Sunday, October 5, 2008

My Heroes have always been racers

As you may know I am a very profound "Car Guy." Race cars have been part of my life as far back as I can remember. In fact, I'm pretty sure my teething ring was a steering wheel. Some of the most cherished memories of my childhood were going to the old quarter mile oval at the Utah State Fairgrounds on Saturday nights with my dad. The local racing talent quickly became heroes to me. men such as Joel Terry, "Wild"Bill Madsen, and Danny Caputo. This went on until my teenage years when after the closure of the Fairgrounds Speedway I started going to the old Bonneville drag strip also in Salt Lake. There, with my friends of those years I got my first taste of big time auto racing being able to see some of the men who are now the biggest names in the sport of Drag Racing compete. This went on till my darling wife and I moved to Ohio and I was introduced to Nascar. And the rest, shall we say, is history.

I can now however say that I have new racing heroes. They are only loud when they are laughing together. They don't compete in beautiful, brightly colored race cars. They don't beat very many physical opponents, but they are fiercely aggressive against their personal ones. They aren't even particularly very fast. (except for Mikayla.) But I have seen more beauty, excitement, and life changing inspiration at their events than at most car races I've attended and I thank God daily for my association with them. Of course my new heroes I'm speaking of if you haven't guessed already are the girls of Pink Princess Racing

Yesterday, "my team" participated in the fifth annual Run with the Nuns at Winton Woods. There, all four members broke their previous personal best marks, with Mikayla taking an impressive fourth place for her age group. YOU GO GIRL!

But the "hero" I really want to brag up is my darling Sylvia. During her race she came across a young girl whose young companions were overwhelmed by the difficulty of the task at hand and decided to give up, leaving this sweet little girl all by herself and doubting her own resolve to finish the race, Syl spoke to her and encouraged her to continue the race. The two of them walked along as Syl heard delightful stories of the things and activities commonly important to a child until they could see the finish line and Syl pointed that the award was in sight and encouraged her to go for it and finish the race. As it turned out, Sylvia, my best friend and darling eternal companion freely sacrificed what would have been the exciting accomplishment of a benchmark goal, to see a young girl whom she didn't know prior to this race, accomplish hers. Incidentaly Sylvia still beat her previous best time by almost four minutes.

General conference was still several hours away, but I had already learned a profound lesson about living Christ-like on this beautiful Autumn morning.

Now don't get me wrong, I still love motor sports as much as I ever have, but my being the "crew chief" of Pink Princess Racing has taught me their is something much bigger to life.

So in conclusion I just want to say to the members of P2R, particularly the team captains My darling wife Sylvia. and my sweet sister from another mother Maura. Thanks for letting me tag a long. I can't wait till Thanksgiving.

Love you guys.

3 comments:

Pampered Princess said...

It was such an amazing day, wasn't it? I too am incredibly touched by Sylvia's actions on Saturday. But, I'm not surprised. That little girl was a real sweet thing and she was so blessed by Sylvia's being there that day. They both made me proud. The thing I loved the best was seeing Jada's mom hug Sylvia and thank her for walking with Jada. Sylvia really made a difference that day, just as she does all the other days of the year!

Leslie said...

What an awesome woman you married! What a truly Christ-like response to a fellow-human being.

Mama D said...

You are an awesome crew chief to an awesome group of runners!! Sylvia, you are an inspiration to many, including a young girl you had just met. Thanks to all of you for showing us what it really means to follow Christ.

"Smile, God loves you."

"Smile, God loves you."