Beyond the Barricade - A Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Britters who moved far, far away to be close to her cousin.  In this far away land, she made some very strange friends:  Pork Chop, Banana, Vader, and Old Man Winter. 

Her cousin and friends had a curious habit called running.  Britters did not like this “running.”  She would often say, “Meh.  You won’t catch me running.  I’ll do some Zumba, thanks.”

Eventually, Cousin Erin met her true love, Navy.  One day Navy said, “Look at our friends, Britters.  They are having so much fun.  I think we should give this running a try.”  Britters replied, “Meh!  Ok, fine.”

To her surprise, Britters started to enjoy this curious running habit.  Before she knew it, she had finished several half marathons.  She enjoyed it so much, that she and Navy decided to train for their FULL marathon together.

Smart girl that she is, Britters enlisted her friends Pork Chop and Old Man Winter to aid her on her quest.  They ran and ran and ran.  Old Man Winter was so impressed with her efforts that he declared, “Fair Britters, I will journey to Atlanta with you and marathon by your side!”  Pork Chop had long since declared his intent to do the same.

Old Man Winter joins 1st Timers Navy & Britters on the epic journey

 Inspired by her friend, Britters, Vader declared, “Dearest Britters, I cannot marathon, but I shall journey with you as well and provide race support!  I will offer Vaseline, band aids, and pain spray.  I will carry spare garments, just in case.  I will chronicle this even with my digital camera.  And I will certainly cheer the loudest!”

And so it happened that Vader attended the marathon, beyond the barricade with Nick and Ninja Linh, cheering for their friends Britters, Cousin Erin, Navy, Old Man Winter, and Pork Chop as they raced the 26.2 miles to finish the quest.

Their legacy will live on forever in the race results of Georgia Marathon, but the story of their legendary race support will remain a mystery for bards.

 

Britters and Cousin Erin complete their quest

 
Congratulations to Britters and Jason on your first full marathon.  Kudos to Jeff, Erin, and Z on finishing yet another.  You all rock!  Glad that I could be there for moral support.

Congratulations to our curious little group of friends

Now, on to the next race!

Next stop:  Run the Bluegrass Half Marathon in Lexington, KY this weekend!

The Vegan Experiment

I want to start this post with some a disclaimer – we really did not do a very good job of achieving a nutrionally balanced vegan diet.  We discovered that it takes a lot more effort than we were willing to invest.  So, our experience is not really a fair commentary on a vegan lifestyle.  This is just a summary of our experience.  As a reminder, we decided to try one month of a vegan diet.  We chose February since it was the shortest month. 

Regarding the race...

The good news was that we had only been vegan for about a week, and that first week I put in the most effort toward nutrition.  Travelling was tough because it was a constant challenge to find food that meet the vegan criteria, let alone find on-the-go menu items that are good for pre-race fueling.  Incidentally, who knew that Taco Bell would be the fast food champion for vegans?

Both Jeff & I experienced a lack of energy during the race that could be attributed to the vegan diet.  I also noticed that my post-race recovery seemed to take longer.  I strongly suspect that this was due to a protein deficiency. 

 

Beyond the race...

Being vegan was much harder than I expected.  I don’t eat a lot of meat, but I do like my light dairy.  Milk was not a problem for me because I had already made the switch to almond milk, but I could not seem to find any non-dairy yogurt that I liked.

I started out trying to prepare meals, but this was hit or miss.  Why would I think that being vegan, I would suddenly become Betty Crocker?  I like to cook, but I don’t really have that much time to do it.  Our lifestyle resolves around convenience foods, which translates into vegan junk food.  By the way, did you know that there are now animal by-products in Oreos?  Who knows what type of chemicals are used to make the creamy middles, but they sure are tasty!

Dining out was particularly challenging.  We pretty much had to accept that we were not going to be ordering straight off the menu, and we had to find places where we could get solid answers on ingredients.  It is really hard to avoid dairy, whether it be milk, cheese, or butter.

Our energies levels were low for the entire month, which is what you would expect for people who are consistently failing to meet their nutritional needs.  We also found ourselves eating much more.  At the end of the day, I would be ravenous, so I would eat a lot of crap to feel satisfied.  I actually gained weight as a vegan.  Boo.

 

One of our best vegan dining experiences - the chef custom-created a meal for us!

After the first week, I was seized by a cheeseburger craving that only intensified for the rest of the month.  Did I indulge that craving as March rolled in?  You betcha! 

St Pete in Review

Second Stop:  St. Petersburg, FL

This was our second visit to St Pete.  Both visits have just been quick weekend trips, but we have found it to be a warm, friendly, and scenic locale.  On our last visit, we discovered the Dali museum.  It was quite impressive.  This visit did not include the museum, other than to run past, but I thought it was worth a mention.

Even vegan, we had some great dining experiences while we there.  After the race, we stumbled upon a wonderful little Greek restaurant, Acropolis Greek Taverna, where we had great service, great vegan friendly food, and thanks to Florida’s happy hour laws BOGO sangria!

Not sure if you’ve picked up on the fact that I like to celebrate my finishes with high quality beer.  I even have a running headband that declares, “Will run for beer.”  Across the street from our hotel was this cool looking place called the Kingfish Grill and Tap House.  (They had me at Tap House).  We suspected that it might be a challenge to find vegan fare, but decided we could at least enjoy a pint.  The menu supported our suspicions, basically we could order edamame and/or lettuce from the menu.  However, the waitress urged us to stay and consulted with the chef.  What resulted was that the chef custom-created the best vegan restaurant meal that we enjoyed during our vegan February.  If you are ever in Clearwater/St Pete, go see them!

Customized vegetable rolls was one of the items the chef created for us.

Race Review:  Rock & Roll St Pete Half Marathon

This was my second R&R race.  In2011 I participated in the Inaugural R&R Savannah Half Marathon. There are some things that are consistent to the Rock & Roll Race Series, so let me cover them first:

• True wave start - racers are placed in corrals according to your projected finish time at registration and then each group gets their own race count-down and send-off, especially wonderful for back-of-the-packers like me 
• Massive and consistent race support
• Generous half marathon time limits (time limits vary per race, see their website for details)
• A live band or DJ at least every mile
• High quality race shirts with female cut shirts for women
• Very well organized
• Great expos
• Finish line rock & roll party
• All participants are given bags for gear check . . . hmmm, maybe this could be a give-away item in the future, since I will be doing 6 R&R races this year

Now, regarding the Rock & Roll St Pete specifically . . .

The good:

• See above for many things I love about R&R races
• THE Sean Kingston was the post race headliner – I cannot express how cool it was to rock my way to the finish line with him on the stage, surely he was kickin’ it just for me J
• This was probably the most scenic course I have run to date
• The park & ride pass – we didn’t have to walk miles to the start line and we just hopped on the bus to get back to the start

The not-so-good:

• the HEAT – not the fault of the race organizers or even typical weather for St Pete in Feb, just wanted to mention it that it is a possibility for those who might be considering this race
• Expo was not as big/cool as expected - Don’t get me wrong, it is still in the Top 4 of my Expo experiences, but it did not live up to the expectation set by Savannah
• Few spectators – Savannah had a TON of spectators and it was a first-year race, but St Pete just did not have the same

I really enjoyed this race.  I have heard criticism that the R&R races are ‘”cookie-cutter.”  I’ve only done two, and while I see many similarities, they both had local flavor. 

 

Next stop:  Lexington, KY