Runner: Vegan lifestyle helps go the distance

Runner: Vegan lifestyle helps go the distance
BY MELANIE HIRSHBERG
STAFF WRITER
June 30, 2009
from dailyrecord.com (see link below)

After a dog attacked her in 1994 while she was walking down her street, marathon runner Barbara Ellicott saw her world fall apart around her.
Advertisement
http://www.warnockauto.com/

The attack was so severe that a man had to use a broom to dislodge the jaws of the dog from her calf. The bite went to the bone and resulted in nerve damage. A runner since the '70s, Ellicott's doctors said she would never be able to again.

"I was a basket case. I was so depressed thinking about all the things I couldn't do anymore," said Ellicott, 67, a doctor in speech pathology and a psychologist.

For six years she was depressed, gained weight, and her cholesterol went through the roof, she said. Her inspiration to challenge what the doctors said and turn her life around came from her children.

Five years after the attack, her daughter suggested she attend the Vegetarian Summerfest in Johnstown, Pa. At first, she was hesitant.

"I was resisting as all heck," she said of her initial reaction to becoming a vegetarian. "Typical for people from my generation, we're stuck in tradition. We were used to meat and potatoes."

But after hearing speakers from the World's Vegetarian Congress at the festival, she decided to try the vegan lifestyle. She has not eaten any animal product, including dairy and eggs, since then.

To read the full article: http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090630/COMMUNITIES/906300313/1005/NEWS01/Runner++Vegan+lifestyle+helps+go+the+distance