Kelly the Culinarian: The Evolution of My Race Reports

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The Evolution of My Race Reports

File this under: Live and learn.
Kelly the Culinarian:
The Early Years (2007)
When I first started blogging in 2007, I decided to blog about food, because I had to eat at least three times a day. I was in graduate school and my cooking was experimental at best. This little blog was how I documented my kitchen catastrophes and triumphs. There was a time when I got 20 or 30 comments per post, but I never really made contacts through blogging.

As I got healthier, things around here got healthier, too. It never occurred to me to write about my running or quest to get skinny until after I ran my first 5K and frankly, after I ran my first five-miler. In cotton. And $11 shoes from Steve and Barry's. PS - it's funny to think that I randomly ran further than that on the treadmill on Monday, but when I ran that race in 2011, I wondered if I would finish.
Hey there, cotton Kelly (2011)

Anyways, back then, I had it in my head that because I was a food blogger, every post had to have something to do with food: a recipe, a tip, a review. So I painted myself in a corner and only wrote about certain things that fit that mold.
Marathon Kelly (2012)

A funny thing happened when I started writing about running: I started meeting people and making friends. Real friends. Like Kim and Alyssa and Katie and Jenny and Amanda and even more people who don't blog and just run because they love it.

And that is why I blog about running. My race reports, while they've changed over the years, are a way for me to remember my highs and lows and chart my progress. They also allow me to give back to the running community in a small way. When I first started running (and to this day with triathlons), I stalked the Internet to learn any morsel about a race that I could to get comfortable with the idea. I want to pay that forward.

A few things that I try to do with every race report is link to the race website, include photos (obvi), state the price and time of the race and whether I would do the event again.

What do you like to see in race reports that I could incorporate into my future reports? There's always room for improvement!

12 comments:

The Brit With A Blog said...

Id like to know what magic running items you carry during your races and what you consume directly after youve stopped running :)

Unknown said...

Great post. :) I swear, running bloggers are the kindest, awesomest people ever. You already do this, but I always love seeing photos in race recaps. I tend to be a visual person and the photos really help me empathize with how people are feeling during their races.

Unknown said...

I would like to see more about your day to day nutrition when it comes to training. I struggle with timing of eating when I'm working out. Like, if I workout at lunch do I snack before? When do I eat lunch? etc. So, please do a food day. Or just message me every time you eat! HA!

Amanda said...

I love the cotton too. That's how all my beginning races were! I did like how you said "And that's how I will tie this recap into my food blog". lol. But what a great time on your first 5-miler!

Anonymous said...

Ha, I kind of relate to this. I started my blog, it had no real direction. And one night the Twitters convinced me to register for my first marathon. Soon after that I stopped being anonymous and met local runners. Blogging is so rewarding!
I say just keep writing what's important to you.

Anonymous said...

Ha, I kind of relate to this. I started my blog, it had no real direction. And one night the Twitters convinced me to register for my first marathon. Soon after that I stopped being anonymous and met local runners. Blogging is so rewarding!
I say just keep writing what's important to you.

Kim said...

That is interesting that changing what you were talking about turned in to more irl contacts! Thanks for the shoutout! :)

Do you still feel like you are on that quest to "get skinny"? I have to admit, seeing that phrase scares me, but I think it's just because I am trained to think "healthy," not "skinny."

It's nice that you are thinking about people looking for race report info and that they might find your blog! I hope that happens for me if anyone looks for the race I did last weekend, lol.

KellytheCulinarian said...

I'm definitely off the team skinny train. It's exhausting. I just try to eat foods that agree with my training without going bonkers.

I really do keep this blog because I want to make friends. It's hard as an adult without kids to make meaningful contacts.

Kim said...

Have you had luck making friends in your running club and at CrossFit, too? When I first got out here I was mostly making blogger friends until I joined some community stuff and now I have non-blogger friends! LOL! Shocking!

KellytheCulinarian said...

I don't think I hang out at CrossFit enough for that. I see the same faces and such, but I only go twice a week. And because the workouts are so intense, there's not a ton of time for chatting like there is when I run.

Losing Lindy said...

congratulations you have really grown and you are very inspirational

Unknown said...

Love this! It's funny to click back into your archives. Your writing and topics were very different then!

I really like how in your race reports you do that little summary at the end. I liked it so much in fact I use it on my race reports now.

I hope you write some posts on your mentality and how you are holding up while training for this Ironman.