My Journey Begins

It's May, 1978. I am 18 years old. I am at the Iowa High School Girls State Track Meet in Des Moines, Iowa. I'm done warming up and I'm just sitting around stretching. This isn't really new. This is the forth time that I have run in the state meet at Drake Stadium. I've run on this track in the Drake Relays too. But, there is one thing that I haven't done and that is to win the 1500 meter run at state. I ran the 1500 last year but we don't want to talk about that.
I have given it my all this season. Having run 2 and sometimes 3 times a day, I can't imagine not winning this race. How will I cope coming home with anything less than first place? How will I go on? Running has become everything to me. It's who I am. It's all that I am. Every time I've gone for a run, I've run this race(the race that in reality is minutes away). I've been focused. I've been determined. I've gone through every possible scenario, determining how I will respond both physically and mentally. Oh no! I am distracted again. I was so focused and suddenly I start thinking about God. Why do I keep thinking about God? God! I don't know lots about God but I know that He can do anything so if He's on my side, it can only help. The prayers have become part of every run and they happen spontaneously. They come when I least expect them. They are so intense.....so urgent. One minute I am running and the next I am crying out, "Please God, O please let me win this race. If I win this race I will give you all the credit God. If I win this race I will dedicate myself to living my life for you God. And God, if you let me win this race I will really believe that you care about ME." Before this track season the only prayers that I ever prayed were the ones you pray before bed at night. "God bless mom. God bless dad. God help grandma and brother and so on. Where did all of this come from? All I know is that it has been more then just using God. I'm not just wheeling and dealing. I really mean it.
OK, back to the here and now.
"All 1500 meter runners meet at the SE corner of the track!" Oh man. My heart is beating. This is it. This is the time I have been living for. No more lonely morning runs. No more team practice runs. No more dark evening runs. No more going through the school day unable to think about anything but this race. No more wondering. No more... "RASMUSSEN," the official calls out my name.
"I'm here," I say. Our eyes meet and he smiles at me...like he knows something I don't know. Something good. He continues on his way.
"OK girls, as soon as this group of runners go by we are going to line up."
Time to take off my sweats. A few teammates are here with me, taking my stuff, offering words of encouragement, just hanging out. But it's different then ever before. It is so surreal, I can't explain it. There is a strange calm amidst the adrenaline. There is noise all around. Noise from the crowd. Voices of my coach and my fans from the stands. Teammates saying all sorts of final words before they go to spread around the track and cheer me on. Meet officials ordering instructions and the meet announcer letting the crowd know that Robin Rasmussen is now lining up in lane 3! It's never been like this. There is amazing peace in all of this noise. Everything is moving in slow motion and I am beginning to believe that something big is about to happen and I am going to be a part of it.
BAM!!
I don't recall much of the race. All I remember is that I was ahead at the beginning and I was ahead at the end. It was one of those runs....where you think you should be getting tired and you don't, and you don't.... and you still don't. It was a different world. I was lost in it all. I remember with 200 meters to go and I was told that it was all mine....no one was close. I was getting stronger and stronger as well as more and more aware of that calm...that peace. I crossed the finish line.
I'm not the type to celebrate. I've won countless races throughout high school and when I've won before, I've crossed the line, checked in with the official, stepped off the track, gathered my sweats and cooled down. So today when my arms went up and my eyes touched the sky, I was a bit surprised. I will never forget the sky that day. I was paralyzed in the moment as teammates and meet officials were pushing in around me. I started to fall. My body hit the track but I didn't feel it. It was as though I was caught in arms of down. I was in another world, a different realm. It was similiar to the world I sensed around me when the prayers first began but then it was just around me. Now I was in it. Held close, in the center. It was a perfect world, a spiritual world. It was God's world. Every prayer and promise came back and I was awe struck. God cared about ME. The race I had just won........it was suddenly nothing. I didn't even care. Something bigger was happening and it consumed me. A new journey had just begun for me. The God of the universe had just introduced Himself to me and I knew that my life would never be the same. Thus begins, Robin's Road.