Wellness fair emphasizes spiritual health
Ironman triathlete discusses parallels between competition, faith, personal life
Ann Truesdell
Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Life
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Burkhardt, a three-time Ironman triathlete, spoke at the presentation. Linda Michals, director of Health and Counseling and the chair of Wellness Committee, introduced Burkhardt.
He started the presentation by telling about his background. He grew up in Spokane in a middle class family. His family believed in God but didn't really go to church. He excelled in athletics but loved partying.
Everything changed for him his junior year in high school when his father died from cancer. He did his best in sports, earning All-City honors and a baseball scholarship to Gonzaga University, where he then achieved Pac 10 and went on to play professionally in Europe. He eventually got a job in the business world working as hard as he could to be the best.
Through all of this he spent a lot of time partying with his friends until 1995. He knew there had to be more to life, so he quit his job and broke up with his fiancé.
Then he was introduced to God.
"By design God created a hole in each of us only He can fill," Burkhardt said.
Burkhardt married and had kids. He told us about his divorce six years after his marriage. He said it was his hardest situation in life. After struggling, he turned to God, which eventually led him to the Ironman. With a year of training under his belt, he entered his first race in 2005, and then participated again in 2006 and 2007.
He finished his first race about a half an hour later than he wanted, and that was where he learned his first lesson from God on patience, he said.
"It's about God's timing, not mine," Burkhardt told the audience.
He said the key lessons he learned related to his faith, personal life and the Ironman. He learned to be well prepared, that he couldn't run a triathlon without training and it is the same in life. He learned that you couldn't ignore pain but had to deal with it. He discovered that he needed to take everything one step at a time.
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