5K - 31:57

I did not walk.

That would be the first thing I would tell anyone if they inquired about my first 5k. I did not walk. Today was the big day. The day I've been training toward since the first of the year. A goal that seemed too far away to be real. A race my friends and I discussed numerous times over breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Would it ever get here? Yes, and I did not walk.

January's bitter cold was the antithesis of outside running. I tried jogging outside a few blocks in what seemed to be a warmer February. My lungs seized up from the bitter cold; I was defeated. But today, I did not walk. After 3 months of consistent training with weights and running on a treadmill, after shaving off several pounds, after reducing my body fat by more than 5%, I ran in the 2008 Columbia St. Patrick's Day Race.

It'd be easy for me to say that the reason I did not walk was because I had worked hard for three months, pushing myself, dedicating time, energy and focus toward my goal. But to say such a thing would be minimizing the HUGE impact of all those who have been a part of this from the start. No, I'm not going to start of by giving the cliche Oscar-esque speech. This may be sappy, but if I were to single a few people out of the numerous supporters along the way -

Stephen P: Day in and day out, you reminded my of building toward my goal. You gave me tools to track my progress and inspiration to keep me on track. Seeing your progress and hearing you talk about all your race times and experiences solidified in my mind that I can, in fact, run a 5k and not die.

Rob P: When I said I wanted to finish in under 45 minutes, you laughed. When I said I wanted to finish in under 38, you scoffed. Under 35? You still were not happy. I ran a personal best 31:57 and I feel like I can do better. Thanks for helping me change my mindset.

Mark A: Day of the race. I start out a little overzealous, maybe a bit too confident in my abilities. Out of the gate fast, but I'm tired at the quarter mile. My pace slows. I'm jogging. People are passing me. Failure begins to creep into my brain. I hear a familiar voice from behind. You ran beside me. I wanted to stop and walk on at least 4 occasions. I just wanted to catch my breath! But no. You wouldn't let me. You knew I would finish disappointed would I have stopped to walk. You ensured my months of training ended up a success on race day. You allow me to close this blog post with a phrase that has boosted my confidence in my abilities more than anything in recent memory.

I did not walk.

Why I Love Wikipedia

"Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write anything they want about any subject, so you know you are getting the best possible information." - Michael Scott, from The Office

Okay, so I don't love wikipedia because it is the best possible source of information (it is not). I love it for two reasons - it satisfies my intense curiosity for new knowledge and it allows my undiagnosed A.D.D. a safe outlet. I'm addicted to clicking on the blue links. No, I don't actually have A.D.D., but you could see where I might after seeing my most recent search history on Wikipedia.

I was watching Survivorman, and he was running from a Jaguar. I wanted to know what a Jaguar looked like and why they were so feared. Enter wikipedia. Follow my thought process.

Jaguar Wow, this guy is scary. Fast, lean, and likes an occasional swim. Jaguars are also Apex predators. Hmm, what is an Apex Predator? Follow the blue link

Apex predators pretty much kick ass. They shape their local ecological system. Not all are huge like a great white shark. They are the subject of fantastic hypothetical questions like "Who would win between a Grizzly Bear and a Tiger?" I wonder if I can find a list of all Apex Predators.

This list of Apex Predators is pretty neat. I didn't know there were so many Apex Predators. What would happen if you put them all in a hypothetical room/aquarium? I wonder who would come out. Probably not humans, which are also on the list. I wonder what wikipedia has to say about humans.

Humans are funny. This is illustrated by the funny picture of us the page. **Warning** it includes cartoon nudity. I wonder why they have that picture as an illustration for humans?

That picture is on the Pioneer Plaque, a plaque we sent into space on the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. This is a pictorial message of humanity intended for extraterrestrials. We apparently want them to know men are a happy, waving gender, characterized by bad haircuts. Women, on the other hand, are standoffish, have wide hips, and lack genitalia. We don't want to offend E.T. by making him see nudity... Also, almost no top-level scientists were able to decode this message. So, in case this one didn't work, we decided to use our super technology (at the time) to send out ...

The Voyager Golden Record. Awesome! We haven't gone platinum yet, but a golden record rocks! I had heard about this before - it's a record containing numerous things - including many songs from human history. You'll find Bach, Beethoven, and Chuck Berry, among others. Nice. According to Steve Martin on an episode of Saturday Night Live, when E.T. finds this record, their response will probably be "send more Chuck Berry."

Amen brother.

Healthy Fast Food?

So, I added some AdSense links to my blog. If you click on them, I will get money (apparently). This has not yet happened, so you must not be clicking...

Google picks these ads for me based on what is contained in my blogs. I write about eating healthy, exercise, finance, personal development, random things, etc... At any rate, I looked to see what kind of ads Google was matching to my page. Imagine my surprise when I saw this:

Healthy Fast Food
Try Wendy's New Premium Fish Fillet made w/ North Pacific Cod.
www.wendys.com

Now, I'm not sure what to make of that. First of all, gag. Second of all, is it really healthy? I decided to go to Wendy's Nutritional Facts and check it out. Wendy's happens to have a high quality site for nutrition. It doesn't let you just look at the facts in a big chart - that is not user-friendly - but rather allows you to "build" a typical meal you might eat and then see the overall nutrition you're getting (or not getting). If you eat at Wendy's ever, I recommend you check out this site. Does anyone ever visit other Fast Food websites to look at this stuff? I'd be interested to see some others. I've visited Sonic's (love their breakfast burritos) and Chipotle's (Oh wait, no nutritional facts...) and neither is very user-friendly.

Now, back to the Cod sandwich. 450 calories, 200 from fat. 22 grams of fat. 47 carbs. 1020 mg sodium. 16 g protein.
Is that healthy fast food or relatively healthy fast food? Compared to my favorite - the Spicy Chicken Sandwich - the cod sandwich almost qualifies as health food. Nearly half the calories and a third less fat than my sandwich. But alas! The Chicken Sandwich has 55 grams of protein. Take that Cod.

All this is a moot point since I eat fast "chain" food like once a month these days, but I found it very interesting. I think I'll use sites like this to build my "best option" if I do go to these places. Let's face it - fast food is cheap, convenient, and sometimes tastes like normal food. When you're drunk or hung over, it seems better than shoving $500 bills into your mouth.

Here's to drinking a ton of booze and then deciding to make healthy choices!

Ode to Paolo Nutini

"Hey, I put some new shoes on and suddenly everything is right"

Dem be my new run-eeng shoes. I be fast.