Some of you may already be aware of one or more of these sites, but for those who are not, I am attaching the links to some websites that may be of interest to Christian triathletes and others who are curious about Christian athletics:
Ironprayer.com (Note: this site has been temporarily “down” the past couple of days, but check back as it will provide you with updates on pre-race prayer services at IM races in North America (examples: IMUSA, IMC, IMH, and GFT) and features testimonies from pros like Heather Gollnick and Chad Hawker).
Tri4Christ.org
DiscipleTri.com
TriJesus.com
I’m involved in a volunteer capacity with Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Tri4Christ, so if you have questions about any of these links (or for sites for Christian “roadies”, etc.), post a reply or feel free to email me off-line.
Thank you for posting this. Too often we forget the real reason for the things we do, which in the end is to bring glory to Him and call others to Him through our deeds.
Thanks for your post and the reminder about the Trinity Triathletes site; I’ll make sure to pass that one along as well. As it happens, I have had the pleasure of chatting via email with Troy since he and his wife Robin, in addition to their work with Trinity Triathletes, have been working with Chad Hawker and Bob Brubaker on the IronPrayer initiative. In fact, we’re making plans now to use IronPrayer’s format for a pre-race, non-denominational prayer service next season here on the East Coast at the Blackwater Eagleman IM qualifier in Cambridge, MD. Earlier this week, I also made it a point to congratulate Troy via email on his sub-10 finish at Hawaii – amazing!
I have known Troy since 1995. We met at the 1/2 Vineman and he needed someplace to crash for the night. I had a hotel room and I let him share. Great guy. We have been friends since.
I count one of my best races as the 1/2 Vineman in 1996 when I got off the bike before Troy and managed to “hold him off” for 10 miles of the run!
I would be interested in starting a group here in NC that might take advantage of the work you have already done. Keep me posted at craigwsullivan@yahoo.com.
A group of us with Discipletri and Tri4Christ prayed before Duke Blue Devil. It was great. Talk about a true blessing right before the start of your first iron distance race. I even got a shirt from one of the Tri4Christ guys at the awards.
Thanks for the reply. But what is a troll? I had heard of this group, “WWJD?”, and was pretty impressed and was curious what Christian triathletes thought of this group. I would be interested in anyone’s thoughts and you may, if you would like, reply privately, but I would like to post this as well and see if anyone else also has some thoughts to offer, OK?
I haven’t heard much about them, but there was a local (Washington Post) article on them some time back. As for WWJD(rive), I’m not sure we can know for sure since the only vehicles He used in the Bible were boats or donkeys ;-).
Getting back to the point of the websites I listed above, they’re just about trying to present the message of Jesus Christ to the large local community of multisport enthusiasts, as well as their families, coaches, training partners, and others. Once you get into the Bible, there are a lot of questions about how to apply it in today’s world. That said, the question of WWJD(rive) may be important and convicting to some folks, but on a personal level, I’m not there since I’ve got my hands full just focusing on the Word as a guide for trying to stay on top of my responsibility to be a good husband, dad, employee, triathlete … if I ever get all that figured out, maybe I’ll have more time for considering the moral imperatives inherent in transportation choices.
Good luck with your training for what is left of 2003, and best of luck for whatever you’re planning to tackle in 2004,
As NCCB noted, DiscipleTri.com is down your way. We met up with DT.com’s Randy Bernard and Sonni Dyer when we were down there. I think they plan to maintain a presence at the NCTS races and they’ve got a standing agreement with Set-Up’s Bill Scott to announce the pre-race prayer gatherings. So, you can definitely look for those guys at any NCTS race you happen to be at in 2004 and beyond.
On top of that, we’ve been working with our local FCA guys to hammer out a model for registering adult chapters. FCA has been doing this for years with groups of adults who are involved with youth huddles (especially at the high school level) as well as with post-graduate, sport-specific groups of adult lacrosse players, baseball players, even motocross riders and paintballers. There is already a template and an infrastructure for this at the national level within FCA and I think it is a good model because it allows each chapter to really determine what its focus will be and how often it will meet, what it will do, etc. In other words, what we might do here in Northern Virginia might not appeal to you based on your evaluation of the need in N.C., and if you’ve got you’re own huddle, you have autonomy + the ability to tap into FCA resources when you need them.
If you need more information on this or have questions, please let me know. I’m hoping to have a little more triathlon-specific structure around this in the next few weeks and will be glad to keep you posted.
Hey NCCB – Glad you like the shirt (I had “shirt guy” duty at the awards brunch). Yeah, the pre-race prayer was a great way to start the day. The guys at DiscipleTri were instrumental in helping to organize that … just a small example of how easy it is to make an impact. Hope all is well and you’re fully recovered from Duke. Keep in touch with us; we felt like we made a lot of good new friends down your way.
Stan, God bless you for this thread. And, God bless you for a spirit controlled response to certain questions. As my wife often says when I am having a meltdown about something, “did you pray about it?”. It is good to know that there are brothers (sisters?) in Christ in the tri community.
Thanks for the great post and Christian-related tri links!
What a great way to glorify God through our sport. God bless you! Please keep me posted on or off-line on other sites, races, t-shirts, etc. as you become aware of them…
Hey thanks for the support and post. I will definitely keep your email address on hand as we get more stuff going. We do have some t-shirts right now; if you send me your address (stansmith@teamfca.com) and a size, I will try and get one out to you. I need to check my inventory, since our initial print run was a little on the puny side and we gave quite a few away at the Duke race. If I’m short on your preferred size, I’ll let you know and we’ll get some more made up.
Let me know also, if you’d be interested in a T4C tri tank top for racing. I am working with my local executive director at FCA on this, and trying to see what sort of resources we have to get an order placed, and how much of the cost FCA will pick up vs. how much we would have to charge athletes. I have found a good deal with Sugoi, which is also a decent brand, where even if we had to get folks to pony up the cost, we could put together a sharp looking top that would help get the message out and do it pretty close to on the cheap at ~$36 (or less depending on the # of orders). This is pretty early on re: the jerseys, though, so just let me know if you’d like to stay in the loop on that.
Finally, we’ve got some temporary tattoos you could wear on an arm or calf at a race … on order. If I get them in before I send your shirt along, I’ll stick a few in the package.
Just pulled it up and, as you say, it looks amazing. I will definitely get in touch with Tom. Thanks for the heads up … after all our research the last several months, this is one that consistently did not appear on our radar. It looks good and we will try and find opportunities to co-labor with them.
Thanks for the posts, folks. I have been strugling with another aspect of being a Chritian triahlete. That is the fact that most races are on Sunday. Not so much the ultra-distance events, but most others are. Is this because it’s easier for the race directors to get permits on Sunday mornings as opposed to Saturday. I am all for the services at race events, but does anyone have any ideas about how to get more races moved up to Saturday. This might not be as big an issue to some, but I am quite involved with my local church and often serve during the services on Sunday morning. Feeling quite guilty come springtime when we make up our monthly service schedules.
Also, it seems like many organized group rides are on Sunday morning. It just seems like folks are resolved to the fact that Sunday morning is the time when most folks have nothing planned in their week. When I bring this up to organizers, the response almost always revolves around most folks having plans on Saturday mornings. I can work around the issue by doing only Saturday races with just a couple Sunday events, but it just seems like the sport is barrier to worship.
Help from those who have struggled with this in the past would be welcomed. I am not Catholic, so Saturday night worship is not an issue. Thanks and God Bless.