Rattlesnake 'Merica

As the Fourth of July approaches and the men’s national soccer team moves on to the next round in the World Cup I have been feeling a little more patriotic. Recently talking with friends after a few references to the Revolutionary War, George Washington, and freedom I felt even more patriotic when I got the chance to explain what a Gadsden flag was to. If you don’t know, I’m sure you have seen them flying or on a bumper sticker, it is a yellow flag designed by General Gadsden of the war showing a coiled rattlesnake with the motto “don’t tread on me.” makes sense for a revolutionary flag, don’t step on a snake or you’ll get bit, don’t step on America, I get it. Then I decided to do a little more research about our slithery friend on the flag and came across a letter Ben Franklin wrote to the Pennsylvania Journal in 1775. In the letter he writes:

“…I recollected that her [rattle snake] eye excelled in brightness, that of any other animal and that she has no eye-lids. She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her, she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a most defenseless animal; and even when those weapons are shown and extended for her defense, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds however small, are decisive and fatal. Conscious of this, she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her.”

So a little bit of information for you as we approach the 4th. 

World Cup

World Cup match today looks something like this

I Hate Brakes

I was working on my brakes on the car this weekend and as I was loosening the lug nuts the wrenched slipped causing me to torque my back. After a few minutes on the garage floor I manned up and finished the brakes then spent the rest of the weekend walking around like an old man that left his walker at home. I didn’t realize until today that last time I worked on my brakes I ended up busting my chin on a fender and getting six stitches.  Note to self, stop working on brakes.

My medal from the half marathon

Race Day-Cap City Half Marathon

After five months of training I ran my first half-marathon on Saturday. The training up to Saturday went something like this;

• Sunday: off
• Monday: 3-4 miles (depending on where I am in training)
• Tuesday: 5-6 (as above)
• Wednesday: 3-4 again
• Thursday: off
• Friday: 3-4 and just two the day before the race
• Saturday: my big run days, every week increasing a mile starting at 6 miles then next Saturday I did 7, then 8, and so on up to 12.

Me and Amber

Saturday came with an early 6am rise, a hot shower, plain bagel with peanut butter and a Gatorade for breakfast, no coffee, and out the door we went. The weather was less than perfect, windy, cold (47ºF at the beginning of the race), and a chance of rain, which it did, twice, but only for a few minutes each time. The runners were split into groups called “corrals” which was dependant on your projected pace, I was in corral B. My cousin, Jason, who talked me into this madness, was in corral A. Corral A set off first then a minute later it was our turn. I was at the front of the group at the start and set a fast pace the first mile but leveled off between 2 and 3 to my normal pace. I felt good, aside from the weather. There were tons of people lining the streets almost the entire way. They were cheering the runners on with signs, clapping, and yelling, there were even DJ’s and musicians placed around the course. The signs were encouraging, inspiring and funny, my favorite being, “RUN FASTER, I JUST FARTED.” Every mile or so was a “refueling station” with water or Gatorade, which is not easy to drink when you are running but I didn’t want to stop and walk in fear of not being able to get going again. Around six miles I got to test out my “Energy Chews,” which is basically a chewy cube full of carbs to help refuel your muscles and to my surprise they worked. Amber asked, what do you think of while running?” Just random stuff but mostly I was thinking of getting to the finish or how funny some people look while running which made wonder how I looked while running. We started in downtown Columbus and made our way towards Ohio State University campus, back through downtown into a small area called German Village were people were actually having parties while watching us run. There’s nothing like seeing people eating, drinking, and waving at me while I have been running for ten miles. Then back up into downtown were I rounded the corner for the final 500 yards by this time I was on the down slope and getting pretty tired even after six energy chews but then I saw Amber(wife), who waited for me the entire race in the rain and cold, couldn’t ask for any more support.  Lisa, a friend of ours, was there as well to watch me and another friend, Allison, run. Amber and Lisa were literally the loudest in the hundreds of people there. Their yelling and screaming revived me immediately and pushed me to the finish strong, after a side track to give them high fives of course. I crossed the line after an hour and fifty two minutes of pounding pavement putting my pace around eight and a half minutes per mile. I did it. I ran the whole 13.1 miles non-stop through rain, sweat, and cold. All that training, all the running, all the blisters finally paid off. I felt good. I met up with Amber around the corner and got my free beer. Yea that’s what you get for running 13.1 miles, a single beer. We met up with Jason, his family, and Allison and hers for a big lunch and a big beer then I headed home and took a nice long nap.

Me and Jason

People keep asking now if I’ll continue to run marathons or at least just continue to run at home. I think I will keep it in my exercise regimen but as for marathons, not sure I’ll do that again, at least not anytime soon… or maybe I will, I hear there is a full marathon in August.  

I didn’t win the race or even come close but I finished, I accomplished my goal of finishing under two hours and I owe it to, not just my training, but the support from friends and family. Thank you.

Cast Iron

For some reason, just recently, I have been on a kick about getting some cast iron cookware, I’m not real sure why, maybe because of the look of  the food from a cast iron looks so damn tasty. Then luck has it, my parents had some they were getting rid of. A 12 and a 6 inch “The Lodge” brand cast iron skillets both covered in a layer of rust from not being used. “No problem,” dad says as he handed me a steel wool pad. After a few times of scrubbing and rinsing with cold water I removed the rust and was down to bare cast iron again. Now it was time to season the skillets. To season, I followed a few instructions I read on-line, heating them in the oven to 500º for 20 minutes or so then wiping down with veggie oil and laying them upside down in the oven again for another 20-30 minutes. I put aluminum foil down on the oven rack to keep any excess oil from dripping onto the element. The oil helps keep the pot from rusting again and keeps food from sticking when cooking. After the second time in the oven I just turned off the oven and let them cool down while the oven cooled. I repeated these steps the next day.  Now it was a bit of work to clean a rusty cast iron skillet then season it but when it’s free it’s worth it. I don’t have any pictures of before but here is the 12 inch after a couple of seasonings. I cooked a couple of chicken thighs in the small skillet last night and it tasted good. No rust or metal taste at all.

There is a long list of benefits from cooking with cast iron from cooking to actual health benefits. A couple benefits that stick in my mind are a well seasoned pan allows you use less oil to cook and is a healthy alternative to using non-stick pans which may contain harmful chemicals. Another awesome benefit is you can use any heat source oven, stove, or even a camp fire. It truly is a versatile piece.

“One man with courage makes a majority.”                 -Andrew Jackson