Amazing Race

Wow! What an amazing weekend!! I've been going to GAMe for nearly a year now and that entire time I've heard about their Amazing Race. So when the time came again I signed up. It was so AWESOME!!!

We got our team assignments about two weeks ago. I was on the TEAL team with one of my "brothers" Matt, his girlfriend Kristina, and two others I didn't know very well Siri and Dan. I was a little unsure about how we would get along. However once we put the RTD (Real Teal Deal) shirts on just before we left we were one team. We worked so hard together and encouraged each other from start to finish.

The showdown started on Friday, where we all left from Downtown Omaha and challenged our way to Kansas City. We had to push our car across a parking lot, eat two sleeves of saltines and a bag of carrots, and complete a HSM puzzle in a devil store parking lot (among other things). It was nearly midnight before we pulled into our campground for the evening. I hate setting up tents in the dark! We finished 6th of 8.

To finish the evening we had a 'Fast Forward' Challenge, where the winner automatically advanced to first place. Siri competed for us, she was awesome!! RTD for the WIN!!

Saturday morning we tore down from 7:00-7:30. We left that morning in first place and were first most of the day. We had another car push, a 3-D puzzle challenge, a drive to find a statue in Columbia, MO, a drive to Jefferson City for a states challenge, a 6 mile float trip, a (literal) run through a sculpture park. This is where things got a little difficult for me. I don't run, I am rather out of shape. I was huffing and puffing by the time we were done. From there we drove to Union Station in Saint Louis where we had a stranger picture challenge. It was a great opportunity to talk about GAMe while we explained what we were doing. We got a couple of "God is great!" and "Praise God" comments. So amazing!!

From there we had to take off to the arch... on foot. This is about 1.5-2 miles!! We took off running - let me restate I don't run! I was good for about four blocks, then I started to fall apart. After that it became more and more difficult to put one foot in front of the other. I was breathing like I had athsma. I felt like I was failing my team - slowing them waaaay down. My team was so encouraging! Kristina kept encouraging me to go. Matt kept running back to me and encouraging me. Siri set a pace and she was never too far in front of me. Dan waited at an intersection to run with me for a while. By the time we reached the plaza by the Arch I was spent. I almost couldn't move my feet. I had tears streaming down my face, my team was going to lose because I wasn't going to make it. Matt came back to me and said, "here." He picked me up and carried me the last ~100 yards. Talk about bearing eachother's burdons. I hobbled to the arch to finish that challenge on my own two feet.

Once in the Arch we went up to the top, answered some questions, then hurried back down to finish. We didn't win - we came in 6th, but I would not have survived if I had to do this on my own. As unsure of how my team would mesh when I got the team list - there is no other team I would have wanted to be on. I love my friends on the other teams, but it was because of my team's encouragement that I perservered, ran the good race, and finished having given my all.

It was truly an amazing weekend. God has blessed me so much!! And I know He will heal these achy muscles.

Shalom!