Forks Over Knives

Yesterday I did a workout on my indoor bike trainer. Its been a while since I’ve broken out the trainer, but my body needed a rest from all the running I’ve done lately. One of the things I love about the trainer is that its parked right in front of the TV, so I get to catch up on my recorded shows or watch movies on Netflix.

I secretly really enjoy watching documentaries also, but I typically only watch them while I’m exercising. I’m not exactly sure why that is. Yesterday I came across a documentary called Forks Over Knives. The movie follows two physicians who through their research have discovered that a healthy plant-based diet can prevent and in many circumstances even reverse alot of the ailments many Americans suffer from each year including cardiovascular disease, many kinds of cancer and diabetes.

Wow, definitely something to think about!

Hubby and I watched the film together again later last night and both agreed that we want to start living it again. I don’t know if that means that we will become vegetarians again, but we definitely want to take major steps towards eating a plant centered diet with minimal processed foods. I’ve always known this was the right way to go, but I also realize that sometimes you lose sight of certain things in life. Time to get back on track!

I toughed out a 6 mile run this morning, but it was a struggle today. I think my body is trying to tell me it’s tired. I actually intended to run 8, but I bagged the last 2 miles after the stars aligned for me to quit at 6. My Garmin just happened to go dead at 6 miles while I was running directly infront of where I parked my car. I took the out today.

My lunch was actually vegan today! – Creamy Avocado & White Bean Wrap.

I found this recipe on Pinterest, they have tons of vegetarian and other healthy recipes.

The original recipe can be found here.

I made the recipe more simple by cutting out some of the unnecessary ingredients like cheese. I simply shredded the cabbage and tossed it with some shredded carrots and a little Apple cider vinegar. Mashed the white beans and pureed those with garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. I painted my wrap with the bean mixture, piled on the slaw and some sliced avocado. Tada!

Mine never looks quite as good as the picture, but here’s my creation:

Super good!

Do It With What You’ve Got

Have you ever watched the show Chopped?

I’ve become obsessed with the show lately for some reason. Its another reality cooking show where someone gets voted off .. yada yada.

But what I like about the show is that the contestants are giving a basket of secret ingredients at the beginning of each round to create a meal with. You might get a basket of jumbo shrimp, grape jelly, asparagus and mayonnaise. You never know! The contestants have to make something edible out of the ingredients they were given using every one. Sometimes they come up with some really creative and unique things.

This week is going to be kind of like Chopped in my house.

With Christmas coming I’m alot shorter on  money right now than I would like to be. (Why do we continue to do this to ourselves year after year!?!) Today I really thought I needed to go grocery shopping, but when I examined my pantry, freezer and fridge I realized I have TONS of things to eat. It just doesn’t seem like I have things that go together to make a complete meal.

My challenge tonight is to use the ingredients that I have on hand to create meals for the week and save the grocery shopping until the weekend. Hopefully this will save me the $75 or so that I would have spent at the store today.

This challenge is going to get harder and harder as the week goes by and my on-hand ingredients dwindles.

Tonight I started with some random ingredients I found: potato, asparagus, spinach, mushrooms and onion and I created this:

Nothing too out of the ordinary. Grilled asparagus, baked potato, garlic bread and spinach and mushrooms sautéed in balsamic vinegar. Delish! And vegetarian to boot! (I still don’t have any meat in my house so we’ll be seeing alot of vegetarian dishes this week).

On another note, I ran the longest distance at one time today that I have run in probably 2 months.

I ran 4.5 miles in just less than 40 minutes!

It was bittersweet though because although I was able to make the whole distance, my knee was hurting quite a bit. I almost stopped at 2 miles, but then the pain eased off a little. It came back towards the end. Downhills really kill me!

Tomorrow is my MRI. I just wish I didn’t have to wait another week for some possible answers. And then what if they don’t find anything? Ugh!

Whole Lotsa Life

Forgive me blogworld, for I have sinned … its been 3 weeks since my last post.

Life has knocked me down and kicked me in the teeth and I’m barely just now finding my way up off the ground.

First, an update on my knee …

I went to the Orthopedic Surgeon about my knee a few weeks ago and they did a few xrays and told me I had arthritis. He prescribed me Naproxen to take twice a day and a couple leg exercises to strengthen my knees. He told me to come back in 8 weeks if I wasn’t any better an I wanted to do injections into the joint.

Two weeks later I called back because I was in excrutiating pain and made a new appointment. I told the doctor that I just don’t believe that I ran a 1:42 Half Marathon six weeks ago and now I have arthritis so bad that I can barely walk across the parking lot. It just doesn’t make sense! He scheduled an MRI to appease me, it will be done this coming Monday.

A big part of the reason that I haven’t blogged in so long is that I have been seriously depressed. I don’t mean a little down, but what I believe is clinical depression. I talked to one of the doctors I work with and told him how I was feeling and he told me that it was highly likely because my body has been so used to releasing endorphins for so long that now because I haven’t been running I am not releasing them as much which has caused me to become depressed. Makes perfect sense to me!

Thankfully the last few days have been better. I think that perhaps this knee issue has gone undiagnosed (or misdiagnosed, maybe?) for so long that its starting to heal some on its own. I have started running again a little at a time. I started with 1/4 of a mile … on Thanksgiving I ran 1.25 miles, yesterday I ran 1.5 miles and today: a whopping 2 miles! Whoop whoop!

So since we covered the running part of my blog, lets talk about the eating.

I have officially denounced my vegetarian ways.

I think it originally stemmed from the depression of not running and spilled over into not caring as much about anything … like what I’m eating. Or maybe it was just carrying over from eating meat while on vacation from Disney World. I don’t know.

Whatever the cause, my body (and my mind) have been craving meat lately. I started just eating a few things here and there when out at a restaurant, but this week I have progressed to buying and cooking meat at home. It feels weird.

The strange thing is that I still feel the same way as I did before. I still don’t want animals to have to die to feed me when I can eat healthfully and well without it. But for some reason I’ve had this other side of me that has been thinking things like … “what difference do just I make?” and also the thought of not wanting to deprive myself of experiencing all foods, especially since I consider myself a MAJOR FOODIE.

There are flaws in my ways of thinking. I realize this. But hey, I’m just being honest here.

I don’t know how long it will be before my conscience takes over, but for now: I’m an omnivore.

My Day in Food

I feel like I’ve been stuck in a rut lately eating the same things over and over again. I really needed some new recipes to make things exciting again. When I first became a vegetarian in January it was new and exciting and I really loved exploring new recipes that I probably would have never made when I was a meat-eater. Lately though I’ve been finding myself missing meat. Not the taste, but just the diversity of recipe options. I needed to bring some of that diversity into my vegetarian menu.

Today I did just that.

Breakfast was a bagel with a basil eggwhite omelet, faux sausage patty and sliced tomato.

It doesn’t look that unique or spectacular, but the basil in the eggwhite omelet really made the flavors pop. This dish was inspired by my need to find a use for the 4 dozen eggs that I have in my refrigerator. It was really delicous and a great way to use up a few eggs!

Lunch was a grilled veggie pizza. I’ve made alot of pizzas lately, but I haven’t been able to find a good balance between perfectly cooked veggies and perfectly cooked crust. Either the crust is cooked well and the veggies are undercooked or the crust is burnt.

I don’t know why it took me so long to figure this out but the key is to pre-cook the veggies, specifically grilling them.

I grilled zucchini slices, yellow squash, mushrooms and onions on my George Foreman grilled with a light spray of olive oil. I used a pocketless pita from Costco as the crust, and Prego as the sauce.

I made Tim’s with cheese and mine without. I baked them in the oven at 425 degrees for about 7 or 8 minutes. Soooo much better with the pre-grilled veggies!

Dinner was definitely the star of the day. I wanted to do some grilling for Labor Day, but I thought it would be difficult to find good vegetarian recipes for the grill. I finally came up with Grilled Portobello Burgers.

O … M … G!

I’ve never actually had a portobello burger before, they honestly never looked very appealing to me. I thought I’d give them a try tonight though since I was craving burgers and fries.

I marinated the mushroom caps in olive oil and italian seasoning (I forgot the balsamic vinegar that the recipe called for). They soaked up the oil very quickly.

Tim grilled the mushrooms for about 6 minutes or so and then topped them with provolone cheese. We also grilled onions and the buns.

Our burgers included: grilled bun, mushroom cap, sliced avocado, arugula (soooo much better than lettuce or spinach), and sliced tomato.

I served the burgers with baked Sweet Potato fries.

This is one of the BEST meals I’ve had in a very long time. Its nice to know that even though I’ve given up meat, I don’t have to give up really good burgers. I can’t wait to make this again and again. Its definitely going into a regular rotation. Give it a try!

I hid the last mushroom in the fridge so hopefully I can eat it for lunch tomorrow without any competition from the hubby. Hehehehe 😉

When “Vegetables” Aren’t Vegetarian

Is it unreasonable to expect that something that appears to be vegetarian to actually be vegetarian? or to at least say “non-vegetarian”, or do I seriously have to read the entire ingredient list of everything I buy? Why does meat have to be used as “flavoring”? And what do you do when you accidently buy something and later realize it isn’t vegetarian after all?

I realize the burden is mine and not the food company’s to ensure that I’m eating the foods that I want to be eating and not eating the ones I don’t, but sometimes things can get kinda tricky.

Some things I know to expect meat products in that otherwise may seem to be vegetarian, like vegetable soups for example. I know that for whatever reason vegetable soups are usually made with a base of chicken stock, or sometimes beef stock. Actually Progresso puts on their labels at the top “vegetarian” or “non-vegetarian”. I can appreciate that. But there are a few things that I have bought recently that I apparently didn’t read the label well enough and found out that what I thought was vegetarian actually wasn’t.

This one is probably my own fault, but as a new vegetarian I don’t know all of the places to find hidden animal products like someone who has been vegetarian their whole lives. Apparently beans are a very common place to find animal products, and now I know.

I’ve been buying these to make quick taco salads with on occasion. Nowhere on the front of the label does it suggest that this product may contain meat. And the nutrition label is located in very small writing on the side of the box, not even on the back. Last night as I pulled a couple of these out of the freezer to make a quick meal I finally read the box thoroughly.

Can you spot it? Chicken stock and rendered chicken fat. Not that the company intended to hide it. I obviously just didn’t read well enough. Still … what a disappointment. So for someone in my position, what do you do in this situation when you have already purchased something? I also ate one of these a couple weeks ago before I inspected the label closely enough. Do you chalk it up to an “honest mistake” and eat it but don’t buy it again, or what?

What I’ll probably end up doing is giving it away to a family member. But for me the biggest thing about being a vegetarian isn’t actually eating the meat as it is buying the meat. As Michael Pollan suggests, I want to “vote with my dollars”. Those dollars have been voted with now, whether I actually eat it or not. It all comes back to Supply vs. Demand.

Here is another example that actually pisses me off worse than the previous one: Yesterday I went to Fresh Market (our version of somewhere like Whole Foods) and bought a couple of these Smoked Eggplant Empanadas from the deli.

Sounds safe right? Well the ingredient list prints out on the label after you pick out your item and the cashier rings it up for you.

This one is much harder to find, down towards the bottom it says that the margarine contains beef fat. Since when is margarine made with beef fat? Isn’t margarine suppose to be made from vegetable oils?

I’m not trying to be psychotic about this, but I think its reasonable to expect that something that gives the impression of being vegetarian actually be vegetarian, or atleast be labeled accordingly.

I won’t even get into cooking vegetables in stock or adding ham hock and bacon to veggies. Ugh!

Moral/Ethical Question

A situation came up a couple days ago that I have spent some time thinking about and I’m curious what the blog world thinks …

If you are vegetarian than you will understand, but if you aren’t, just pretend with me for a minute …

So, you are at a restaurant and you order a dish that you expect to be vegetarian. When you receive the dish you notice it actually has meat in it … what is better at this point morally or ethically to send the dish back? or eat it? Knowing that the meat (animal) will go in the trash can if you send it back. Or by eating it that it will nourish you (therefore serving a purpose) but you will break your “vegetarian vow”.

This situation happened to my husband a couple days ago, and he chose to eat the meat so that it served a purpose instead of going into the garbage can. I can certainly understand his reasoning and rationale. However, I think I probably would have sent the dish back on principal.

What do you think?

Tonight’s dinner was a very interesting veggie plate. I made Greens and Quinoa Pie again from the March Vegetarian Times issue. It was even better tonight because I added Goat Cheese (which I didn’t have last time). I love Goat Cheese like I love oxygen!

My dinner also involved: Grilled Zucchini marinated in Feta and Sundried Tomato Dressing, Creamed Corn and Mushrooms marinated in Red Wine.

Deeeeeee-wish-cious! (As Lincoln says).

Well, Its Not a VitaMix …

What an eventful day! I woke up this morning and ran outside to get the newspaper (ok, I lie … I made Tim go get it) to see the article about me that was published in the Montgomery Advertiser. How awesome! I still find it strange that people find me particulary inspiring or motivating. Don’t get me wrong … I’m glad they do, but I truly believe that anyone can do what I have done. Its just takes time and dedication. The dedication is the hard part, time will pass either way.

Anyway … Tim has been begging me to make my Sweet Potato Pancakes again so I decided today was his lucky day. There really isn’t any specific recipe involved, I just used Bisquick per the box instructions and added mashed sweet potatoes, cinnamon and brown sugar. As usual I didn’t measure anything. I made enough to feed an army! I like to freeze them and reheat them for quick meals in the mornings. Hey, if Aunt Jemima can do it so can I.

After breakfast I packed up all the meat in my deep freezer to give to my friend Nicole. Most of you know that I became a vegetarian about a month and a half ago after seeing the movie Food Inc and taking a 30 Day Pledge to Be Veg. (Missed that? Read about it here and here.) I couldn’t believe how much meat we had!

Honestly I had mixed feeling about getting rid of it. Now I’m glad that its gone though. I can work on filling up my deep freezer with healthy foods 🙂

Lunch today was leftover Vegetarian Chili from dinner last night. Another simple recipe-less meal, and this one no one would ever know it was meatless unless you told them. I started making this while I was on Weight Watchers to cut down on the fat and calories in chili and it was so delicious that I’ve been making it this way ever since.

My chili contains:

• 2 cans of chili beans, 1 can of kidney beans
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 can of mushrooms (optional)
• 1 package of Boca Crumbles (found in the freezer section, sometimes difficult to find but Publix has them) or any other ground meat replacement.
• Chili seasoning packet
• 1 chopped onion

I put all the ingredients in a crockpot and cook it on high for 4 hours or low for 6. You really can’t mess it up! Serve on top of tortilla chips (baked ones work well) with a little cheese and a dollop of sour cream.

Lincoln has been begging to see his Nana and Papa lately, so after lunch we took him for a visit. They were kind enough to keep him while Tim and I went for a quick run. I actually intended to run 8 miles today, but time slipped away from me and I only had time to fit in 4 miles. We went to a new track at Auburn University Montgomery, I’ve actually been to the track once but Tim hadn’t been yet. Its a 2 mile loop that is mostly asphalt, but there is a section that is gravel.

The weather was absolutely perfect!

The track is actually right beside my old nursing school, which brings back a lot of memories.

After our run we raced (no pun intended) over to Costco before they closed to get a few items. We stocked up on hummus, tzatziki, fruit, milk, veggie burgers, and cashews. Really random … I know. But the thing I was most excited about was the Blendtec Blender demo they happened to have going on while we were there.

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I’ve been drooling over the Vita-Mix Blender for a couple of weeks now. (Post here). I was turned off by the heavy price tag but still determined that one day the Vita-Mix would be mine! Well, my dream came true today … sorta. I watched Anthony, the Blendtec dude, demonstrate the blender for atleast half and hour. He made me ice cream, soup, flour from rice, corn meal from popcorn kernels, italian ice, and juice … and I was IN LOVE! (With the blender, not Anthony … well … maybe).

Tim ok’d it (actually he insisted), so we took this baby home!

The new love of my life!

I used my new Blendtec to make Homemade Black Bean Burgers for dinner tonight. I put in all the ingredients and blended it all up and then shaped it into burgers. I served my burgers with a side of sweet potato fries. Yes, I ate sweet potatoes twice today. What can I say? They are so versatile!

Now its time for Big Love! And maybe some homemade icecream … hmmm. 🙂

Food Philosophy

Breakfast this morning was extra specially delicious! I had some leftover veggies that I needed to get rid of so I made up this concoction:

A whole wheat breakfast burrito. My burrito contained:

• broccoli
• onions
• mushrooms
• zucchini
• 1 egg & 1/4 cup Egg Beaters
• Cheddar cheese

First I sauteed the veggies in a little olive oil.

Then I poured the Egg Beaters and Egg on top and topped with cheese.

I scrambled it all up a bit and wrapped it in a whole wheat tortilla. I had salsa on the side for dipping, but I actually liked it better without the salsa.

Since today is the last day of the Pledge to Be Veg challenge, I have spent alot of time today thinking about my food philosophy. I’ve considered the pros and cons of being vegetarian over the past 30 days, and debated to what extent I’ll continue this lifestyle.

Some of the things I have enjoyed about my vegetarian diet over the past 30 days are:

1. Knowing that no animals were killed to provide my food.
2. Experimenting with new recipes.
3. Exploring new vegetarian friendly restaurants and dishes.
4. Maintained my weight without counting calories/points or additional exercise.
5. Learning about nutrition and finding alternate sources of protein, B12, and iron.

There were very few things that I found as negative aspects in the past 30 days, but here they are:

1. Went to a pizza party with no vegetarian options (cheese wasn’t provided).
2. Made my family uncomfortable during family dinner at my grandmother’s house (she cooked 2 of each dish, one with meat and one without).
3. Constantly being asked, “why did you decide to become vegetarian?” and “where do you get your protein?”.

The cons that I faced were easily remedied. In the first instance, I simply did not eat pizza and when I left I stopped by Salsaritas and picked up a veggie burrito. In the second case, I felt bad that my grandmother went out of her way to make two different versions of each dish. I let her know that I appreciated it, but that I could have found plenty of food otherwise. And thirdly, I think its normal for people to be curious about something they consider different, especially when they have always known me as a meat-eater.

Where do I go from here?

Tim and I have both decided to continue our vegetarian diets to varying degrees. We agree that we have not missed meat, and that we can’t imagine ever eating chicken, beef, or pork again. Tim has decided to continue eating fish. I don’t plan on eating fish, although I’ve previously stated that I can’t imagine giving up sushi. I feel that fish are living creatures just like other animals that feel pain and suffer just as much as cows, chicken or pigs. I have also realized that there are excellent sushi rolls out there that don’t include fish.

I have not completely decided whether or not to eat mollusks. I feel like they are more like advanced plants than animals. They have nerve bundles instead of brains and don’t think or feel like other animals. Therefore I don’t feel a moral or ethical urge to not eat them. Some say that because these creatures have “eyes” that they are animals, and that you can’t be a vegetarian and eat them. I care less about being labeled as vegetarian than I do about making my own decisions and understanding why I made that decision. Basically, I don’t want to refuse to eat something simply because “I’m a vegetarian”. One day perhaps I’ll be proven wrong, or I’ll learn something I didn’t know and I’ll change my mind on this point, but for now I don’t have any problem eating mollusks.

The Vegetarian vs. Vegan Debate

I have no intention of becoming vegan at this point. I understand the reasons why people do, but at this point I don’t have the time or the energy to devote to planning vegan meals. I also feel like being Vegan would severely limit other aspects of my life. I feel that its reasonable to expect that I can find vegetarian friendly meals to eat in almost any scenario no matter where I am, but I don’t feel the same about veganism. I think it would be extremely difficult to consistently find vegan meals to eat while out in public, at friend’s houses, at family dinners, etc. But I do want to take some steps to reduce my milk, egg and cheese consumption at home.

My dad raises a few chickens on his land and my family eats their eggs. The chickens on my family’s farm are fed healthy diets, have room to move freely and aren’t caged. They do live in a large pen, but they have PLENTY of room. I will try to use only eggs from my family’s farm whenever possible. I usually get a few dozen eggs whenever I see my family, but that isn’t always possible.

I will use dairy-free milk at home whenever possible. I’ve really enjoyed trying almond milk and I recently bought some rice milk to try. This would be one easy way to reduce the amount of animal products we use at home. However, I have a one year old son and I will keep giving him cow’s milk until he’s older.

I started off becoming interested in vegetarianism because of the movie Food Inc., but after I did some research I learned that there were so many good reasons to be a vegetarian. I could list them out, but I really like this video.

So that’s that.

Lunch today was a yummy hummus, sprout and cucumber sandwhich with a bowl of V8 Butternut Squash soup.

I’m looking forward to a good run today. Hopefully I’ll be meeting up with my friend, Bailey, for a run in the park later. Having runner friends rocks! I wish I had more of them.

Lentil Loaf

My desires for the Vita Mix have not subsided as the day has progressed. Tim told me to go ahead and buy one, which was quite tempting I must say. I’ve been watching more videos and lusting. It will be mine!

Lunch was a Tofurky Wrap and chips and salsa. What is Tofurky you ask?

Its exactly what it sounds like it would be, tofu deli slices. I’m not a big fan of eating alot of tofu to replace meat, but I do like to try new things so I gave it a shot.

My wrap contained:

• Spicy Brown Mustard
• Lettuce Salad Blend
• Italian Tofurky
• Swiss Cheese

It was ok. Not great, not bad. I think the Italian flavor was a little overpowering, perhaps the hickory flavor would have been better.

A couple hours after lunch I did a 5 mile tempo run, treadmill style, while Lincoln napped. I did a 1 mile warm-up at 6.5 mph (9:15 pace), 3 miles at 7.2 mph (8:20 pace), and a 1 mile cooldown at 6.5 mph. I have to say, it was HARD again today. It was only through pure will and determination that I was able to complete it. I don’t know what’s up with my difficult runs lately, its very unusual. Lets hope this doesn’t continue!

After my run I did a series of arm weight exercises. I did 3 sets – 10 reps of:

• tricep kickbacks
• lateral raises
• curls
• overhead press

As promised I made Lentil Loaf for dinner tonight. I was quite skeptical, but I’m always up for trying something new. It was delicious! Tim and I both really enjoyed it.

Ingredients

• 1 1/8 cups green lentils
• 2 1/4 cups water
• 6 slices white bread, torn into small pieces
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 packet dry vegetable soup mix
• 1/3 cup dried bread crumbs

Directions

1. Combine lentils and water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until tender, about 40 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.
3. In a large bowl, mix together 2 cups cooked lentils, bread, eggs, broth, tomato paste, basil, garlic powder, black pepper, parsley, olive oil, and dry soup mix. Spread into prepared pan.
4. Bake for 40 minutes. Sprinkle top with dry bread crumbs, and continue baking another 10 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

I used a 1 pound bag of dried lentils, which ended up being enough to make 3 loaves! I froze the 2 extras. Of course in typical Amanda fashion I changed the recipe quite a bit. I used 1 more egg than the recipe called for for each loaf, I used ketchup instead of tomato paste, I dumped in whatever herbs I had on hand (oregano, thyme, garlic powder), I sauteed onions, mushrooms and green peppers and added it into the mix. I used one Onion Soup pack and one Vegetable Soup pack. I didn’t measure a single thing, but it turned out amazing!

I served the loaf with: sour cream and chive scalloped potatoes, turnip greens, and some very overcooked asparagus. Whoops!

I went through our pantry today and packed up everything I could find that contained meat. Tim took it to a food donation center today on his lunch break.

I’ll discuss more later when the Pledge to Be Veg is officially over but chicken, pork and beef are no longer food in my household. 🙂

Mercedes Half Marathon Weekend 2010

Around noon yesterday my mom and neice met Tim and I, and we headed two hours north to Birmingham for the Mercedes Half Marathon. Before we headed out my mother-in-law brought over a vegetarian lunch for us. The idea of cooking vegetarian anything is very foreign to our family so it was really special.

Antipasto, Macaroni & Cheese, and Fruit Salad:

The packet pick-up for the race was at the Health & Fitness Expo at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center. I got really excited when we started seeing all the race signs around town.

Tim and I stopped to pose beside one of the signs outside the Expo after picking up our packets.

At the Expo I picked up: a tshirt, a pair of sunglasses, a Spibelt (awesomest thing ever) and a pair of socks.

Once we picked up our packets and stopped for a few photo ops, we headed to our hotel. The race website listed the Sheraton hotel as the place to stay because of their special Race Weekend Rates and the very close proximity to the start  line. Basically you walk out of the hotel and are at the start line. But Tim and I get free rooms at Hampton Inn because of all the traveling he does for work, so we opted for the Hampton instead. I was a little nervous at first that we might not be close enough to the race, but once we located the hotel I realized that we were just as close as the Sheraton, just one block over. Score!

I grew up in Birmingham and my very favorite restaurant of all time is there, Surin West. Naturally we headed there for dinner last night. Between race weekend, Valentine’s weekend and it being a Saturday night we had a 45 minute wait for our table, but it was totally worth it. This was my first time going to Surin as a vegetarian and while I did miss my favorite Snow Crab sushi roll (Zwai Gani), I was able to find some delicious alternatives. We pigged out!

We shared egg rolls and vegetable tempura maki for our appetizers:

The maki was the definite winner. It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I order Tofu Massaman for my entree and Tim ordered Tofu Pad Thai.

I also had 3 beers with dinner. Probably a bad idea the night before a Half Marathon, but oh well … life is for living! Once we finished our dinners we headed back to the hotel, prepped everything for the race and went to bed early.

My alarm went off at 4:30 this morning. I like to have ample amounts of time before a race to wake up, dress, eat and mentally prepare. We headed up to the free hotel breakfast at 5:00 and I had a bagel with cream cheese and water for my pre-race breakfast.

We stopped a couple times on the way to the start line for a few more photo ops. I particulary love this picture of me infront of the reflective pools in Linn Park.

Once we got situation at the start line I felt very emotional for some reason. I didn’t feel this way at my first Half, but seeing the HUGE crowd of people all gathered together to run for various reasons really got to me. I was also very nervous and proud for Tim who was running his first Half today. I didn’t have long to think about these things before the race got underway though.

I flew through the first 5 miles just amazed at the large crowds, onlookers, TV crews, etc. When I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I had already gone 5 miles I couldn’t believe it! Miles 5-9 weren’t bad at all either. Around mile 9 I started really needing to go to the bathroom, but I figured at that point that I could make it to the end. Part of me wanted to not drink anymore water/gatorade because I didn’t want to make matters worse, but I also knew I needed the hydration. I was trying to find a balance between the two. I knew my time was good to set a new PR and I didn’t want to mess that up by waiting in line for a Port-O-Potty. So I kept going.

Alot of the course was uphill then downhill, uphill and downhill, there were some flat parts but alot of hills. There were people everywhere with inspirational signs just when I needed it. One in particular that made me laugh said, “Keep going, the Kenyans are just ahead.”

Around mile 10.5 I knew I was getting blisters on my feet and by mile 11 they were really really hurting. I kept telling myself, “just 2 more miles, just 2 more miles” … “just 1 more mile, you can do 1 more mile can’t you?” Lesson learned: never wear new socks during a race that haven’t been tried out before. They were way too thin and my foot was rubbing against the bottom of my shoe.

Another inspirational thing that came to my mind when things were getting really tough was my mom telling me to “run with your heart, not with your body”. My mom was a marathoner in her day and she loved being able to see me run this race. Just when I thought I wasn’t going to see my family along the race course and when things were the toughest, I spotted my mom and my neice in their bright pink jackets at Mile 12.

Thats me waaaay in the back with my arms in the air when I saw my family. I was pumped!

I ended up finishing in 1:45:32! I beat my previous Half Marathon time by more than 7 MINUTES!

My splits were:

Mile 1 – 8:01
Mile 2 – 7:55
Mile 3 – 7:45
Mile 4 – 7:56
Mile 5 – 8:15
Mile 6 – 8:06
Mile 7 – 8:22
Mile 8 – 8:18
Mile 9 – 7:55
Mile 10 – 8:05
Mile 11 – 8:00
Mile 12 – 8:00
Mile 13 – 7:59

After the race I picked up my finishers tshirt, my medal, my free food and headed back to the hotel room to assess the damage to my feet. I ate: 2 small Cascadia Farms granola bars, a Snickers Marathon bar, a banana, 2 small slaws and a pack of chips and drank 2 Powerades. Crazy!

I found this jewel on my foot when I took off my shoes –

I’m happy to be back home! Although I’ll be limping on that foot for a couple days.