Extreme ultra-runner Naresh Kumar came to the United States from his native India two years ago. Within his first months here he trained for and easily completed a road marathon.
However, he quickly fell off the deep end once he started running in Vibram Five Fingers and found trails. He started doing every ultra he could find in his trusty rubber-toe shoes. He all of a sudden had completed dozens of ultras, including a couple of 10o milers and the Vol State 500K foot race, along with many others.
Then he added extreme cycling, rock climbing, helicopter lessons, and anything he could find to try to satisfy his savage desire for adrenaline and fun.
He then started doing these crazy ultras in Bedrock Sandles.
During this time he became friends with the wicked King of Pain Gary Cantrell, better known in the running community as the sinister Lazarus Lake. Lake known for covering hundreds of miles in his prime just for the heck of it, solo, is the founder of the Strolling Jim 40 Miler, a cakewalk compared to his other creations – The Barkley (toughest ultra-marathon in the world with 11 finishers since it’s inception years ago) and The Last Annual Vol State 500K which covers a brutally hot and humid Tennessee for 314 miles in July.
Today, I was scrolling my Tweets when I saw one from my good friend Naresh that had him holding a plate of what looked liks soft-serve frozen yogurt from Ryan’s Steakhouse except it wasn’t yogurt…
It was a skinned Rattlesnake that Lazarus was preparing for Naresh to eat.
Below, you will see the blow by blow pictures of the rattler being skinned, deep-fried, and served to Naresh to eat. The final picture in the series being a medicine bottle, as a souvenir of his decision to dance with the Dr. Kevorkian of ultra-madness – Lazarus Lake in his Bell Buckle, Tennessee kitchen.
Anyone else for some deep-fried rattlesnake?
You can follow Naresh Kumar on Twitter @iamarunr
He is also RIF #2 in Run It Fast – The Club