Hi!  My name's Matt.  I'm a vegetarian.  I run marathons.  And now, ultras.

Now, I know what you're thinking— Vegetarian marathoner?  This guy must eat a pile of oats and veggies every night and call it dinner. Well, think again.  Sure, I eat healthily, but on a trip to Italy a few years back, I truly fell in love with food and taught myself to cook when I got home.  Since then, I've discovered immeasurable joy in making real, simple food and in never shying away from a new challenge in the kitchen.  And in March of this year, I took on my biggest culinary challenge yet: I ditched the meat, and this blog was born.

Still skeptical?  Check out my list of recipes for athletes and see for yourself.

As for running, I've done six marathons, most recently the Wineglass Marathon in October 2009, where I qualified for Boston with a time of 3:09:59.  Having checked the Boston goal off my list, I've shifted my focus to trail running and ultramarathons.  I'm currently training for a 50K (31-mile) trail race in March, followed by a 50-mile trail race in April.  And I'd like to one day run a three-hour marathon and complete an Ironman triathlon.

When I'm not running, cooking, or blogging, I'm a full-time graduate student working on my Ph.D. in Applied Math.  My incredible wife Erin is a marathoner too, and a cyclist as well. We have two beautiful dogs, both adopted from the SPCA, and we're expecting our first child in April.  Besides cooking, running, and math, I enjoy reading, gambling, music, and brewing beer.

You can read more of my work at Running Shorts and Health Blog Helper, or feel free to contact me or email me at nomeatathlete@gmail.com.

No Meat Athlete in the Press

• Interview on The Extreme Self
• Radio interview on WOCM's Rude Awakening morning show