Light The Cauldron

The FIFA Women's World Cup and the Olympic Games have a very close relationship. Because of the sport's popularity in the world and the close proximity that the two have on the calendar, they are linked to each other.

Even though football is very popular, the women's events in both the World Cup and the Olympics are pretty young. The official Women's World Cup didn't begin until 1991 while women's football didn't get a place in the Olympics until Atlanta 1996. Since then, the popularity of women's football has increase, though unfortunately it will likely never reach the prominence of the men's sport.

There are differences; while the World Cup offers a place for 24 nations, the Olympics can only have room for twelve due to the time constraints. The World Cup qualification is a three year ordeal, while the Olympics get their nations from confederations cups, except for Europe! They actually will get their qualifications for the Olympics if they plac…

Wednesday was Global Running Day.

Not "National" Running Day. Global Running Day! The world celebrates running!

To celebrate, the social media for USA Track and Field tweeted this out:


It made me consider why people run. For Olympians and Olympian-caliber athletes, they run because they want to compete at a high level and win. That's easy. But why do others run? Those that aren't capable of running fast times are running for some reason, right?

Let's even broaden the question even further to include more people: Why do we exercise?

In our history, there was never a copious need to run because people in the world were too busy trying to survive! They grew crops, worked in factories, and ran businesses while eating whatever they could afford. If they didn't make money, they didn't eat. If the crops didn't grow, they didn't eat. Treats and snacks were few and far between, because the need was just to get something in the stomach.

Nowadays, much of th…

It has now been ten years since I first received my call as elementary school teacher. Back then, it
seemed like I had my whole career ahead of me. I knew exactly how it would go:

Teach in a school while doing a little bit of music stuff,
Teach in a school and do a bunch of music in the church and school, Be the music person in a church and school full-time, Compose a bunch of stuff while being the music person in a church or school, Be published in a hymnal that will be sung by thousands of people for years to come, and Conduct a really, really good choir at the WELS Worship Conference before retiring. Spend the rest of my years RV-ing around the country.

But God has other plans. I mean, God knows everything, so he knew my plans were futile. As a matter
of fact, he probably laughed at my plans when I would think about them!

God knows best.

And after ten years of thinking I was on the right track, I realized I wasn’t.

So how can that be? Didn’t I get a divine call?

Well, if you’re unfamiliar wit…

Last weekend the IAAF World Relays were held in Yokohama, Japan. This was a track-only event where different groups of athletes, from men to women and mixed, participated in many different disciplines.

For those who watched, they had a ball watching "normal" relays, like the 4x100-meter and the 4x400-meter relays, as well as specialized events like the 2x2x400-meter (one man and one woman alternate running 400-meters twice) and the 4x100-meter mixed shuttle hurdles.

The World Relays aren't held every year, and it's a special treat for many. However, these relays are now bleeding into championship events, and not all of the athletes are pleased about it.

However, the response from the fans that watched were pretty positive. At least, those who thought it was cool took to social media to talk about it:





As I've often said for many years, I adore the aspect of men and women competing together. I understand completely that men and women have different bodies and comp…

I watched seven hours of track and field today. It was the IAAF World Relays. I was so ready to write about the track-only event that had over 40 countries and 700 athletes competing in a variety of relays.

But I'm not writing about that today. Because I want to give you, the reader, some information that I wish that I had years ago:

How to buy tickets to the Olympics!

For years and years and years, I have watched Olympic games and wondered, "Why are the stands empty? If I knew how to get tickets I would be there in an instant!"

But I never knew how it worked! So the seats remained empty and I remained at home.

Until now.

I have been knee-deep in Olympics coverage since February of 2018, and because I kept my ear to the ground, I heard about CoSport, the ticket reseller for the United States and a few other countries. (Cartan Global is the primary reseller for the rest of the world, while Japanese residents simply apply on the official Tokyo 2020 website.)

In April, the…

If you're not aware, when I do race recaps, I sprinkle my blog with the names of the songs I listened to as I ran the race. If that's something you like to see, then enjoy!

This weekend marked the second time I ran the Seminary Scurry 5K, a race that takes place at our Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin. My brother is in his last year, so I wanted to take advantage of the fact that we'd be there together!

"Elevate" by DJ Khalil

A difference between this weekend and two years ago was the weather. In 2017 it was cloudy and chilly. This weekend was gorgeous. People were saying that it was probably the best weather the Scurry has ever had! (It helped that it was the first weekend in May instead of the last weekend in April.) There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the breeze was light, and it was in the 50s when we started running.

"Poker Face" by Lady Gaga

My niece was crawling back when I raced in 2017, but now she is almost three years old and ready to do…

During last week's episode of Olympic Fever, Alison and Jill discussed different ways to watch the Olympics from home. They then challenged the listeners to talk about how they choose to watch the Olympics.

I'm going to break down some of the methods that people take while watching the Summer Olympics, which contains many more events and sports crammed into seventeen days. This makes watching all of them incredibly difficult and exhausting! After I lay down the options, I'll let you know which way I choose to watch the Olympics.

One Sport and One Sport Only

For some, the Olympics are less about a conglomeration of events and more about one additional event in a sporting season. Consider soccer/football, tennis, or golf: these sports have almost year-long seasons, and the Olympics are just another event that's listed on the schedule. (Although I think most of those athletes would hesitate to call it "just another event.")

Fans of singular events might just tun…

This weekend, I did something not Olympics related. (But it has an Olympic connection - stay with me!)

I attended Star Wars Celebration, a mega convention celebrating all things Star Wars, in Chicago. If you've read my Blurbs for a few years, you know that I published Star Wars Saturday articles in anticipation of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, ran a Star Wars Half-Marathon, and participated in a Star Wars seven movie marathon!

It definitely was a no brainer to attend when I realized that the next Star Wars Celebration was only going to be a couple of hours away (and that it wasn't on Easter weekend!). Since I would still be teaching, I made it easier on myself by only buying passes for Friday and Sunday, giving me Saturday as a rest/recharge day. (Sorely needed, BTW. I'm typing this on Saturday and am so glad I have this day free.)

I felt like this was a good chance for me to experience high crowds in a large city while attending an event that we all enjoy. Kind of…