Great Lake Swimmers - Backstage With the Modern Dancers

I just found out about this band and I am hooked. Also, since Papa John's will not let me have a full beard, these fine Canadian beards make me really jealous.

Turkey Trot Results

Benjer and Conrad and I ran our 10k yesterday! It was their first road race ever and my first 10k (6.2 miles). The event was a bit disorganized, but the course was great, we all met our goals, and the food after the race was not that bad!

[Left to Right: Me, Conrad (whose real name might be Carson), and Benjer]Funny stories about the race...

(1) We were about halfway back in the crowd at the starting line when from behind us we heard a quiet man talking on a quiet megaphone. He said something about turkey and made a gobbling noise and it seems he might have said "Ready, set, go!" or something like that. The thing is, no one in the front (or the middle) of the crowd could hear him, so every one just stood there. Then people in the back began freaking out, shouting, "GO! HE SAID GO!" But no one in the front (understandably) wanted to start running just because a few people behind them said that a man said the word "go." So the three of us just stood there wondering what kind of a race we had gotten ourselves into. I'm pretty sure they reset the clock and a quiet man said "go" to the people in the front (I still couldn't hear it), because everyone finally started running.
It's hard to see, but in this next picture I'm the one on the far left with orange shoulders. I'm picking the old man in the white shirt as my "Runner to Beat." (2) At about 1.5 miles, Benjer and I got passed by a 9-year-old. He made me want to fake a pulled hammy. However, he had to stop to walk at about 4 miles and I blew past him and dominated him for the rest of the race! Booyah!

(3) Apparently, during the race, Silas received a free hackysack for agreeing to quit smoking. He thinks it's funny, but I'm going to hold him to it.

(4) I was holding Silas after the race and apparently he had been waving, unbeknownst to me, to a 6-foot-tall bee. I turned around and it was coming straight for us! I couldn't let it smell my fear, but Silas was more cool and composed. As the Old Country Buffet Bee (the O.C. Bee) was asking Silas for a high-five, Silas calmly and politely signed "please" and told the bee, "Bye-Bye." The bee gave us some type of coupon and left. Silas saves the day.

Here are the results:

http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?pubID=3&rsID=49949

Paul:
Time- 49:56 (8:03 per mile)
Place- 129 of 346
My goal was under 50 minutes! (Look at the guy in the short shorts envying my great finish!)

Benjer:
Time- 51:17
Place- 144 of 346

Conrad:
Time- 1:00:21
Place- 258 of 346

Benjer and Conrad were really impressive! It was a great first step on our journey to the Denver Marathon, October 2008.

Longmont Turkey Trot!

I have convinced a couple of my friends here at school to run the Denver Marathon with me next October. (Suckers!) So to get them some race experience, my friends Benjer and Conrad and I will be running a 10k (6.2 miles) this Saturday morning. Man, it's gonna be freezing cold! I've never run a race this late in the year. Also, I haven't really trained much for this race. I'm not expecting to do very well, even with the motivation of possibly winning a Butterball turkey. I should have told those guys I was running the 10k and then entered the fun run. But at least I get to carbo-load on Friday night! I'll post the results this weekend.

Here It Is...

I think it went okay! My nerves are back to normal and I can eat again. This was my first time teaching in a church gathering. My pastor, Michael, and I taught "tag-team" style. He did a review and introduction, I taught for a bit, and then Michael taught and concluded. So check it out!

You can either play it on my church's website at www.denverchurch.org, (it's the sermon called "More than Counter Culture," or you can download the mp3 by clicking on this link: http://www.denverchurch.org/?q=audio/download/160/20071014+-+More+Than+Counter+Culture.mp3

Tomorrow...

Is the big day. The sermon will get posted on my church's website hopefully later in the week. I'll put a link to it here on my website when it happens.

OJ Lawyer Press Conference satellite feed

(This video has been ripped off from MN Twins site aarongleeman.com)

Putting the Fish Before the Rod

A little over two years ago, my friend Peter took me fly fishing for the very first time. I had never even touched a fly rod before. I had worn waders once but it turns out that this is not really a fly fishing skill.

There is so much to learn in the world of fly fishing. There are rods, reels, fly lines, leaders, tippet, flies, and knots. You've got to know about trout, streams, trout lies, trout food, casting techniques, how to brag about your record-breaking fish (the one that always slips back into the river just as you're about to take a picture)... I could go on. The amount of information a person needs to know to fish the "right" way is overwhelming to say the least.

Peter didn't fill my head with information. Instead, we practiced casting on the seminary lawn for maybe a half hour. I watched him, learned to keep my elbow in and the rod tip between 10 and 2, and casted for a bit.

When the day came to haul in my first trout, Peter drove me to a creek in a mountain canyon, gave me a rod, put on the right fly and told me where to cast it. The moment that first brook trout struck my line I became a fly fisherman.

Tonight, my friend Brad, who is a pastor and a professor, quoted from a book called "Chasing Francis" (which I am putting on my list of books to read). To paraphrase, the author writes, "Our tendency is usually to attempt to understand the Bible and then apply it to life. Instead, we ought to apply the Bible to our lives in order to truly understand it."

After thinking about this quote, I came to a conclusion. Jesus did not teach his disciples to the point where they had a complete grasp of a concept and then apply that concept to their lives. In Luke 10, he sent out 72 of his followers with minimal instructions to proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near. The 72 returned completely fired up because they were beginning to understand (through their experiences) the kingdom of God. Jesus had his followers live out his teachings and it was in their experiences that the teachings dawned on them and became a part of them.

I have lots of fly fishing gear now. I can buy flies at the fly shop without looking stupid (usually). I think I even know what tippet is. So why have I invested money in this sport? Why do I know the boring details of fly fishing? Why am I a fly fisherman? Because Peter didn't ask me to read books about fly fishing until I felt I could do it the "right" way. Because he didn't care that I would lose about 10 of his flies in poorly-placed bushes and low hanging tree branches (sorry, Peter).

In order for me to truly understand it, he just took me fishing.

Mad TV Bob Newhart Skit

I am crazy busy with school, studying, family, work, mentoring, and my internship right now. So here is the only funny MAD TV sketch ever. I was watching it while taking a 5-minute break in between work and studying.

14ers

There are 54 mountain peaks in Colorado that are above 14,000 ft. People who are way cooler than me call them 14ers. My friend Benjer talked me into hiking a double 14er (Gray's Peak and Torrey's peak) with him on August 1st. So we headed out at 4:00am (ouch) because you need to get off the mountain by about noon or you are in danger of getting caught in a sudden lightning storm. We managed to traverse the worst "road" and the largest ruts I'd ever seen in my life in a Ford Taurus to get to the trailhead (where we were laughed at by some locals in big trucks).

We left the trailhead for the summits at 5:45 am. The way up to the summit of Gray's Peak was hard, but not too bad. We took plenty of breaks and guzzled water and Gatorade. On the way up, Benjer realized his shorts were on inside out. When he was switching them to rightside in (?) he almost fell down a rocky cliff! It was hilarious.

On the hike upward, we saw hundreds of little rodents called picas. Picas are like chinchillas but not as puffy/furry.

Well, we made it to the summit of Gray's Peak at about 9:00am. Gray's Peak is the 9th tallest peak in CO at 14, 270 ft. The view was incredible! And we could see a lot with our binoculars (like A-Basin, Keystone, Silverthorne, and Lake Dillon).

While we were up there, this skinny little stick man ran (yes I said ran) to the summit, drank a little bit of water, took a couple bites of a powerbar or something and then ran back down. Benjer and I decided we are more built for bocce ball. After a few pictures and a rest to enjoy the view, it was on to Torrey's Peak.

To get to Torrey's Peak, we just had to go down a few hundred feet from Gray's, cross a ridge, I guess it's called a saddle, and then back up a few hundred feet to Torrey's. But the last part of Torrey's was almost straight up and covered in loose gravel. We were bushed when we summited (nice terminology, eh?).

Torrey's Peak is the 11th tallest peak in CO at 14, 267. We took some more pictures there and then made the long, hard trip back to the trailhead. And I mean hard. Going down is rough on your knees! I had some trouble walking for a day or two after we were done, but a good time was had by all.I'm beat.

A Theology of Bread

This past Sunday, our pastor at DCC taught one of the best sermons I have heard in a very long time. Here is a link to it:

http://www.denverchurch.org/?q=audio/download/135/20070812-+Matthew+5.6.mp3

Close-Up of the 35W Bridge Collapsing As It Happened!

Two Views on the 35W Bridge Collapse

Jess and I found out about the 35W bridge collapse while we were at a meeting at church. When I was going to the U of M, I lived in Dinkytown, very close to the bridge. I have driven the bridge hundreds of times. Jess and I immediately began calling family and friends to see if they were okay, and they were. It was a scary moment, though.

In times like this, people often wonder how God could let a disaster like this happen if He is both all-powerful and all-good. While not getting into the full answer to this good question (maybe I'll talk about that in another post), here are links to the views of two prominent Twin Cities pastors on why the 35W bridge collapsed:

http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/745_putting_my_daughter_to_bed_two_hours_after_the_bridge_collapsed/

http://gregboyd.blogspot.com/2007/08/why-35w-bridge-collapsed.html

I won't tell you which one I agree more with. If you really want to know, post a comment or email me and I'll tell you.

Peace,
Paul

Internship

Jess, Silas and I are a part of Denver Community Church. We have a new pastor as of about a week ago. His name is Michael Hidalgo and he and his family just moved in from Michigan. Well, with their arrival comes some stability at our church and a new opportunity for me. Michael and I were scheduled to meet this Tuesday morning to talk about me taking on an internship role at our church. I didn't know what exactly I'd be doing, but was willing to do anything.

Then, my internship started suddenly this morning when Michael asked if I would like to go to lunch with him and a homeless man, Steve, who came to our church today. I, of course, said yes and Michael then informed me that my internship would probably be a lot of him saying, "Hey, I'm gonna go do this. Come hang out with me." ...which sounds great! I'm looking forward to experiencing the day-to-day inner-workings of our church and witnessing the daily life of a pastor. It should be exciting!

Grandma's Marathon

Well, it has been one month since Grandma's Marathon and the blisters on my toes are almost gone. The race was actually a lot of fun! I ran with my two brothers, Joel (who had run this race three times already) and Phil (who ran this race after a 22 year running hiatus). Joel decided that for our benefit, he would run the first one-quarter mile with Phil and I, then he had to go catch the leaders. He predictably finished as the first Bratsch brother. Phil and I ran together for the first 8 miles or so. Then he was having dizzy spells and told me to go ahead. Like a good brother I left him behind.

The first 15 miles weren't that bad. After that I had to walk occasionally. It helped to have a great fan club cheering me on!

At about mile 22, there was good news and bad news. The good news: some grocery store workers were handing out the best tasting strawberries I ever had in my life! The bad news: a warm feeling shot through my calf muscle and then I felt excruciating pain in my knee. It got a little better, but I had to run/walk/limp the rest of the way in.

I finished in a time of 5:08. That's five hours, eight minutes. I hoped to go under 5 hours, but for my first marathon I'm just glad I finished and beat Phil. (He did awesome, by the way, for hating running with every bit of his being! He was only about 20 minutes behind me.)

After the race, we loaded up on free food and then enjoyed the stinkiest car ride of our lives as the three of us drove back to our hotel.

So here is the latest news. I have tentative plans to run another marathon. Barring any unforeseen problems, I may be running the 2008 Denver Marathon. My friend Benjer and I are going to start training for it and we'll be running a 5k or 10k and a couple half marathons to prepare. Joel might run with us too (maybe?) but Phil won't even talk to me when I mention anything about marathons.

Back with Lots of News

Sorry about the lack of posts for an entire month.

Well, I got the new car and it turns out that the car is Canadian. Yesterday, it was 17 degrees outside so I turned the in-car temperature to 20. Also, I think that instead of oil, the engine takes maple syrup. With that being said, the Black Baron is not a suitable name. The car shall now be dubbed, "The Hoser."

I finished my second year of seminary and have two left, God willing. I even got a 'B' in my really hard Greek class that I was worried about passing! Now I am taking an online theology class this summer. I found a coffee shop in Crosslake, MN that has wi-fi so I'll be doing coursework from Northern MN this June.

The marathon is 3 weeks from today! I am excited and pretty nervous now. I haven't done many long runs yet because things always kept coming up (sickness, final exams, bad weather). Last Monday, I tried to run 16 miles, but when I was 8 miles from home it started downpouring (with lightning) and the temperature dropped from 60 degrees to 40. I was soaked and freezing, so I stopped at a nearby rec center and called Jess to come pick me up so I didn't die. So either tomorrow or the next day I am attempting a 20 mile run.

Finally, (and I mean finally) I got a job yesterday! I start working this afternoon as a pizza delivery driver for Papa John's in Highland's Ranch (a.k.a. Tiptown).

Oh! And Jess and I have an anniversary coming up on May 29th! It will be our 3 year anniversary!

Fenway Park Fans

Hilarious.

The First/Last Great Journey of the Black Baron

Yep. I think that's a pretty good name for the new car my mother-in-law, Sara, is graciously letting me apprehend. The Black Baron. Of course, I said that I'd have a car-naming competition, but I'm pretty sure that after not writing on this blog for a couple weeks there are approximately zero readers. So, executive decision: the car shall be named The Black Baron. (If you haven't caught on, the car is black.)

I'll be flying back to Minneapolis on the 24th and driving the car back on the awe-inspiring stretch of I-80, travelling through Iowa and Nebraska, on the 26th. I'll take lots of pictures.

Oh, and my 1st sermon went well. I'm deep into sermon #2 right now. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

As I Pass in and out of Consciousness...

I remember that 12 miles is not even half a marathon. Argh.

SermonCarContest

I'm waist deep in my James sermon right now. This Monday morning, I'll be preaching a 1/2 hour sermon on James 2:14-26 - Faith and Works. I've got it almost entirely written out. I have to turn in a word-for-word manuscript and then preach without notes of any sort (though I may have an outline on the back of my eyelids).

Oh, and here's some news on the job front:

When I lost this job, I started to think about other things I would like to do part time. As previously mentioned, I really wanted to deliver pizzas, but we were worried about it killing our only car. When I delivered pizzas in college, it killed both The Chief and Hercules.

So I was praying about what to do. Then, out of the blue, Jess's mom called her up (before she knew I had lost my job) and asked if we wanted her car because she would be buying a new one! God definitely answered that one quickly! I'll have to think of a good name for the car when we get it at the end of April or so.

Maybe I'll post a picture of it and have a car-naming contest. I'll think of a sweet prize. Like I could post the winner's picture on the blog and have it surrounded by little shimmering stars and the caption could say something like, "Hey! Good job!" or "Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" Boy, that would be great.

Now it's bed time.

A Lot/Little Has Happened/Not Happened

Well, for starters, I no longer am working with the young man with developmental disabilities. For some reason (no one has any idea why) his anxiety was starting to rise every time I came to work with him. (This is weird because this didn't happen until after about 8 months.) So that was weird to lose a job out of the blue, but I'm really okay with it. The training and paperwork and some of the peripheral issues were getting pretty stressful, so it's actually freeing to be done with those things. I'm probably going to start delivering pizzas again. (Good pay - free pizza).

In other news, we got stood up by the Mormon missionaries. I don't know why, but we were actually looking forward to talking with them. Back in La Crosse, we and some friends of ours played whiffleball with some Mormon missionaries and we think they let us win. I might post the results of some of our Mormon research if anyone is interested in what we were going to say.

The marathon training is going well(?). I've had to cut back on my mileage a bit because my shins and knees are hurting, but I've managed 84.1 miles since 2/12. This isn't as many as Phil, but there is something to be said for quality over quantity. And high altitude. (Actually Phil is the trendy pick to win it all.)

Today my weekly long run was 9 miles. I haven't run that far in 8-10 years. I managed to run the whole thing without breaking my legs. While I was running, I was listening to a program about near-death experiences. I think I also had one at about mile 8. I can't wait to cross that finish line and be done with this whole crazed idea. I think I'll take up something easy next, like birdwatching.

That's all for now.

#1

Welcome to my brand new blog. Since our family blog is dedicated to just that (well, really to Silas), this blog is where I'll post things about myself - marathon complaints, things I've learned in school, fish I've caught, or whatever is on my mind.

I thought I'd start by posting a picture of a guy on a McDonald's cup who looks exactly like a cross between my friends Ben Cosgrove and Mike Degrood.

In other news, a couple of LDS (Mormon) missionaries might be coming over to our apartment in the next couple of days to talk to us. Why not? I'll keep you all (though no one reads this yet) posted.