My Name Is Jasper

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Make his fight on the hill in the early day

Constant chill deep inside

Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey

On the fight, for they are right, yes, by who's to say?

For a hill men would kill, why? They do not know

Stiffened wounds test there their pride

Men of five, still alive through the raging glow

Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

For Whom the Bell Tolls – James Hetfield (76)

I take a bite. In a matter of seconds my taste buds take me on a rollercoaster of flavours as my teeth pierce their way through a lukewarm bun, chilling lettuce, tomato and other veggies, melted cheese and the warm, tasty meet. Juices start to flow freely over my hands as I tear the succulent heart in multiple pieces. I thank whoever came up with the brilliant idea to mash together all key elements of a main course into one sandwich. No one really knows who can claim to be the inventor of the hamburger. He or she definitely had some affinity with the German city of Hamburg. All the inventor left out are the inseparable fries. A design flaw that was rectified by the people of Brussels, when they created the Mitraillette(77).

I know some of you smartasses will point out to me that tomatoes are not vegetables, but fruit. 'Being Smart' really is a Sacred Cow. We'll talk more about those later on, for now just know that Sacred cows make very tasty hamburgers.

Senior Director at Microsoft, and one of the best speakers I have ever heard, Tim Hynes will tell you that being smart is not the same as knowledge. He always quotes Miles Kington, saying although it might be smart to know a tomato is a fruit, knowledge is knowing not to add it to your fruit salad.

Back to that wonderful burger I'm devouring. My breakfast I would like to add. Unashamed.

It has been 3 weeks since Julie and I ran the half-marathon. And 1 week since we took off to Mexico to finally enjoy some delayed summer vacation. While Torontonians were faced with the rain and cold following Halloween, we enjoyed the good life in the Mayan Riviera.

After a week of non-stop cocktails and traditional cuisine, all the pounds we had lost in preparation for our 21 km run, were gained with a vengeance. And now it was time to go back home.

The half-marathon had been a great, but painful experience. I had twisted my knee in a soccer game 2 days before the race, but with the help of a knee brace, a thundering playlist, Julie running next to me and 1000's of people cheering us on, we finished 2 hrs and 20 min after the start shot was given that cold October morning.

The marathon was created for the first modern-day Olympic Games, held in Athens in 1896. It is based on the legendary tale of Pheidippides, an Athenian runner during the first Persian invasion of Greece in 490 BC. When Persian king Darius 1 landed his army on the bay at Marathon, the runner was sent to the city state of Sparta to ask for help. Pheidippides ran the 246 km in a day and a half. An extraordinary achievement that is remembered yearly since 1983 by the so-called Spartathlon. The current record is held by Yiannis Kouros. He finished the race in 20 hrs and 25 min in 1984.

The Athenians had successfully blocked the Persian troops from exiting the plains surrounding the town of Marathon. Being heavily outnumbered, the army of Athens needed to stall the battle until the reinforcements from Sparta would arrive. However, before their southern brothers arrived, the Athenian hoplites were forced to fight. It is unclear what sparked the fight after a number of days of standoff, but the battle at Marathon turned into an unexpected victory of the Athenian forces over the outnumbering Persian forces. The exhausted Pheidippides, who had just returned from Sparta was sent to Athens to report the victory. Unlike his run to Sparta and back, which was well documented in Herodotus' Histories in 440 BC, Pheidippides famous last run from Marathon to Athens is most likely the product of dramatization when the story was told centuries later.