Reason #18 to come to Penguin Winter Carnival, Tampa, Florida, February 2005
Mood:  happy
Reason #18 to come to Penguin Winter Carnival: SOUTHERN FOOD!

Your visit to Tampa for the Penguin Winter Carnival is sure to introduce you to several delectable characteristically southern foods, among them:

Grits. Grits are small broken grains of corn. They were first produced by Native Americans centuries ago. They made both "corn" grits and "hominy" grits. Grits are usually cooked into a hot cereal the consistency of oatmeal and served a variety of ways. Grits will arrive without requesting them as a side dish with most breakfasts in the true south. http://www.grits.com/discript.htm

Boiled peanuts. Apparently y'all are limited to roasting them in other parts of the earth??? True boiled peanut lovers must get theirs from a pot at a roadside stand that's been cooking God knows how long, and usually on a trip to the sunny beaches of Florida. http://www.grits.com/boiledpeanuts.htm

Sweet tea. Restaurants in the south serve pre-sweetened iced tea, by the pitcherful. ALL restaurants. Sushi restaurants. They will (usually but not always) have unsweetened tea available, but it'll mark you as a Yankee if you order it. Drink water instead. "We in the south make the best iced tea you'll find. Maybe it's how it's done, or maybe it is the water in the south, or maybe it's just that a southern belle has put a lot of TLC into making the tea. Who knows!" http://www.grits.com/tea.htm

Hush puppies. These delectable little balls of fried seasoned cornbread are incredibly addictive. They're often served in a basket as an accompaniment to fish, but the hush puppies usually disappear first. http://www.gumbopages.com/food/breakfast/hush-pups.html http://www.chitterlings.com/hush-puppies.html

And did you know.....

Florida is the ?winter salad bowl,? providing 80 percent of the fresh vegetables grown in the U.S. during January, February and March of each year.
Year-round, Florida ranks No. 2 nationally in the U.S. production of fresh vegetables, accounting for 11.6 percent in 2003.
Florida is the nation's overwhelming leader in citrus production, accounting for more than 74 percent of the U.S. production in 2002-2003.
Florida is the world leader in grapefruit production, accounting for 33.1 percent of the planet's production.
Florida produces 14.6 percent of the world's oranges, ranking second only to Brazil.
About 96 percent of oranges grown in Florida are processed into orange juice.
During the 2002-2003 season, Florida produced more than 1.2 billion gallons of orange juice.
Citrus accounts for 17 percent of Florida farm sales.

Percent of U.S. Production occurring in Florida:
Tangelos: 100 percent
Temples: 100 percent
Limes: 100 percent
Grapefruit: 77 percent
Oranges: 76 percent
Tangerines: 65 percent

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Why not start preparing for the Run Tampa 2005 races NOW?

Kick start your training and keep your motivation strong when the temperatures soar this summer!

We have begun a Summer 2004 Penguin Challenge which includes runner/walker, duathlete, and triathlete options. Accumulate mileage over the 13 weeks of June, July, and August and qualify for ascending levels of performance recognition. Nineteen people have already made the commitment! Read all about it at:
https://www.angelfire.com/ult/pwc2005/summer_challenge.htm

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Below is the first of several letters which we will share from our good friend Ellie Hamilton as she begins a new life in the months leading up to the Penguin Winter Carnival. Thank you, Ellie, for taking the time to keep us up to date! Check in on her continuing adventures and see her pictures at
https://www.angelfire.com/ult/pwc2005/news.htm

On the Road
by Ellie Hamilton

As I head toward February's "Weekend Marathon Challenge" in Tampa and the Penguin Winter Carnival, a phase of my life is over and a new one has begun.

As of the last two weeks, I am no longer working as a nurse. I am no longer in the work force at all. My husband has retired, so I guess I have too, returning to my former status as a "non-working" wife, except that now I am going to work harder -- at being an athlete, and also a photographer, which could put me back into the work force, at least to an extent of my own choosing. And as we move from a regular house into a small RV home on wheels, I am moving from my "regular" body into a smaller, more compact, more mobile one. Downsizing has taken over my life.

Downsizing the physical artifacts of a 31-year marriage to fit into a 31-foot trailer. Downsizing the physical effects of self-indulgence to fit into my outgrown wetsuit. But "upsizing" my training and fitness to emerge from nearly a year of relative laid-back-ness resulting from nagging injuries and bouts of bronchitis, walking pneumonia, and other transient pesky ailments, including lack of motivation.

I am not sick now, not exposed daily to sick people, my injuries have dissipated, and although I am not running as far as I wish or in a much smaller body yet, I am at least moving. We are not in our house now, we're actually living in the trailer in a campground, and although we're not travelling yet, we're still moving our stuff. Our "Things."

I have embarked on a mission to assess my actual physical needs, both the food I need to eat for my body size and activity and the things I need for my living-area space and for conducting my life.

I consider whether I am hungry, and if I am, I eat a conservative amount of food even though I have room for more, and then wait to see if that is enough. It takes a while to decide.

I consider whether I need this or that in the trailer, and if I do, I move it in and wait to see if it is enough. It takes a while to decide.

As I have eaten according to my body signals and increased my running, biking, and swimming distance, I have watched the numbers on the scale go down 5, then 6, then 7 pounds. My weekly long run has increased to 5, then 6, then 7 miles. When I am running 20 miles in marathon training, will I have lost 20 pounds? When I do the 39.6 miles of the Tampa challenge, will I have lost 39 pounds? If I did that I would still not be underweight. But I won't know because we're not taking the scales -- they "weigh" too much. A tape measure weighs less, takes up less space, and tells more.

I am finding that when I eat a small amount and let it go at that, after awhile I'm satisfied with what I ate and not wishing for what I left on my plate. And as I live with a small amount of clothing, athletic and photographic equipment and daily-living items, I find that I'm satisfied with what I have and not wishing for things still left in the house. I've even thought that if the house burned down with our remaining possessions still in it, I would not miss them or even know what they were.

But as I continue to sort through things left in the house, I find forgotten things, and when I see them, I want them. Pictures, sentimental personal things, gifts I was given long ago.... if I throw them out, it feels like throwing out parts of my life, or throwing out the giver. There is still space in the trailer, so into the trailer they go. The spaces are filling up. We are going to have to re-assess. Steve says we are going to be overweight.... harder for the truck to pull, more likely to have some kind of accident the farther we go.

And as I continue to eat according to my appetite, I find I have room for more food than I have been taking, and when I see it, I want it. Too much food is available -- picnics, parties in honor of Steve's retirement and our setting out, "consumable" gifts of cakes, batches of cookies, bottles of wine. Throwing them out feels like..... throwing them out. There is more room in my clothes than there was, and into my mouth go the gifts. The spaces in my clothes are filling up again. I am going to have to re-assess. No one has said I am overweight but I know that I am and that the extra weight is harder for my legs to carry, that I'm more likely to have some kind of injury the farther I run.

We have only one more party coming up and we are distributing most of our furniture to our children. Our son has bought our house. We are having a huge yard-and-garage sale this weekend. What is left is going to our church's yard sale next week. And then the house will be empty. And on the first of June we hitch up and head out.

If only disposing of the extra furnishings on my body were as concrete, and the end so nearly in sight. But I have definitely begun. This week's long run will increase to 8 miles. I will start out on foot back to the house, and have my husband pick me up 8 miles along the road and we'll go the rest of the way together to sort and clean some more.

I could probably make some kind of metaphor out of that but I am out of words. When I write again next month, we will be somewhere in Michigan, on the way to our "turnaround" in South Dakota. We'll get back to Maryland sometime in October, after the Chicago Marathon. And after Christmas with our family we'll mosey down to Florida. "Penguins" that we are, we don't travel very fast, and what we do along the way is as important as reaching the finish line, wherever it turns out to be.

Ellie in Western Maryland
"If I am at these vines picking these berries, I can't be at those vines picking those. Who cares, if the bucket is full?"

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This is one of a series of newsletters about the PENGUIN WINTER CARNIVAL, FEBRUARY 4-6, 2005 in Tampa, Florida.

Penguin Winter Carnival is a fun social meeting of runners, walkers, friends, and family attending the Run Tampa 2005 events, and will include special Friday morning workshops and get-togethers throughout the weekend. We welcome participants of all speeds! Race options include your selection of 5K, 15K, half marathon, and marathon distances over two days, plus special challenge awards for those intrepid (i.e., crazy) folks who would like to tackle a 5K, a 15K, *and* a half-marathon or marathon within two days.

For complete details and periodic updates, bookmark these websites:
Penguin Winter Carnival website: https://www.angelfire.com/ult/pwc2005/
Penguin Winter Carnival news:

Join the Penguin Winter Carnival email discussion group:
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/PenguinWinterCarnival/?yguid=103428986

Calling all snowbirds! Fly south in 2005 to join the flock for fun, friends, and frolic! All are welcome!

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