getting my body mobilized and ready to get over some 42-inch hurdles. The warmup felt great, my body was a little sore from the first day of competition but I felt better than usual for day two.

The hurdle race was my favourite part of this competition. Partially because of the result, which was incredible, but mostly due to what God taught me before the race. In preparation for the hurdles, I read through the story of Jesus in the garden of gethsemane.

So, Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who had betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. (John 18:4-6)

This account of Jesus blows my mind every time I read it. Jesus knew full well that the group of soldiers were coming to take Him to be crucified on the cross, despite this knowledge, HE STEPPED FORWARD into what was about to take place and faced it head on. The soldiers then cowered and fell over at this act of courage. After reading this before the hurdles, I posed a question to Jesus in my spirit, and asked him,

How can I be fearless like you? As I was walking to the start line getting ready for my race I heard His response,

When you run into fear, it cowers.

This nugget of wisdom was more precious than jewels. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face after I heard this response and I resolved that I was going to run over the hurdles as fast as I could without fear. I got into the blocks and waited for the gun.

On your mark… set… BANG

I attacked the hurdles without hesitation. I crossed the finish line in a personal best time of 8.68s. I knew this day was going to be special.

Moving into the pole vault I was excited to jump. Ever since I started track here at Trinity the pole vault has been one of my favourite events. The sensation of being weightless and taking flight is exhilarating. Before this event I have a specific scripture passage that I love to read.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for 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. (Isaiah 40: 30-31)

This passage is literally perfect for the pole vault. Since it is the sixth event in the competition, it is typical to feel tired and fatigued and so meditating upon the truth that God has the power to lift me up on wings like eagles is pretty encouraging.

I recall that within this event I had some difficulty staying mentally within the zone since I had to wait about forty-five minutes before I took my first jump in the competition. I had to go and grab my Bible a second time before I took my first jump to give myself some extra strength. I remember meditating on the passage from Isaiah 40 as well as the word I had received during hurdles about how to be fearless.

I ended up clearing 4.10m in the pole vault which tied my personal best. I cleared this height on my third attempt. I felt such pure joy while jumping and I cherished every moment of every jump. I had some solid attempts at 4.20m but wasn’t getting deep enough into the pit to clear the bar. Something I was proud of in this event was how I took my final three jumps without any hesitation or fear despite jumping on a bigger pole than I was used to.

After the pole vault, I heard that my point total was two hundred points ahead of second place. I knew there was a very good chance I would win gold. The build up to the thousand was pretty emotional as I began to think about the journey it had been to reach this point. Literal blood, sweat and tears had been poured into this sport to reach this moment.

However, there was one thought that stuck out above the rest. It was the knowledge that God was about to affirm my identity in Him. To give context to this I need to backtrack to last year when I received a word from God about my identity. I won’t give all the details because this word was very personal. However, I had doubts about the validity of this word. I then received another prophetic word that encouraged me to test the word God had given by providing God with a test to affirm it. Similar to the story of Gideon and the fleece in the Bible.

The fleece I presented before God was a Canada West Gold. I figured this was an impossible accomplishment. Only God could take me from being a Junior B hockey player to a Canada West gold medalist in the heptathlon.

Yet here was God was doing the impossible. I was one event away from God affirming who I was in Him. As I reflected upon this truth, I became emotional to the point of tears.

I went into the 1000m with the goal that I was going to empty the tank and leave everything I had on the track. I knew I had a chance to hit 5000 points and I wanted to reach this milestone. I knew I needed to run a time below three minutes to accomplish this feat.

The gun went off and I settled into my pace. I pushed hard through the final couple laps and ended with a solid kick before crossing the finish line. They didn’t post the results for another fifteen minutes after the race and so I waited in anticipation for the final results. When they finally were posted I could see my time. 2:56.60. Good enough for Gold and 5021 points.

Coach Shane and I embraced and shared a pretty cool moment after the 1000m. I’m so grateful to Shane for his coaching, his patience and dedication throughout the past three years have been a rich blessing. I'm also grateful for Jamie (my pole vault and sprints coach) and Sabrina (my long jump coach) for all their time and effort they have poured into me. I wouldn't have managed this accomplishment without them.

I was blessed to have my younger brother Ethan competing alongside me at the track meet and so we embraced after my final event. He had been encouraging me and cheering me on the whole weekend and he himself ran a solid personal best in the 600m.

I called my Dad. He already knew how I had finished. He had been keeping up with the competition the whole way through. He’s always been there for me my entire life and this meet was no exception. I expressed my gratitude and love to him as a father and we both became a little emotional. I love my Dad. I talked with my Mom and younger brother as well and got to share the joy of winning with them.

After winning I remember wondering if I would get drug tested. I didn’t get tested, but I recall laughing to myself thinking that if they could test for the Holy Spirit, I would be so guilty. That was my strength for the competition. The living God. He’s real, and he took me from being hopelessly lost and lonely to having a hope and a future with Him.

Jesus gets all the glory in this story. He was the one giving me strength through every event. His word was the fuel that kept me running, jumping and throwing. His voice gave me a fearlessness to conquer a giant.

I may have won gold, but the real gold is in knowing that I am a son of God.

I am who He says I am.