Operation: Bacon

Where to begin...

This is a sensitive and yet comedic subject, so I will do my best to bring some humor as well as an open-mindedness to this post.  At any point while reading this, should you find it offensive, please refer back to "...I will do my best...", above.

I have nothing against vegans.  I respect their choice just like I respect the decision of those people who smoke or drink or drive Mazda Miata's.  One thing I don't like about any group of people in any situation is when they pass judgement on those who don't adhere to their beliefs.  Get off yer high horse and don't take yourself so seriously, okay?  Thanks.

Camera Crew and I ran the Race For The Animals 5k this morning, a run organized by Northwest VEG.  They are a Portland-area group that endorses the vegan lifestyle - they attend health fairs; hold vegan potlucks and other gatherings; educate health professionals; and help people who are considering this path by answering questions and providing literature/guidance.  Check them out at www.nwveg.org  On the website, under their mission statement, it says:
"It's a very powerful choice to respect your body, the earth and other beings."

I disagree with the 'body' and 'other beings' part.  Man has been eating meat since the day we figured out how to catch it.  It's part of the balance of nature.  This should be a responsible process, though.  I try to learn and know where my beef, chicken, pig, lamb, fish, etc comes from by buying direct from those who are raising the animals.  I avoid:  chemically enhanced meat or 'forced fed to fatten', and I refuse to eat veal.  I strive to be learned about what I am consuming.  Same goes for my fruits and veggies.  I believe this is the way it was centuries, centuries and more centuries ago, and I love seeing a gradual return of 'food awareness'.  People are getting smarter and the providers of said food stuffs are taking notice.  It's fantastic, really.

I consider myself to be an indirect vegetarian - I eat things that eat plants.  Okay, that's silly, I know.  Seriously, I use as a guideline author Michael Pollan's food advice, seven little words:  "Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants."  Yes, I fail a little at the last one - I enjoy bacon and pork and beef and...  Sometimes too much, but CC keeps me in check.  We eat 'veg only' meals a night or two a week.  Like tonight's dinner, for instance.

Today's race was fun and well done and there was no judgement passed on me or Camera Crew.  But that's because we were undercover!!  Everyone there thought we were one of them!  We considered wearing bacon logo'd clothing as a joke but I'm glad we didn't.  It may have been humorous on some level, but it would have been disrespectful as hell.  We did see the funniest damn shirt, though.  A woman (who looked very sad to me) was wearing a t-shirt that had a cute little pig on it.  The shirt read "Bacon had a mom".  I couldn't stop laughing, especially when Camera Crew said "If I had that shirt, I would put on the back '...and she was delicious."  The shirt is an example of the judgement thing I mentioned before.  Go ahead and be vegan, wear a shirt that says 'I'm vegan and I'm proud' or 'I don't eat bacon' - but don't wear a shirt like this one that is very blatantly laying a guilt trip on everyone who has ever eaten bacon.  The shirt may as well have said 'I am better than you.'  As stated, don't take yourself so seriously.

Besides, I think she was sad because she couldn't eat bacon.  That would make me sad.

We had some fun pre-race, shooting some videos for this here blog.  Poking fun at the vegans.  Don't take any of it seriously.  The race started late - not sure why, other than the race directors kept letting people wander up to register instead of cutting it off to start on time.  It also seemed that the volunteers were showing up in random packs.  There was lots of frantic explanation of what to do, then shooing them off toward their area of responsibility.  Our worry was that it was getting hot(!) and we wanted to get done so we could head home.

Mt. Tabor is a beautiful park.  Portland is the only major US city to have an extinct volcano within its city limits - that be this one.  The neighborhood surrounding the park is filled with nice streets, great homes, lots of trees.  It would be a nice area in which to live.  The park itself has a huge network of trails - paved, gravel and single track.  It has a great playground and views of the city.  

The 10k runners went out and we started 15 minutes later - all in all, about 25 minutes late.  The course started up hill, about 50 yards, then we dropped down a hill, ran on the flat for a bit, then dropped some more.  It was fine and all, except we knew we would need to gain all the elevation back to get to the finish line.  Ugh.  The part of the course that was in the trees was nice but there was plenty that was in the direct sun and it was toasty.

We hit the one mile mark and I checked my watch to make sure I didn't go out too fast, which has been a problem lately - 8:47.  No way in heck I was running that pace, not even 20 years ago.  The mile marker had been placed in the wrong spot, obviously.  As much as I like to know the mileage so I can check time and pace, I didn't bother looking the rest of the way.  It was kinda nice, actually.  We looped around three of the reservoirs and then started to climb back up to the top.  Although we descended in a series of short downhills, apparently the climb back up was going to be one long hill.

There was a little walking on this hill, probably because of the BBQ PULLED PORK SLIDERS and the HAMBURGER I had for dinner the previous night.  Mmmmm... so good.

Take that, vegan course lay-er outers.

I could hear the noise at the finish so I picked up my pace, especially when I heard someone trying to pass me.  No way, buddy.  I didn't have the energy to ham it up but his goose was cooked.  He probably has a beef with me but he was too chicken to say anything.  

Camera Crew finished right behind me, then we stood there sweating a LOT and hoping for a breeze.  We had a little food - grapes, peanut butter and bread, bananas.  After cooling off a little and drinking a fair amount of water, we walked down to the car and made our way home.  It was a beautiful race, albeit a little disorganized.  We're glad we did a race this weekend, too!  

Next up, we do '4 on the 4th', a four miler on Independence Day.  Then we head out of town for the Wallowa's to run the Lostine River 10k, just north of Joseph, OR - way over where Oregon, Washington and Idaho meet.  Never been there - I hear it's stunning.  We'll do some mountain biking, too - and we're sleeping in a tepee!!

See ya!