I can't imagine being a vegetarian-- I love eating meat too much. But I say that the same way that any addict says they love their fix. Eating meat is as much habitual as it is nutritional, and I'm taking an overdue look at my eating habits.

This is all prompted from a video I watched on TED.com presented by Mark Bittman about how meat production adversely affects the world. It's not a political or moral polemic, it's just a scientific look at how things would be better if we'd eat less meat.

I know that I like to BBQ, and I do enjoy how some BBQ'ed vegetables taste, so I've decided to spend a week trying to eat vegetarian via my BBQ.

After some quick Googling, I picked out a half-dozen recipes and bought all the ingredients. It was the most vegetables I'd ever bought at one time. Tonight I made mediterranean grilled vegetable sandwiches with grilled asparagus and prosciutto with orange mayonnaise (pictured above).
The verdict? The asparagus was delicious, but the mayo was a bit fatty and overwhelming. The sandwich was much more bland than I'd expected-- some fresh basil will spice it up-- and I need to use a roll, or simple split bun instead of slicing the french bread diagonally (which lets the juices leak out, and shreds the roof of your mouth). In fact, the sandwich was so bland, I had to have another to be sure.

I also really underestimated the portions. When the recipe says "serves 4," it's not like how a pack of Kraft Dinner, or a large steak can serve 4. I couldn't have eaten another bite, and I have at least two full portions of everything left over.

Funny thing: a little while after dinner, I had an orange. It was fantastic. Then I had an almost nervous tic for some chocolate; I had a brownie in the fridge given to me by a student, but after a couple of bites, I felt kind of grossed out and couldn't finish it.

Yes, that worries me too.

Lots of folks have asked me how the run went. I know this is just out of politeness, but I thought I'd wrap up what happened.

At the 1km mark, I noticed that I had run for 5:30, which would be way too slow to finish under 25 minutes. So I tried plan B: sprint for 30 seconds, then jog very slowly for 1 minute, then repeat. Plan B is also known as "a very stupid idea." After three minutes of this nonsense, I gave up and went back to just jogging slowly.

At about the 3.5km mark, I was ready to just walk for a bit, when I was passed
by a pair of cute girls with very nice butts. Their butts fell directly into my visual range, what with my head tilted pathetically toward the asphalt and all. My spirits were now buoyed, and I drafted in this fine view for the remainder of the race.

It turns out that my published race time (29:16) was the GUN race time, not my CHIP race time. My chip race time was actually 27:56, and I finished 33rd out of 176 runners in my age category. Stats like that start giving me the crazy idea that if I trained, I might be able to come first in my group. How hard could it be? Heck, I'm already in the top 20%!
When I crossed the finish line, I scooped up my free swag (juices, fruit, water, yogurt tubes, etc.), and headed straight for the free massage tent-- it almost makes running worthwhile-- but after a great 10 minute rub-down, the poor massage therapist-in-training had to wipe my sweat off the table. I forgot that your body keeps sweating after you stop running. Seems like a design flaw to me.

Then I jumped on the C-Train for the gruelling 3 minute ride home. By that time I was feeling great and wondering why I hadn't run harder...

...well, there's always the Breast Cancer run in the fall!