Article April 12, 1999 Issue

New strength for my race to the top

Scaling mountains, powered by God

By John Keith Park

My Challenge Was to compete in the Cabot Trail Relay Race on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Each of the fifty-five teams had seventeen runners who would cover the 165-mile route in about twenty-four hours. My leg—rated one of the most difficult—was Mackenzie Mountain, a mountain thirteen feet higher than the Empire State Building.

In this contest, all runners of the previous leg were allowed to finish before the next one started, so each relay leg was a race in itself. This, coupled with my desire to do well for the team, added pressure to the challenge. Also, I was just beginning to compete again after ten years. By the time of the race, I had managed to complete only two hill-training runs on a course that ascended to less than half the elevation of Mackenzie Mountain. Actually, though, I didn't feel the challenge was to run up the mountain—I knew I could do that if I ran sufficiently slowly. My biggest challenge was to run this race relying on spiritual, not physical, power.

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