Summer Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Fresh grilled cheese sandwiches lay neatly cut and stacked beside a tray of perfectly cooked and steaming bacon.

And on the tray beside that? Skittles.

This was mile 30 of a 100 mile ultramarathon, a 100 mile ultramarathon! My first, what am I doing?!

My breathing was steady, yet my knees and calf muscles began to ache. It'd be irrational to think they wouldn't. I mean, if we experience pain sometimes, it is probably okay? No, it is better than okay, it builds character.

"Pine Creek Challenge." They said. An easy race in Pennsylvania for newcomers to Ultramarathon they said. There is no such thing as running an easy 100 miles.

Without thought, I separated a pristine and glowing grilled cheese sandwich's top slice to add what was on the adjacent tray... Bacon. I need the calories, right? I am running 100 miles, at least my mind said.

We don't always have to win. I certainly wasn't looking at grilled cheese sandwiches while expecting to win a race. Sometimes the greatest learning experience can come from when we put ourselves in an uncomfortable situation.

What is more uncomfortable than a marathon 26.2 miles? A 50k or 31 mile ultra, checked this box, figured it out by this point... A 50 mile ultramarathon run? It hurts a little more, but check that by this grilled cheese we are reading about...

And, moving forward, what is harder than running 50 miles? 100 miles. Whelp, here I am facing beautiful sandwiches during my first 100 mile race against... Against myself. Just as the challenges we face are always between ourselves, nobody else. You must figure out how great of an outcome YOU can have on anything YOU choose to face. What happens when we take the harder and higher route constantly?

Back to that day-- that 30 mile aid station with grilled cheese: I grabbed some bacon ravenously, placing it atop the savory, oh so savory cheese...

It was time to be closing my now enhanced grilled cheese deluxe. An answer to that primal call of increasing hunger and instant gratification.

But that was when the colorful tones of a third tray of Skittles brought back my inner toddler as my brain's amygdala clapped in approval: "Yay, put Skittles on the sammich too!"

In an Ultramarathon, you shouldn't stop and think. So I did the only reasonable thing. I glomped a handful of Skittles and closed this unique grilled cheese sandwich once more.

Desperate times called for desperate measures... I needed to eat as many calories as quickly as possible, right? So obviously, what's better than grilled cheese? A Bacon-Skittle -Grilled Cheese!

Off to running; I took a bite and could not hold back my joy "What five star chef put those trays together!"

It was hands down the greatest tasting meal I have ever had. And yes, I have eaten at Michelin 5 star restaurants.

How could the multitude of sweetness in five distinct Skittles flavors, two savory American cheese slices, the six different umami flavors of bacon, lactones of butter inevitably equating to a unique sweet and fattiness impact perfectly on the great human taste buds palliative abilities?... I will never know, but with the highlight of a perfect bitterness of grilled butter tinged bread that accumulates to a symphony melting together in this amalgamation of life experience, I found out a few things...

Be it the 100 miles of running or not influencing this great sandwich or not. I choose not to eat the greatest sandwich I have ever had in a summer again.

Moreover, we have no reason to prove things that were great in our lives. The only thing we should always choose, well, to try something that makes us go outside our comfort zone.

If we live the same day in and out and refuse to try that which is 'abnormal' in our minds. Well, we may never find who we could actually be. What happens when we remain open to try everything and stop judging everyone? In my bacon-skittle-grilled cheese single meal during a 100 mile run.... Whelp, I will only have the experience again if food aligns at an aid station while running 100 miles.

Memories are personal to all of us and they are a precious experience just for you! Be you.