Whatsa Matta You?

You've seen the commercial with the Baby and the Italian tailor. You know the one I'm talking about: the one for the internet trading service. Well, years before internet trading- years before the internet, even- my brother, the Amazing AndyMan, lived that commercial. Like his brother, my brother can be kind of a smart-alec. Mostly, it's not intentional. Mostly. We just sorta see the absurdity in life, and we don't feel the need to keep it to ourselves. Case in point: Andy and the Italian tailor.

Many jobs and a career change ago, Andy bought a nice suit. It was, apparently, a nice enough suit that it came with complementary alterations. Now, we Mathews' are not known for financial acumen, but we not inclined to turn down anything if it's free; consequently, Andy was getting his new suit altered. Andy immediately noticed two things about his new tailor: first; he was a social sort who liked to talk. A lot. Second; he had not been long in Tampa from his native Italy. This was something that the tailor pointed out to Andy, but, because of the tailor's thick accent, he didn't really need to point out. All through the fitting, the dude is all, "No-a. No-a. Eets-a not-a like-a dat inna the old-a country" (sorry my Italian accent is-a not-a so good). Andy is straining not to tease this poor old fellow, being very careful not to mimic the guy. "Oh, really, kind sir? Is that the truth. Well, well". Andy was getting into it, and was patting himself on the back for his incredible restraint. They were getting down the home stretch when the tailor asked with great enthusiasm, "Now Howsa DAT?". Equally enthusiastically, Andy mimicked, "Oh, DATSA nice!". Somehow- and contrary to Andy's fear- the suit was hemmed perfectly, and the pants leg hems were not four inches different from each other.

Trashed.

I walked Bo and Brady yesterday afternoon, as I do every afternoon, and I noted a preponderance of roadside litter. Sad, that. My brother, the Amazing AndyMan, used to make a point during his ultra-marathon jaunts of picking up some of the various and sundry lots of litter he encountered. On my unquestionably more leisurely lopes, I'll occasionally pick up bits of detritus, too. Every now and again I'll think of that crying Native-American from the anti-littering ad of the 1970's. Remember? Sure you do.

Ultra-Marathon Man.

My brother, the Amazing AndyMan, just finished his most recent 100 mile race, The Rocky Roads 100 in California, in 22 hours and 21 minutes; good enough for a 9th place finish and a belt buckle prize worthy of Aaron Rodgers and the WWE. This morning's Parade Magazine featured an article about ultra-marathon darling Dean Karnazes. Andy and Dean have run in some of the same races. In 2009, Andy and Dean both ran The Great Western States Endurance Run. Andy said the race was brutal. He was the very last runner to finish, in 30:37 an 243rd place, but he ran every mile of it. Dean dropped after 19 hours, rating a final listing of 275th place. There is no doubt that Dean is a great athlete, and he deserves the accolades he gets. But my money's on my Bro. Congrats, A-Man.

Pinhoti Run, Featuring the Amazing AndyMan!

My brother, the Amazing AndyMan, is running again. About an hour ago, at seven this Morning (six Central Time), Andy started working the foothills and minor mountains of Northern Alabama in the Pinhoti 100 Endurance Run. Andy's run plenty over the last twenty or so years: scads of five K's and 10 K's, then scads of triathlons, ninety or so Marathons, and dozens of ultra-Marathons, including more than twenty 100 mile races. Still, 100 miles is a very long way to run, even for the Amazing AndyMan. His race number is 630, and you can track him over the next twenty-four hours or so at
Pinhoti

Run, AndyMan, run!

Pretty in Pink.

Saturday was a memorable day. My brother, the Amazing AndyMan, came up from Tampa to see me. We ran in the Susan Komen Lowcountry Race for the Cure 5K (I also got married on Saturday, but I'll post that later). October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so you'll see pink ribbons and other pink paraphernalia everywhere- especially at a race dedicated to beating breast cancer. The pins at left, of course, were necessary to attach our race numbers and such to our shirts.

The venue was Daniel Island, a beautiful little outpost of Charleston, and the home of the Annual Family Circle Tennis Tournament.

I got dressed up in official Run for the Cure garb, including an "In Celebration of Diane" sign to celebrate Lady Di's 17 years as a breast cancer survivor. She used to be one of the local leaders within the Komen Foundation. She signed up for the race, but was busy with other matters...

The gun went off, and AndyMan and I, and 10,000 of our closest friends ambled off. Was it crowded? Uh, yeah. But that's a good thing. Tons of people out to help whip up on cancer.

Here's a 20 second video for a taste:



Ah, success! Now it's off to Church. Andy, you got that ring?

A & W Rooting.

My brother, the Amazing AndyMan, and his good and great ultra-running buddy, Woody, stopped by the Boro last night on their way to Raleigh to run a hunnerd mile race. These guys are certified lunatics (I view their registration to the Umsteadhundred mile races as certification). Andy confirms that the photo, while not especially flattering, is accurate enough. Imagine how they'll look in a couple of days.

America: Love it, or Leavitt

According to a report I got from the Sports Illustrated e-mag University of South_Florida_Coach_Jim_Leavitt got fired for slapping a player, then lying about it. USF didn't have a football team when I was growing up in Tampa. If you wanted to watch college football, you went to Tampa Stadium and watched the IAA (now known as the "Football Championship Subdivision", as opposed to the "Football Bowl Subdivision") University of Tampa Spartans. What? You never knew that Tampa Stadium hosted a football team before the Bucs got there in the mid-1970's? Tell it to Freddie Solomon. I remember dad taking me and AndyMan to a Spartans game (I also remember he walked up to then-governor Reuben Askew, shook his hand and said, "Hey, Reuben! How's a boy?". He'd never met the man, as far as I know, but, well, dad did stuff like that). I met Jim Leavitt when AndyMan was working the gate at a Jesuit HS football game. Seemed like a decent enough sort. 'Course, football coaches aren't paid to be sweet and loving, they're paid to make dudes knock the crud out of other dudes. I played football for 12 years or so, including a couple of years at a small college, and, off-the-record, I've seen a little coach induced not-strickly-football-related physical contact during that time. Ah, well. For better and for worse, those were different times. But, not THAT different. Just ask Woody Hayes. Leavitt'll probably find work, because he managed to win some ball games. Shoot, his Bulls even beat Florida State this year. Yeah, he'll find work. No Bull. I understand Texas Tech is hiring...

EggMcMathews

When my brother, the Amazing AndyMan, and I were youngish lads growing up in Cigar City, we witnessed the advent of McDonald's Egg McMuffins. We liked them. We seldom got to have them. We developed our own answer: the Egg McMathews. Basically the same ingredients, but, you know, made at home. I'd passed this story along to financee and fab cook, Diane, and she prepared a surprise for the day-after-Christmas: the new and improved Egg McMathews. Toasted English muffins, topped with lean Canadian bacon, a poached egg, and (instead of mega-fattening Hollandaise sauce) a lite cheese sauce that was way-good. I had to tease her about her ultra-healthy choice of eggs, though. They were advertised as the eggs of "organic, vegetable fed" chickens. I didn't realize that meat-eating chickens were abundant.




Of course, nobody wants the horrid specter of zombie chickens eggs!. Hmmm. Maybe Diane does have the right idea afterall.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's about quarter 'til three on Thanksgiving Day, and I'm bushed. My brother, the Amazing AndyMan, came up from Cigar City to spend the Holiday in the Boro. He and I ran for about an hour this morning, then we volunteered at my Church, St. Jude's Episcopal, to prepare and serve free Thanksgiving meals to folks who didn't already have plans. See how eager I am to get started? Andy'd already done this gig in Tampa just yesterday. He saw the multitude ready to help and beat it to the Manor to watch Kill Bill Vol. One for perhaps the fifth time. I carved a couple of hams, then started working the serving line. Yams were my item. Yams are very popular at Thanksgiving, and I only one or two of the seven hundred folks we served didn't want some.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifLinda Kelly was on ham detail. She's and the rest of the line get ready to open business.
I wouldn't've been there if not for my gal, Diane. Among her duties as director of the Area Health Education Commission (or Company. It starts with a "C", anyway) are youth education programs designed to get young folks into the healthcare field. These are motivated kids. She managed to get this good-looking crew to take a few hours from their own Thanksgiving to volunteer at St. Jude's. Don't ever give up on the kids. The kids are alright!

Aerosmith

I'm taking my baby girl to Tampa this weekend to see Aerosmith and ZZ Top. We'll stay Saturday night with my brother, the Amazing AndyMan. Got to say I'm jazzed (or, perhaps rocked). Though I liked- and still like- Dream On, my first Aerosmith album was Toys in the Attic. I was maybe a year older than the Twins are now when I got it, and several years younger than my daughter is now. She's taking a girl with whom she's been friends for the majority of their lives. They used to listen to then-current Aerosmith when they were in first grade. I'll post pictures when I get back.

He's a Champ in My Book.

Even if you're from Florida, 96 degrees is HOT.
In 2005, Andy was one of the very few Floridians to "buckle", by finishing this race in less than 24 hours. He didn't buckle this year, and when the "official" times are listed, you won't see his name, because you got to finish in less than 30 hours. This journey was epic, though. Andy has struggled more in his running this year than, I think, in any year since he started ultra events. He didn't quit, he just ran out of time. It looks like Andy was the very last person to cross the line.

AndyMan Update.

My Amazing Brother just finished running 100 miles. He fell a little short of the the 30 hour mark for an "official" finish, but finish, he did, in 30 hours and 37 minutes.He got to the last checkpoint three minutes behind the last runner to make it under 30 hours. The other guy made it with 4 minutes to spare. The heat was 90 plus degrees and lots of people dropped (included ultra legends Dean Karnazes and Scott Jurek). Of the 500 people registered, fewer than half finished the race. No belt buckle for Andy this time, but, hey, he did something Dean Karnazes didn't do this time: he finished the race. Congratulations, my Brother. I'm proud of you.

93.5 Miles, gone as of 45 minutes ago. 6.7 miles to go by 11:00 a.m. PDT (that's 2:00 p.m. EDT). It's gonna be close.

AndyMan Update.

This is where he is now.
This is the topography where he is now.The Western States tracker is sporadic, but it looks like A-Man has covered 78 miles in the CA mountains and is just on pace to finish within the 30 hour cutoff time.

Runnin' Down a Dream.

My brother, the Amazing AndyMan (the less beefy half of the photo at left. Not sure who the other dude is, but he was at Western States four years ago with Andy), is running in the Great Western States Endurance Event beginning this morning. It is a Hundred Mile jaunt up in the mountains in California. He's number 311, and you can track his progress Here. His blogsite is: http://intheslam.blogspot.com/ (it's also posted on the left side of this blog).

Shake It Up.

I've been going at life kinda half-hearted of late. Tentative. Whether at work or at play, I've been second-guessing myself and, consequently, doing a whole lot of not a whole lot. But life doesn't have a "pause" button (have we learned nothing from Adam Sandler's classic movie "Click"?). That's got to change. Time to shake things up. Like my brother, the Amazing AndyMan says, "If you're gonna be a bear, be a Grizzly". Work at work. Don't play at running; run. And have a good time. We don't have that many days on this celestial ball. Shoot, Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Gena Davis and Winona Ryder all know how to Shake it, right?

Run, Joey, Run.

I've been running a little, lately. I use my Nike + i-Pod to keep me company and to keep up with my mileage. The Nike Plus website links to GoogleEarth, so you can map out your run. Cool, huh? This is, more or less, the route that I ran. I had to guess a little on the trail across Ivanhoe, but the mileage is about right.

Just over five miles. The pace was slow (okay, I walked the last quarter mile. Hey, it still counts), but I burned more than 800 calories. Great! Now I can have pie! Wait. I've got this bet with my brother. Let's check his blog to see how much he ran. Aha! 4.7 miles. Shoot, I got him beat! Wait. Waddya mean 47 miles... Now I'm depressed. I think I'll go eat some pie.

Wednesday Night Lights.

I love football. Well, I love watching my kids play it, anyway. Mathews boys must play football. I was allowed to quit baseball (which is just as well. I wasn't very good at baseball), but there was no question that I would not be allowed to quit football. Dear Old Dad told my brother, the Amazing Ultra-Marathoner, AndyMan, and I (er, that's just two of us there. I know it sounds like three, but it's two) that he'd been honorable mention All-State at offensive guard back at Natrona County H.S. Okay, I'll grant you, the State was Wyoming, but it's still a State. Andy was a guard. I was a guard. I was bigger, faster, and stronger than my brother, but he was better. Andy was better than I was, because he tried his best every play. A few years ago, I asked him why he did every stupid thing that our coaches asked him to do over our years of football, and he told me, "It never occurred to me not to". That dogged determination has helped AndyMan to become an amazing athlete even now. He runs 100-mile events now. Boggles my mind, it does.

My oldest son was like his Uncle Andy in that way. Also like his dad and his uncle, Davis was a guard. He played defensive end, too. He never got heavier than 155 pounds, but he was good. Got the "Coach's Award" from Thomas Heyward Academy. Made a few of the prettiest plays on both offense and defense that I've ever seen. He studies poetry and classical languages in his senior year at Sewanee (The University of the South).

The Lads are like their Uncle Andy, too. They played their first game for the Forest Circle Middle School "Falcons" last night, which the Falcons won, six to nothing. They started at defensive end and offensive tackle as bookends. Taylor played all but three plays in the game; Tyler was only off the field for the one kick-off the Falcons received. Their blocking was stellar. Taylor had probably twelve tackles, including the first three tackles of the game and four "sacks"; Tyler had probably seven tackles, including three sacks. On one play they combined for a tackle of the running back behind the line of scrimmage- something they call a TnT slamwich. They were also prominent in a "goal-line stand". The other team, the Ruffin "Patriots"- who were supposed to be the best team in the league and who practiced two weeks longer than our squad- had the ball first and goal in a 6-0 ballgame with two minutes left in the game, and the Falcons kept them out of the end-zone. During the game the Principal came up and sat with me. One of the Lads had, unfortunately, already met with the Principal on some, uh... other matters, so it was a nice gesture. One of the players on the other team told my boys that they were the best on the field. It's probably wrong for fathers to try to bask in the reflected light of their sons' athletic glory. It's probably wrong.

Run, Run AndyMan...

My brother, the amazing ultra-runner, AndyMan, got up very, very early this morning to compete in the second of four 100-mile ultra-marathons he's entered to be conducted in a three month stretch (he completed a 100-miler in Vermont last month). The Leadville Endurance Run commenced at 4 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time. This race may well be the toughest of the four runs for which he is entered. Maybe 50 to 65 percent of entrants in most 100-milers complete the course; Leadville's completion rate is only about 40%.

First of all, as you might expect for the Rocky Mountains, the race is at a high altitude and it's mountainous. I'm told that races at altitude mean less available oxygen. And, of course, half the run is, like, UP the mountains. Andy's lives and trains in Florida, which is flat, and low; so this will be especially tough for him. This race is also crowded for a hundred miler. Something like 560 people have signed on for this one. Okay, compared to marathons, where, say, 35,000 people might be signed up it's not so many; but it's a lot for a 100-miler. Lots of people running means lots of people around whom he must navigate. Unlike marathons, which are generally run on well-marked streets, ultras are run on trails and paths through the woods, across streams, and over gravelly sides of mountains. On a good day, a 100-miler takes about 24 hours to complete, which means half of it is at night. Having people around can sometimes be helpful, I'm told, to encourage and help with directions; but they can get in the way, too. Oh, yeah, and the forecast in that part of Colorado for today? Snow. In August. Something that they don't have a lot of in the Sunshine State. It ain't Christmas, but I hope Santa brings Andy a decent finish anyway.

And Andy and Chase get up at, like, 4:00 a.m.? That's just nuts!

Boys Night Out

Amazing Ultra-Runner AndyMan Mathews paid a visit to the Boro. A-Man, the Lads and I had a big night out. Ate at The Blarney Stone. Good blackened grouper, but mostly it was about the Bass. No, not the Dan Ackroyd "bass-o-matic" bass, but Bass Pale Ale. Yum. Andy had a Black and Tan. Then on to Ivanhoe Cinema for Iron Man. Not too shabby.