About four and a half years ago, I signed up for the London Race for Life 5K. I had never run a mile (or even a quarter mile) and had no experience raising money for charity, but I tackled both tasks and met my goals, by running the entire 5K and by getting many generous donations. Almost exactly four years after I started training for that 5K, I entered my second-ever race -- the 100% Irish 5K -- and then a 10K, and then I got brave and trained for (and completed!) a half-marathon. That's a lot further than a 5K. And now my fund-raising goal is about to get a lot bigger, too.

There are a lot of races out there to run. As a reader of Runner's World and Running Times, I see a lot of advertisements for races all over the world, many supporting different causes. In July or early August, an info card came in the mail, advertising Team Challenge's participation in the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon. The race will be run on December 5th, and I certainly like the idea of running in Las Vegas at that time of year. But I tend to balk at fund-raising events; asking people for money puts me out of my comfort zone.

This time it's different. Team Challenge is an effort to raise funds for the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), and almost exactly six years ago, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. It's not something I tell people about; it's certainly not the most glamorous of conditions (well, it's further along the unglamorous spectrum than most diseases, anyway). But it's something that's affected me greatly over the past six years, something that's made staying healthy extra important and extra tricky.

I feel like I was extremely lucky to have been diagnosed when I was an adult; I can't imagine having to deal with the challenges of the disease as a child. But many children do have to cope with Crohn's and colitis, which is what makes supporting the CCFA and their research so important, in my mind. So I'm taking my fund-raising very seriously. To earn my place on Team Challenge, I have to raise $3,500, and I hope I can blow that out of the water.

So I decided I don't really care about my comfort zone. I'm asking you for money, because I know what a difference the CCFA can make in the life of somebody with Crohn's or colitis. If you would like to make a donation, please visit my fund-raising page. I've started strong, but meeting the goal is still going to take a lot of work. But if I can find 100 people to donate just $25, I'll have done my job. And maybe you can give more than that -- or maybe not, but every dollar counts.

I started running to get healthier and to raise money for a good cause. This campaign seems to bring it all together -- my health, the health of others, a wonderful foundation, and an amazing race. I know it's going to be overwhelming to get to Las Vegas and see so many orange Team Challenge singlets -- to know that we're all in this together!

-- I won't be able to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, and I'll miss seeing my Frankfurt friends and reading German magazines and visiting the Palmengarten and eating a LOT of baked goods. To ease my pain (just a little), I baked up a batch of Brezelbrötchen -- pretzel rolls. I wish they had turned out a little smoother and glossier (I think I should only boil one or two at a time, because I get flustered and -- I think -- leave them in the water too long), but they're very tasty. And if you're a fan of Trader Joe's peanut-butter-filled pretzel bites, just imagine a warm Brezel roll with almond butter. Oh wait, you don't have to imagine. Amazing.

-- I had the almond butter Brezel roll for dinner before heading out for my second Team Challenge run. I promise I'll write more about Team Challenge tomorrow or Friday, but for now I'll just say that I've really enjoyed the training runs. I'm not a super speedy runner, but I am more conditioned than several of my teammates, and being a strong runner in the pack is a nice change! July was a really rough running month for me, but I got my mojo back in August and am more in love with it than ever.

-- The cats are lovable and annoying in (almost) equal measure. That's averaging over both cats. Beany is probably 80% lovable, 20% annoying (and that goes to about 95%/5% as long as she stays indoors), while Birdy is... well, the opposite? But she's only seven months, and Beany wasn't the most charming when she was young, either. Birdy's sort of a jealous cat and doesn't like it when I give Beany a lot of attention. But it's not what you'd think -- she'll come over and try to steal Beany away from me. How dare Beany cuddle with me and not her!

Whew, what a weekend! The photo above has nothing to do with the weekend (it was taken this morning), but you know... post needs a photo. And it did remind me that Lena commented on a different photo of mine that featured ReddiWip, saying that seeing me eat it makes it seem 'not so bad'. It made me think that I should do a 'confessions' post, because there are quite a few processed/fake-y/'bad' foods that I love, and they're in no way off limits! But that's for another post.

Saturday: Woke up, ate breakfast, drove down to Lake Harriet for a training run with Team Challenge (that's ANOTHER post, too!). I'd already fit in plenty of miles for the week and had a race the next day, so I was happy to take it easy. I actually found myself in the position of pacing a slower runner, which is the opposite of what I'm used to! The run got started a bit late, so when I was done, I had to quickly get home, shower, and then go over to The Modern for brunch with Chris and friends.

After I had my fill of banana-nut French toast (my review: meh -- go to Key's and try their cinnamon French toast instead), Chris and I walked downtown so I could pick up my race packet for the following day. Of course, once we were down there and I remembered it was International Read Comics in Public day, we had to make our way to Big Brain to pick stuff out. (I got the first American Elf book, FYI -- I'm a dedicated reader of James' on-line strip.) On our way back, we stopped at the mostly-closed Mill City farmers market, where I bought an ice cream cone -- orange sorbet mixed with vanilla ice cream (made by Sonny's and AWESOME!).

By the time we got back to Chris', we'd walked over four miles, and I had been wearing my Vibrams. I made myself an afternoon cocktail, read my comics, and took a nap. Then we went to Holy Land for dinner (okay, this time I mean it when I say I'm done with their falafel -- Big Marina Deli is SO much better). We watched Fantastic Mr. Fox in the evening, and it was charming.

Sunday: Woke up, ate breakfast, loaded up my bike and drove downtown for the Minneapolis Duathlon. I registered for the fun course (1.5-mile run, 11-mile bike, 1.5-mile run) in July, when I thought I might want to get into multi-sport events. In the meantime, I realized I'm a runner through and through and that I hate riding a road bike. So... I was sort of dreading the duathlon, even though it was a short one. I decided last week to just ride my heavy cruiser hybrid (the race was very welcoming to all abilities and bikes), which was a great choice, in the end. My road bike, which had just been to the bike shop on Tuesday, had a completely flat rear tire Sunday morning! Dumb.

Some of my Daily Mile friends were also competing in the duathlon, including my Ragnar teammate Cristy. We had a lot of downtime between setting up our bikes in the transition area and the actual start to our waves (we both did the fun course, which started fairly late in the morning), and it was great to have a running buddy to keep me company! We met up again after the race, at a restaurant downtown that was giving racers free cake and champagne. Best post-race food ever! I had only my phone with me, so those pictures I linked to aren't the greatest, but they still recorded the moment!

The duathlon reinforced my belief that I'm a runner, not a biker, but I still had MUCH more fun than I was anticipating. My biking leg was weak, but I actually did very well on the running portions. It was clear that many of the racers weren't endurance runners; the 1.5-mile legs just seemed to fly by to me, but there were an awful lot of walkers, especially after the biking portion.

I didn't get home until after 1:00 in the afternoon, so I showered and had some lunch. I rested a bit, and then, since my parents had just got home from Ely, I went over to their house to get Chipotle for dinner with them. My mom and I went out for it, and when we were in line to pay, the cash registers froze, so we got all the food for free! Yesterday was just full of free, awesome food.

How was your weekend? Busy or relaxing? I definitely had a lot of fun the past two days, but I actually need some low-key work hours to fit in some relaxing!

It's been a while since I did a Things I Love Thursday post. But I'm loving some things today!

-- Ramen. I have always loved ramen. (I won't mention that I used to occasionally eat it for breakfast when I was a teenager.) These days, I make it myself and use lots of veggies, so it's not actually the super cheap packets college kids rely on. I've had a hard time finding large packages of plain ramen noodles lately, but I went to United Noodles today, and there was plenty to choose from.

-- Running! I just had to get out and run in the cool morning air today, since the heat is moving back in starting tomorrow. I ran my own half-marathon course, and I surprised myself by how well I did! (It took 2:11:53, for an average pace of 10:04/mile; I wasn't expecting to run it under 2:15:00.) I've got a few 'real' half-marathon races on the docket, so it's very encouraging to know that I'll keep improving as the heat and humidity of the summer go away.

-- Fake ham. Okay, I know it doesn't look that appealing as a log, but I sliced it up after taking the photo and refroze it. The veggie ham came from United Noodles, too; it was one of the main reasons I made the trip there. I can't survive on seitan alone, and this works out to about fifty cents a serving. It's the first time I've bought it (it tastes a lot like Yves or LightLife's deli 'ham', though), and I'm super excited. I realized that I haven't had real ham in almost TWENTY years. I'll take the fake stuff, thank you, strange as it looks.

-- New (to me) coffee shops. I went to The Edge Coffee House today, which is on University and Raymond, in St. Paul. It's sort of just how I'd like a coffee shop to be if it were mine. The woman who owns it is very friendly, and she made me a vegetable + cream cheese sandwich that was awesome. If you're a local, stop in the next time you need coffee!

-- Minnesota. I feel happy just looking at the shape of the state. I like everything there is to do in the Twin Cities, and I like the scenery outside the metro area. I like that we have the best state fair in the country (no, don't even start). And we invented the most delicious of apples, the Honeycrisp. I'm even looking forward to (but not hurrying the arrival of) winter. That last one might be some form of Stockholm Syndrome.

I've been out of store-bought veggie burgers for a little while now, but there was a can of pinto beans in the cupboard, so I thought I'd take a stab at making a bean burger. These are fairly soft, but the vital wheat gluten keep them together and makes them a bit, well, glutenous. I like the texture, but I pretty much regard wheat gluten as a miracle ingredient. At any rate, I actually wrote down what I put into these burgers (how novel!), in case anybody else would like to try making them.

Ingredients

1 can pinto beans (= 1.75 cups, rinsed and drained)
1/2 C onion, diced
1/2 C green bell pepper, diced
1/4 corn kernels
1/4 cup carrot, diced
2 Tbsp salsa
3/4 C vital wheat gluten
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions

In a skillet, with the oil of your choosing (I just use Pam), sautee the onion, pepper, and carrot until tender. Add the corn and the beans. Once the beans are warm, remove the skillet from the heat and use a potato masher to mash everything until there are very few intact beans left. Stir in the salsa.

In a bowl, mix together the wheat gluten, spices, and salt. Add the mashed bean mixture and stir to combine. Once it's cooled enough to tough, use your hands to knead everything for a couple of minutes.

Divide the mixture into six balls. You can either free-form them into patties, or, if you've got too much time on your hands, you can do what I did. Place a ball of burger mix in the center of an English muffin ring and use the potato masher to flatten it out. Voila -- perfectly round bean burger!

Wrap each patty individually if you want to store them in the freezer. To cook, simply place the (room temperature or refrigerated) patties in an oiled skillet and brown both sides -- a couple of minutes per side, probably. Given their texture, I'm not sure how well they would grill, but I'd be willing to try it!

The Great River Ragnar Relay: Run. Drive. Sleep? Repeat. Yep, that pretty much sums it up. On Friday, my team of twelve runners (see us here) set out on a 193-mile relay that took us from Winona, MN, up to Stillwater, and then over to Minneapolis. Crazy? Yeah. But also ridiculously awesome and fun.

Although the teams consist of twelve runners, they're broken down into two vans, so that while your six teammates in the other van are running, you get a chance to rest. And although I imagine being trapped in that van for the rest of my life as some sort of horrible, mobile purgatory, I couldn't have been happier with my van-mates; we had a great time.

Everybody runs three legs of the relay, and each leg varies in length and difficulty. I was very lucky in that I didn't have to tackle any monstrous hills, but I wouldn't hesitate to say that my first run, a seven-miler that began just before 4:00pm, was the toughest run I've ever finished. Here I am receiving the slap-bracelet 'baton' from my teammate, totally unaware of how miserable I'm about to become. See, it wasn't the furthest I've ever gone, and it definitely wasn't the hilliest course I've ever run, but the sun. The sun! There was not a leaf's worth of shade on that entire stretch of god-forsaken road between Nelson and Pepin, WI.

This run really pushed my limits, and I had to monitor myself very closely, because I could imagine the heat getting the best of me. I walked every time I felt my heart rate get too high, and if it had been a training run instead of a race, I would have quit after just a few miles. But I made it to the next hand-off and managed to surprise myself with the pace, given all the walking I'd resorted to. After two more runners, we had a brief respite in Stockholm, WI, and I waded up to my waist in the Mississippi -- bliss.

After that first run, neither of my other two legs seemed particularly bad. I had a 3.7-mile run at about 2:00 in the morning, which was surreal but enjoyable enough. And I finished with a 4.5-mile run on a paved trail in St. Paul. I certainly looked bedraggled afterward, but it wasn't too bad. At that point, my brain was on stand-by from so little sleep, so I just waded through the miles in a daze.

Our entire team met up at the finishing point in Minneapolis, and when our last runner neared the end, our number was called, and we all ran over the finish line together. It's crazy to think that our little slap-bracelet baton never stopped moving from Winona to Minneapolis -- somebody from our team was always on the go. Even crazier is that we were in that van for just around thirty-six hours (it took us 28:50:00-ish to run the course); it was such an intense experience that it seems like we were together for days. I signed up because I knew I'd be kicking myself if I missed the opportunity, and that's just how I feel -- it was tough, but so, so worth it!

Except for the rain that's currently pouring down, I've had perfect weather for adventure-having since I've been up in Sandstone. Yesterday, I loaded up my pockets and headed to Banning State Park, which is very near by. I wasn't expecting much, and it's significantly smaller than St. Croix State Park, where Chris and I camped last month. But the terrain was actually much more interesting -- I had a blast!

The land by the Kettle River is clear down to the sandstone bedrock in a lot of places, so there was a ton of climbing to be had instead of just moseying along a cleared forest path. I wore my Vibrams, which are the perfect hiking shoes. You definitely have to watch where you step and be a bit tough about walking over sometimes-rough terrain with only a thin layer of rubber between you and the ground, but it's worth it. I've always been very nervous about going up and down steep paths in regular tennis shoes, but I was much more confident when I was able to feel the shape of the rocks and dirt under my feet.

When I was talking to Chris' parents about camping (which I did for the first time this year), I said that it felt like discovering a part of myself that I had never known about but had always been there. It just makes so much sense to me. I had that feeling yesterday as I was hiking around. If it wouldn't have been a guaranteed broken neck, I would have been running from place to place; it just felt amazing to be physically active, climbing up and over things, with so much nature around me.

Let's hope I feel that way about running around outside later this week -- the Great River Ragnar Relay starts on Friday!