Sipping Maple Syrup

Both of you that read this blog on a regular basis have probably noticed that I regularly comment on how slow I am. This is true. There were hundreds, maybe even thousands of people that finished the half marathon before me on Saturday. On the other hand, there were probably at least as many that finished after me.

The baseline for speed that I use to gauge my own running ability is, I believe, based on how fast I think a guy like me ought to be able to go. Compared with the average 6'2", 190 lb, 32 year old, male, with a fairly substantial amount of running experience, that I have created in my head, I am quite slow. But this "average" person that I have created doesn't really exist. Given enough data it probably would be possible to create a profile for an "average" person that meets those characteristics, but he might or might not be even close to what I have imagined.

I think in life we tend to compare ourselves to people that are so different from us that the comparison does nothing but harm. It's like when my brother poured himself a glass of root beer and got a shock with his first sip. It was the worst root beer he had ever tasted. That's because it was maple syrup.

In the month or so prior to the race I encouraged a friend of mine to run it. He had very little experience with running. I told him often that he was going to beat me. He always protested and said there was no way. He thought I was being modest. Last Saturday as I ran down the road toward the turnaround I saw him coming the other way. I yelled a quick hello and he greeted me back and then continued to leave me in the dust.

I had no doubt he would beat me but I don't feel bad about it. He is much better built for running than I am. He is shorter than me (shorter people tend to do better running long distance than tall people), leaner than me, younger than me, and has better biomechanical form than me. About the only things I had going for me were more time training and racing experience. I knew that wouldn't be enough.

I don't feel bad that he beat me because I am root beer and he is maple syrup. We don't compare to each other but are pretty good at making the most of what God gave us.

And in the end, root beer is pretty tasty and goes better with pizza.

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Speaking of root beer, while not really a dessert, it contains sugar and since I make the rules on this blog I say it belongs here. I like normal root beer but, like most things, nothing beats homemade.

Homemade Root Beer

Ingredients

5 gallons water

5 lbs sugar

5 lbs dry ice
1 bottle (2 oz)root beer concentrate

In a large beverage cooler combine the sugar, water and root beer concentrate. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Add about half the dry ice, having first made sure that there is enough room in the cooler for it. It will bubble and fog up a lot. The kids love it, and it's perfect for Halloween because it looks like a witch's cauldron. Set the lid on top to stop some of the splattering but do not seal the top. After about 5 minutes you can start drinking. The longer you wait while it's still fogging, the colder and fizzier it will be. When the fog begins to reduce put in the rest of the dry ice.

Mostly Success & Germans

I'm happy to report that I accomplished my goal of setting a half-marathon PR (Personal Record) in last Saturday's. Unfortunately, it won't officially go in the books as a PR. I'll explain later.

It was a near perfect day for a race. It was cool and dry. About the only thing I could have asked for was some cloud cover. The Martian Marathon is a fairly small race and doesn't have much crowd support but the scenery was nice along the parkway on Hines Drive.

My new GPS watch helped me keep my pace. I don't know if I would have been able to do it without it. About half of the runners had some sort of GPS watch that calculates your pace in real time, the overall time and the distance.

The race is out and back which is cool and depressing at the same time. It's cool because you get to run in the opposite direction of the rest of the runners and cheer each other on. It's also depressing because you get to see all of the seemingly out of shape people that are totally whipping you run past.

The problem began at the turnaround. Whoever was in charge of placing the turnaround somehow put it 1/6 of a mile too far, thus adding 1/3 of a mile onto the course. I noticed the problem at mile 7. My watch read 7.36. "That's weird," I thought. Mile 8 was equally behind. At mile 9 I starting noticing other runners giving frustrated looks to their watches at each mile. I finally asked someone else how far their watch was reading. It was off by the same amount as mine.

I decided that I was going to let the cone planter defeat me. There wasn't much of a chance of beating my previous time with an additional 2 minutes worth of running tacked on so I aimed for the point where my watch showed 13.1. I probably looked a little strange sprinting to down a random stretch of road and then stopping to walk. I only walked for 20 yards or so then sprinted to official line.

My time? 1:51:47, two minutes faster than my previous PR. It feels good to be slightly less slow than before.

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This is my daughters' favorite meal ever, probably because it's basically dessert disguised as a meal. It's one of the great wonders of the universe.

German Pancakes

2 - 9x13 pans (glass works best)

2 cups flour
2 cups milk
4 eggs
½ cup sugar
4 pinches salt
6 Tbs butter or margarine – divided

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. While oven is heating put 3 Tbs butter in each pan and put in oven until melted. Mix all ingredients and pour half of mix into each pan, on top of the melted butter. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Bubbles are normal.

Top with sour cream, brown sugar and fresh fruit, especially crushed strawberries.

Since When Were Ranchers Jolly?

With just two days to go before the big race, my daughters are finishing up their training program for their kids marathon.

As I wrote previously, the kids marathon is one of the Martian Marathons races where children run or walk a total of 25 miles leading up to the race then run the final 1.2 miles on race day to finish their marathon. As my wife and I expected, there were many days where the girls moaned and groaned about doing their running.

However, their attitude got much better recently mainly due to two changes. The first was that I began offering them candy for good behavior. They earned a Jolly Rancher if they run without complaining and if they alternated between running and walking. I was shocked how quickly their attitude changed. I guess they share my love of sugar.

There are theories out there that if you offer extrinsic rewards for behaviors then it destroys any intrinsic motivation there may have been. (Extrinsic = external, like money or candy, intrinsic = internal, like warm fuzzies) The belief is that people think, "If they are willing to give me something for doing it, then really must not be that enjoyable". I don't disagree with the theory for the most part but sometimes people need some initial motivation to try a behavior that they will eventually find intrinsically rewarding. Take my older daughter for instance. She was running about a mile a day. One day she decided that she wanted to do two miles instead, even though she would receive no extra candy. Of course we heaped loads of congratulations on her to reinforce the behavior.

The other change was that the weather began to get nicer, allowing us to escape the treadmill in the basement and walk/run around the block. Once we were able to do that I really didn't have to promise them the candy at all. Maybe it wasn't the walking and running they didn't like, just the treadmill.

I just hope that someday one or more of my children will come to me and ask me if I want to go running with them. Of course, I may have to have a pocket full of Jolly Ranchers just in case.

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My idea of a perfect food is something crunchy smothered with butter, chocolate and peanut butter, tossed in more sugar. Can you go wrong?

Muddy Buddies

9 cups Rice Chex®, Corn Chex® or Chocolate Chex® cereal (or combination)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Measure cereal into a large bowl and set aside.

In 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.

Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator. Hide it from the kids or you'll regret it.