Christ Kona?

By Kimberly Luste Maran, with reporting by Bill Knott
The room in Lake Placid,
New York, was crowded
with athletes, friends, and
family. Weary yet anxious
Ironman racers waited as
certified times were given and qualifiers’
names were announced. Alicia Trott,
an Adventist young adult from Topsham,
Maine, had never participated in a
full Ironman but managed to turn in a
personal best at 11 hours 47 minutes at
the July 22, 2012, event. Though tired,
Alicia was exhilarated, excited. And prepared
with a credit card—in case she
actually qualified for the Ironman World
Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
Alicia didn’t have long to wait. Officials
announced her name. Gripping her
credit card tightly she rushed up to the
desk—it was sign up immediately or
lose your spot—with no hesitation. The
moment was surreal to Alicia as she ran
through the crowd amid congratulatory
pats and smiles. No one in her training
group had ever qualified for Kona! As
she signed the necessary paperwork,
and paid her $800 fee, Alicia took the last
qualifying slot in the 25-29 women’s
group (Alicia had placed third in her age
group and 383 out of 2,896 overall).
During the postrace celebration Alicia
texted many of her friends in her training
group back home, telling them she
had qualified. One of them offered to
pay for her and her husband Jamie’s
entire trip to Hawaii—plane tickets,
lodging, and food for a week.
“It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,”
says Trott. “How could we pass
this up? It was such a rush to sign up.
“When I left the building, I was met
by my mom. She was very excited to
hear that I had qualified and wondered
what the event date was. I told her, and
she immediately informed me that it
was on Sabbath.”
The breath whooshed out of Alicia as
this news, to which she had been oblivious,
sank in. The biggest Ironman challenge,
the Kona Ironman, was on
Sabbath. She had been vigilant in not
training on Sabbath. Everyone in her
training group knew she wouldn’t run,
bike, or swim on Sabbath. Students she
taught health and fitness to at Pine Tree
Academy in Freeport knew about her
training—and her decision to take the
seventh day off. So did her church family,
and the people, mostly non-Adventists,
who read her blog. Alicia says, “I had
gone through an entire year making it a
KONA?
point not to race on Sabbath. My heart
fell, and at that point, since I had been so
careful in protecting the Sabbath, I was
actually shocked that I wasn’t immediately
thinking, OK, I’m not going to do this.”
Alicia thought especially of her husband,
who respects the Sabbath as much
she does. “He had to make so many sacrifices
to get me to Lake Placid that he
felt when I qualified that the Lord was
blessing us,” explains Trott. “Jamie felt
as if God was giving him a bit of a
reward—he was going to be able to go
to Hawaii.” Jamie was thinking about
the grueling training—and all the
effort—they had both put in.
While her husband wasn’t sure which
choice would be best, Alicia knew what her
decision would have to be—she couldn’t,
wouldn’t run the race on Sabbath.
Training
Alicia’s passion for training and competing
didn’t start until she was a sophomore
at Southern Adventist University
(SAU) in Collegedale, Tennessee. “That’s
where I did my first triathlon in 2002,”
she says. “That’s where I started diving
into exercise sciences.”
Each spring SAU holds a sprint triathlon
(half-mile swim, 18-mile bike ride,
five- to six-mile run). Her aunt organizes
those triathlons, and convinced
Alicia to participate. “She made me do
it!” remembers Trott. “At the time I was
upset she was pushing me to do this
race. I couldn’t swim across the pool
when I first started training. But I had
several months to train, and I did it. I
used an antique bike she owned and
placed first in my age group, and I loved
it.” Alicia thanked her aunt and then
The breath whooshed out of
Alicia as the news sank in.
The biggest Ironman challenge,
the Kona Ironman, was on Sabbath.
www.AdventistReview.org | May 16, 2013 | (435) 19