FCA Endurance Competitor Spotlight

Lige Reed of Minden, NE recently sat down with me to answer some questions about his participation in the FCA Endurance Ministry. Lige is on the Central Nebraska FCA Leadership Team and is an active volunteer with the FCA ministry.

How and why did you get involved with endurance races and the FCA Endurance Ministry?

I really felt called by God to do a Triathlon. Not because he was going
to make me a champion but because I needed to stretch myself and do
something that I knew I would have to rely completely on him if I was going
to finish the race. I have never been a competitive swimmer, bicyclist, or
runner so doing any one of these things would have been a challenge but to
do all three in the same race was a huge challenge that only God could pull
me through. Also as Huddle coach it gave me more opportunities with the
students to talk about training, why I train, why I started competing and
then it grew into helping them to understand why they are competing and for
whose glory.

Team FCA Endurance was relatively new when I started racing and their big
outreach question is "Why do you race". I thought this was an awesome
opportunity to give myself some accountability while I competed and trained,
that my focus would have to be completely on Christ. It was also an
opportunity to learn about the endurance world from believers who were also
competing for Christ. FCA in general is a huge part of my life with working
with students on a weekly basis to working with or at some of the state
events. Sports are a huge platform in our world today and what FCA is doing
by working with and teaching athletes and coaches is something that needs to
be done and something I wanted to stand behind, support, and make more
awareness of.

Why do you compete?

There are many reasons why I have kept on competing. After my first event
I fell in love with the triathlon world. I have played other sports
throughout my life, all team sports. But I have never seen such
encouragement and building up of people as I have seen while competing in a
triathlon, from the overall winner to the person that finishes last everyone
supports each other. Being in a small town most of my training time is just
me and God. To go out for a long ride or run is a great time to lose the
world around you and just spend time with God. It has also been a way for me
to stay healthy for my family, and be a good example for my family to lead a
healthier lifestyle. My oldest daughter at 5yrs old was able to run in her
first kids fun run last year wearing and representing Christ with her FCA
Endurance gear. One of the biggest motivators is the opportunity to run
alongside people who don't know Jesus. You can be an encouragement to them
and build them up during a hard time in the race, and you also basically
have a captive audience to start a discussion about Christ.

How do you discipline yourself to focus on the Lord while competing?

During competition and training I will recite to myself parts of the
Competitors Creed, and will try and memorize verses to get me through the
hard times. During easy training times or times during races that I am
feeling pretty good I will take those opportunities to be in prayer to God
and in Praise of God. The First verse I memorized for competing was Psalm
73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart
and My portion forever.

What races have you competed in and what are your plans for this next year?

This last year I was able to compete in the Papillion Mayor's Triathlon,
and the Dallas Running Club's 1/2 Marathon. This next year I am hoping to
add a few more races into the year that I have not done before and are a
little longer in distance.

Josh Reynolds
Central-Northeast Nebraska FCA