{"id":8182,"date":"2005-12-02T21:44:18","date_gmt":"2005-12-03T02:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=8182"},"modified":"2011-07-06T08:28:58","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T13:28:58","slug":"4620","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2005\/12\/02\/4620\/","title":{"rendered":"Competition Reminds Athlete of Dependency on God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>USAF ACADEMY, CO (December 2, 2005)\u00a0 &#8211; Covenanter Ted Meeker may have felt he\u00a0 had to work as hard to get into the Ironman Florida Triathlon in\u00a0 November as he did to get into the United States Air Force Academy.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div>Registration had long closed for the November 5 race when Ironman North\u00a0 America announced September 14 that it was opening 10 slots for the race\u00a0 in Panama Beach at $1,500 each to benefit the American Red Cross\u00a0 Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Meeks saw it as an opportunity to\u00a0 help, but didn&#8217;t learn of the openings until a day later \u2013 after the\u00a0 slots had been taken.<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2011\/06\/1190.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[8182]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-8184\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2011\/06\/1190.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"212\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a>With perseverance befitting a triathlete, Meeker kept pleading his case\u00a0 through telephone calls and email until he received approval for the\u00a0 entry. &#8220;I think I made some people angry,&#8221; he says.<\/div>\n<div>He had to make the $1,500 commitment to the race before he had the\u00a0 opportunity to get permission from his superiors at the academy, where\u00a0 he is a senior. Meeks also had to quickly book flight and hotel\u00a0 reservations.<\/div>\n<div>Once approval was given and the arrangements made, there still was the\u00a0 matter of training for the competition just weeks away. That was the\u00a0 easy part.<\/div>\n<div>Ironman competitors swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles and run 26 miles.\u00a0 Meeker had competed in the Ironman Wisconsin races in 2004 and 2005. He\u00a0 already was training several hours a day for the Marine Corps Marathon\u00a0 scheduled a week before the Florida competition.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I had the race of my life,&#8221; says Meeker of the Ironman, a feat he\u00a0 accomplished despite having run in the marathon only six days before,\u00a0 which he finished in 4 hours, 29 minutes. His previous best in an\u00a0 Ironman competition was 13 hours, 19 minutes. He cut that to 12 hours,\u00a0 12 minutes, and would have done even better had he not lost a half hour\u00a0 due to a flat tire in the biking segment.<\/div>\n<div><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2011\/06\/1191.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto[8182]\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8183\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/74\/2011\/06\/1191.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"242\" height=\"298\" \/><\/a>Meeker also was able to raise $2,000 from others, including his fellow\u00a0 cadets, to benefit the relief work. &#8220;The whole thing was just a\u00a0 miracle,&#8221; he says.<\/div>\n<div>Despite his obvious fitness, Meeker says his body&#8217;s weakness is part of\u00a0 the reason he runs. &#8220;As much as I hate to admit limitations of any kind,\u00a0 one thing that doing a race like that really highlights to me is that\u00a0 fact that my body is weak,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Even at our peaks, we as humans\u00a0 aren&#8217;t capable of very much without the Lord&#8217;s help.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div>While that concept is simple, Meeker says he needs something concrete to\u00a0 make it real. &#8220;Ironman is that way. The only way I&#8217;ve gotten through any\u00a0 of my races &#8211; and indeed much of the training &#8211; is by giving myself up\u00a0 and letting God carry me. Even though the triathlon itself is a silly\u00a0 race and doesn&#8217;t amount to much, I know that I&#8217;m being taught a very\u00a0 useful lesson through it, and that something much greater than just a\u00a0 race will come of it in the future.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div>As for the future, Meeker is scheduled to graduate in 2006, and if\u00a0 asked, he can tell you to the second how much time he has left. He also\u00a0 hopes to qualify for the Ironman Hawaii World Championship in October.<\/div>\n<div>Meeker is the son of Cindy and Chip Meeker, both North Park University\u00a0 graduates who attend Bethany Covenant Church in Berlin, Connecticut.<\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #000000;font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"> <\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>Copyright \u00a9 2011 The Evangelical Covenant Church.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=8182&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>USAF ACADEMY, CO (December 2, 2005)\u00a0 &#8211; Covenanter Ted Meeker may have felt he\u00a0 had to work as hard to get into the Ironman Florida Triathlon in\u00a0 November as he did to get into the United States Air Force Academy. Report This Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Competition Reminds Athlete of Dependency on God - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2005\/12\/02\/4620\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Competition Reminds Athlete of Dependency on God - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"USAF ACADEMY, CO (December 2, 2005)\u00a0 &#8211; Covenanter Ted Meeker may have felt he\u00a0 had to work as hard to get into the Ironman Florida Triathlon in\u00a0 November as he did to get into the United States Air Force Academy. 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