Number 3/31 Go Vegetarian for a month

OK. The reason there are two numbers on this is because it may very well have to go down as my first replacement challenge. As you all know I fully intended to replicate a full marathon distance run and record the suffering in this blog. Alas tragedy struck a month and a half ago as due to me over training in ridiculously worn and rubbish trainers I seem to have battered my knee to oblivion. Having hit the heights of completing a ten mile and then an eight mile run on consecutive days I have struggled since to top four or five without my knee complaining. I must admit this has got me a bit down as it does feel like giving up but I suppose it comes down to pushing on and trying to do it and putting myself out of action for the considerable or leaving this challenge to be something completed as a 30 year old.I myself am trying to look for consolation in the fact that its my top heavy stocky/muscular build weighing down on the knee joints that has done for me and not the fact that...........I'M REALLY OLD NOW!
However to replace this challenge I knew I had to push myself and do something that would normally be unimaginable. To know me is to know that I love chicken and to know me for a long time is to know that my diet used to consist of said poultry and potatoes. The odd vegetable did find its way in but only on insistence and the fact  I knew they were good for me. With age has come a bit of maturity and with my girlfriend Georgina being of the vegetarian persuasion I could have quoted Jules from pulp fiction in saying
"That pretty much makes me a vegetarian!"
Except it hadn't. No, despite reluctantly admitting that certain dishes were adequate without meat and perfecting a quorn lasagne there were still quite a few times I would make Georgina wait as I happily roasted my choice of animal carcass before we could eat together. If I actually thought about it, before this month the longest I'd been without eating meat was probably about a day.
Enter replacement challenge number 3: Go Veggie for a month.

The challenge started off badly as I combined it with a week of intense physical activity and also hung around with Lee Gant. Whilst watching "The Godfather" and attempting to eat a Spinach Tortilla( an experience I will never, ever repeat) Gantie tucked into half a chicken. On a trip to Snowdon as I oozed blood out of a head wound my comedy chum consoled me by saying" Oh well, at least you cant eat any meat either!", whilst steaming into a cheeseburger.
Gant aside, as the month progressed I did actually quite enjoy it. Having to be a bit more varied meant instead of waking up with five minutes to go and slapping together a ham sandwich, I was preparing Mediterranean Vegetable wraps to take to work. Instead of nipping out for a beer and a burger and feeling like I needed to lie down for a week,I was veggie burgering it up and finding that they weren't actually so bad after all.
Georgina and I even got to share a few meals( meaning she could nick some of mine if she wanted!). Ok there were a few night after a jar too many that I would have stabbed my grandmother for a bit of fried chicken and saturday mornings aren't the same without bacon. Twenty nine days into the challenge though I was smugly sailing through and looking forward to my first taste of meat since April. Disaster obviously followed with my abortive trip to attempt skydiving. On top of a two day hangover, the news that the skydive probably wouldn't happen must have scrambled my brain. My brother enquired as to whether I wanted a cheeseburger from a nearby fast food van and without even thinking I said yes. It didn't even occur to me that I had done anything wrong until I was wiping cow crumbs from my upper lip.Nightmare!
I had dreamt about breaking my meat fast for twenty nine days. In my subconscious I saw myself at an all you can eat Brazillian BBQ, Tucking into the most expensive steak at a quality restaurant or waiting, mouth watering and stomach gurgling as some speciality sausages from the farmers market turned on the grill.
As tends to happen in life though the reality was rather more ordinary. I ate a cheese burger from a fast food van in a field just outside Oxford. Technically I didn't make it a month but I'm going with this principle.
February has 28 days.
February is a month.
I didn't eat meat for 29 days.
I didn't eat meat for a month.
It was just unfortunate I chose May.
Did the cheeseburger taste good? It was like eating heaven in a bap.