Northgate, one of the biggest churches in Benicia, recently had a sermon delivered by Jay Hewitt, on March 9th, about what is possible through the strength of the Lord. Regardless of one’s religious beliefs, the feats completed by Hewitt should not go unnoticed because it goes to show the limits of the human body.
Hewitt was diagnosed with stage IV brain cancer after a surgery he had on his brain to remove a tumor. Hewitt was still young, so this was very challenging for him to find out and experience.
As most people do after such a drastic discovery, he went into shock and despair. Hewitt’s first thing he did was go to Dunkin’ Donuts. Being a pastor, he asked God for guidance on this problem, and mostly asked him “Why?” He thought of scripture in his head and then had this idea: to complete an Ironman.
Hewitt had no background in fitness leading up to this, so this was a near impossible task to complete before he died. An Ironman consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run in roughly 16 hours. After a lot of intense training sessions, Hewitt attempted to run a 10 mile run. During this, he got a seizure, and it struck fear into him.
Going to the doctor for this issue, they discussed why it happened, and the doctor told him he was fine but to just slow down. So he continued training. Once he was able to run 20 miles non-stop, he started swimming.
Unsurprisingly, he was terrible at swimming and could barely even complete 200 meters. Asking the Lord for guidance, he met a person who was a professional swimmer at church and trained to swim enough distance through hard training and coaching.
Now came the biking, and overcoming many struggles on the way, he trained his body enough to be ready to start the Ironman.
This article cannot cover a mere fraction of the problems he faced on the way due to him being on chemo during the time, so if you want a detailed look into such struggles, Hewitt published his book I Am Weak, I Am Strong.
At the start of the Ironman, Hewitt saw his daughter and it gave him the motivation to keep going. In fact, he claims the swim portion and the bike portion were not even much of a struggle to him. But being on chemo meant his body was not absorbing nutrients the way it should have, and he became nutrient deficient starting the marathon.
This meant that Hewitt basically had the stomach flu while completing one of the greatest feats of athleticism on top of all of his other physical problems.
Being distraught that he would fail, he decided to keep going until he literally couldn’t anymore. One of the people that Hewitt was trained by, an accomplished Ironman athlete, was at a concession stand for him.
She brought salt tablets that could be absorbed orally (under the tongue), which helped his journey. Not only that, she brought her running shoes with her and finished the marathon with him.
Crossing the finish line with massive crowds, lot’s of cars following him and many people recording him, he completed one of the hardest physical tasks possible.
Hewitt claimed he did not want his daughter to be discouraged by the trials of life, and his diagnosis was one like no other. He claimed this was his way of proving to never give up. And the first thing he saw when he completed the race was his family, reuniting with them in the end.
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