Julie and Julia Inspiration

saw the movie last night by the same name and was really struck by how easily Julie started a blog and it took off. My first post was in 2006, and I would say it has been on a slow jog. I was also inspired by my 5K run race this morning. For those not familiar, it is a 3.1 mile race. I've been running since 28...half my life, off and on. Off, when my weight ballooned and made my knee hurt too much. But when I returned to my low-fat vegan way of eating, the weight came off and running returned easily.

I should have been at my cousin's memorial service out of town today. It would have been different if we had been close. But I've long been considered the "health nut" of our extended family. Though it seems just plain nuts to me when so many of our diseases are so preventable with diet and exercise. It seems so nuts to undergo the knife, meds and a huge lifestyle change to accommodate preventable diseases.

My cousin joins my sister, mom aunt and best friend in falling prey to cancer. I felt the best way to honor his memory was by running the first race of the Florida running season. It's just too hot in the summer. It wasn't a walk in the park this morning either...80/80 rule was in effect. That's a temperature of more than 80 degrees and humidity more than 80%. The park was beautiful and I came in 3rd in my age group. There were 10 in that category...a much larger race than last year. With the recession, running is the new health club.

I credit my placing and 5 minute improvement over last year's time (very unusual I'm told) to my attending high school track team camp this summer for 2 weeks and continuing to work out with the team during the school year when I can. Here's the local paper's account of that: http://www.bradenton.com/roger_mooney/story/1659954.html?story_link=email_msg
As the story says, I did this to jump start my training in preparation for an Oct. 31st half marathon. It will be my first. I'll keep updating here to tell you how that goes. The camp was great in forcing me to do core exercises. Everyone says to do them, but doing them correctly and regularly is always the challenge. My goal as I cross the finish line thinking of some relative who couldn't be there, is to finish without injury.

Tonight: 2 bean burritos (Amy's), leftover eggplant/tomato soup and a Vega smoothie mid afternoon. Lunch was bagels/peanut butter, fruit and healthy goodies at the race. Breakfast was oatmeal and a few blueberries and mild green tea. Never too much before a race.