Currahee cheers

Life is definitely not a cake walk.

There are moments we face that prove to be sometimes more than we ever thought we could handle. But it's in those moments that we can also develop and discover our true characters.

I got to see one of those instances in the lives of some of my runners this morning.

I coach both cross country and track, and they are definitely two extremes. My group of sprinters struggles with the offseason workouts, and today was no exception. There is a hill at our school (known as the Currahee Hill) that many students have come to fear. When you run this hill, you have to go around each tree—up and down, up and down, up and down…you get the picture. Well, let's just say that the tree line is quite extensive, so it's a daunting task for many of the athletes. My cross country runners have to do multiple Currahees on our hill workouts, but one is certainly enough for most of the sports.

The ultimate encouragers

So today in track I had my athletes run one Currahee, and it was a pretty big struggle for quite a few of them. I started to get frustrated when I saw some walking going on, but then something happened that truly warmed my heart. There was one girl in the back who was having a really, really hard time finishing this workout. I kept trying to encourage her, but I can only say so much—she's the one who actually has to do the work, and it looked like she was about to give up entirely.

Until something beautiful happened.

When she had about eight trees to go, one of the other girls who had already finished started running with her to offer extra encouragement. On the next tree, another joined. Then another. And another. By the time she made it to the last tree, a total of nine girls were running up that hill, and two of the girls had their hands on the back of the girl who was struggling so much, as they were literally pushing her to the top. What was even more refreshing was the fact that I hadn't told them to do this at all—it was all on their own accord that they stepped up to help their teammate, a girl some of them don't even know very well yet.

When she was finished, she gave me a hug and said, "Thank you. Thank you so much, Coach Merrill, for not giving up on me."

This journey is not easy, and there are going to be more times than we'd like when we find ourselves facing our own Currahee challenges. But it doesn't always have to be such a painful endeavor, especially when we have people there to cheer us on and help us to the finish. God places certain people in our lives at the exact moments when we need them to be our Currahee cheerleaders.

Life may not be a cakewalk, but it's definitely an adventure better lived with others right alongside you.

In the words of the great High School Musical, "We're all in this together."