It was an ACCIDENT!!!!

Wow.... what a close call. See, I am a runner and I'm training for my 10th marathon in a few weeks. I run with a group of crazy people (some could argue we are ALL crazy to run that far) which makes the long runs go much easier. On Saturday, we were out for a 23 mile training run. When you run distances like that, your mind tends to glaze over - probably for self-preservation, to be honest. Along the way, during a bathroom break at Starbucks, one of the runners bought a low-fat latte to share. And at mile ... oh, about 13 I guess, they got even crazier and decided to dash in to Wendy's to grab a couple of burgers. Yes, grabbing a few Wendy's cheeseburgers to eat WHILE RUNNING 23 miles. Like I said, crazy.

So, here is this group of us like a pack of wild dogs and this girl in the middle passing out morsels and pieces of cheeseburgers to the others. I'm not big on fast food anyhow so I didn't really think much of it but as I looked at my friend Paul holding a 1/4 of a burger, I thought "What the heck. I'm running 23 miles today. I'll burn it off." I was justifying the FATTENING part - without even thinking of the MEAT part! He handed it over, and I took a little bite.

No sooner had a closed my lips around the little morsel in my mouth than my eyes got big as saucers and I yelled (with food in my mouth - my mother would be ashamed) "ACK! I CAN'T EAT THIS! IT'S MEAT!" (Fortunately, all my running buddies know about my "experiment") I ran about 10 feet away and spat it out on the ground. With considerable drama. I turned around to see them all staring at me in disbelief, and one said (with just as much drama) "I can not believe you spit that out. God will strike you down for that."

Later that evening, my husband and I were at a St. Patrick's Day party - a benefit for the local athletic boosters - where they were serving mostly meat appetizers, with some cheese/crackers and some fruit. It's really shameful how few party planners consider that there may be vegetarians in the crowd. This disturbs me. They did have eggrolls so I took one of those too. The lights were dim but as I ate it, I thought I might have detected some meat, but it was difficult to discern. Before getting another one, I asked my husband to inquire and sure enough, they had some pork in them. I do not feel guilty because it was an accident and once I learned of the offending ingredient, I had no more. And besides, it was punishment enough to have to watch my husband eat BBQ meatballs.