Another Reason To Love The Oatmeal

While I think oatmeal is a delicious and nutritious breakfast meal, wonderful for pre-run eating, I LOVE The Oatmeal.

Consider yourself warned, many of The Oatmeal's pages include foul (and hilariously used) language.

The artist/author's writing and comics crack me up on a regular basis. They can also be educational. I've used several of his posts to educate my coworkers on the proper use of punctuation. Specifically ...

How to use an apostrophe. (Source: The Oatmeal)

 When to use i.e. in a sentence. (Source: The Oatmeal)

 And How to use a semicolon (Source: The Oatmeal)

Then, of course, since I'm notorious for being a bit of a crazy cat lady, I have a special place in my heart for The Oatmeal's cat comics.

But today The Oatmeal posted about his recent ultra marathon (anything over 26.2 miles) experience. First, he runs. Yay! Second, I love that he shared his experience on his website. Third, his bit about runner's trots is amazing. I laughed a lot. 

So, if you're looking for a fun running-related read, check out The Oatmeal's blog about his first 50 mile ultra marathon.

Inspired By A Stranger

I don't know if this will help me through the winter, but I'm sure hoping it does. Liz, who often comments on my blog posts, forwarded me an email from Active.com. From that email I found my way to a 200+ pounds message board (more on that later) and then to a blog. The blog is Finally Airborne and it follows the running/fitness/weight loss adventures of a fellow who managed to lose more than 100 pounds in less than a year AND run a marathon.

I'm still reading a bit of his back story, and I hope he doesn't mind me promoting him here on my blog, but I just have to. Now, I'm a little skeptical that the female body can transform as vastly as the male body, but that isn't based on any sort of scientific fact (if you have notes on that topic, please share).

Anyway, check his story out. I'm inspired.

I just watched the slide show he posted on YouTube and, while I usually find this kind of stuff cheesy and ridiculous, I was just nearly moved to tears.

Here it is:



I think his tipping point, a too-fat incident at an amusement park, just really struck home for me. I've been experiencing that pain since I was probably 10 - 12 years old, but it didn't really start to hit me until the number of rides I couldn't fit on was passing up the number of rides I could fit on.

Anyway, I'm blabbering on too much. Go. Check his blog out. I know I'm going to keep reading! Talk about inspiration. Geesh!