My tough man fight: how it started...

My neighbor works for a company that sponsors The Milwaukee Rumble.  It's a tough man competition run by the same guys that do the ones shown on the FX channel.  Because of my neighbor's sponsorship of the event, we had front row seats for the 2004 Milwaukee Rumble.

At these sorts of events, and I suppose sports events in general, you have people in the audience that think they can do better than the guys in the ring, on the court, or on the field.  I think alcohol kicks it up a notch, and at a tough man competition, there's a lot of testosterone in the air.  Everyone thinks they are tough at these competitions.

And it was with a good amount of beer in me that I announced to my neighbor and his boss that "I can do this."  My neighbor's boss said if I was serious, his company would sponsor me and pay my entrance fee.  I'm pretty sure they thought it was just the alcohol talking and that I didn't really have the balls to do it.  To be honest, it probably was the alcohol talking -- but I wasn't going to back down.

The next night (it's a two night competition), before I had any beer in me, I again announced "I'm going to do this thing next year" to my neighbor, his coworkers and his boss.  They kinda chuckled but still said that if I really planned on going through with it, their company would sponsor me.

That's how it all began.  And at the risk of sounding melodramatic, it was a decision that would change my life.