Borscht-flavored Powerbars??

With all of this Powerbar contest hype, I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about food; more specifically - what on earth is going to keep me going for the five days between the time I leave my house on April 2nd and the time the gun goes off (assuming there is a gun) at the start of the North Pole Marathon on April 7th?

Both my wife and I are vegetarians (well, no meat except for fish) and are generally fairly picky about what we eat (me more so than my wife who has nicknamed me "eating disorder Bobby" for my fondness of everything that is not fattening). When I inquired about meal options at the North Pole, I got a rather discouraging e-mail from the race director letting me know (and I quote):

"even though the Russians are supposed to supply food – and do – it is best to bring your own for the 36-48 hours we’ll be there."

Last I checked, Russian cuisine isn't exactly what "Eating Disorder Bobby" dreams of wolfing down before a big race. Even Borscht has meat in it! Luckily I have (just under) three weeks to figure it all out.

Not knowing exactly what cooking arrangements will exist at the Pole, I'm going to assume both that I can boil water and that smuggling upwards of 20 pounds of food through Norwegian Customs is no big deal. Worst case, the food at Camp Borneo will be fantastic and I'll have brought all the food with me for nothing.

I've been experimenting with soups over the past few weeks. With 8 solid runs under my belt, run on nothing but split pea soup and whatever was left of my breakfast by 4pm, I'm leaning towards going that route at the North Pole. Soup would be easy to prepare, somewhat easy to transport, and (above all) WARM! (This event would be a complete nightmare for someone with OCD! - there are just way too many moving parts).

So I don't know about you, but I am totally loving the new route-making functionality of this website. Is it just me or is it really cool to have on-line access to any of your runs (or your friend's runs) any time you want?? Personally I'm happy that I can finally give my lazy old Garmin map program a much needed retirement party.

Let's see - what can I share about today - my wife's wallet got stolen out of her purse at Starbucks (that wasn't so good) but the day did get progressively better. I got word that ZombieRunner is going to support my fundraising efforts this year through some product donations. If you're not familiar with ZombieRunner, they are a big supporter of many grass roots running events across the country and are THE place to go for all of your more exotic running supplies. Check them out on the web at www.zombierunner.com (Yann - you should contact the owners Gillian and Don).

I headed out for a 7.something mile run along the Embarcadero at about 4:30 and really hammered it on the way home (note the hyperlink to the actual route - cool eh?!). The out and backs usually end up being negative-splitted (I'm guessing I can use that as a verb) by a minute or two because 99% of the time you have a hefty tail wind pushing you along - you hardly need to run at all! After some solid hard miles last week, I can feel my body responding the way I would have hoped it would to the training. With just under four weeks to go before race day, I should peak at just about the right time.. Gosh I hope nobody's reading this.. I don't want to sound TOO confident.

That's all for tonight/this morning!
Cheerio
~Bobby

P.S. Register now and vote for your favorite use for Powerbars at the North Pole! One lucky member of the YourRunning.com(munity) is going to walk away with 100 of ANYTHING Powerbar!

Click HERE to see who the final five are and to cast your vote! With just over a week to go before the final decision is made, Michelle's Ice Melting Maching is pulling away from the pack with 11 votes!