Wow where did 2025 go? Not long ago, I was writing resolutions for the new year, actually, I did not write one for 2025 but reused one I did not published from 2023 (part1). Now I will be doing again for 2026 soon and maybe also for 2027. They were goals I have been working on for the past few years. They are still my current goals.
It is challenging that I have not made much headway into them. So same this year.
Why/why not? I think I have too many things to focus. Some were not explicitly stated. Well they are distractions too, I got pull into many short term goals. Or seriously, I need time to sit down and decide again what my real goals and priorities are. Better control of what to take on and what to decline.
This year has been a good year, that I survived. Last year, I was too hung up with the Western States race and I said this year, I will take a step back and do things I enjoyed the most. I did tame down a bit with my running. 2024 was an unbelievable year in term of achievements and time commitment I gave. 2025, I did not train as much or as hard.
I did still do a lot of running. Most of my weekends were around either running my races or involved with Caroline’s races. We said we will do less of them next year.
Stats: I did 29 events out of 52 weeks. A little more than every other week! Many of them required long driving for flying to another state.
I ran 6 100 milers (2 dnf). 2 Marathons. 4 x 50 mile (2 dnf), 1 x 100k (GSER). 2 x 40 mile, 1 x 70 mile (the Ring).
I reached 4895 measured miles (life time). Of course many of my training miles were not logged, maybe 4-5 times this amount. The earth circumference is 24,901 miles. I’m not there yet, but it is almost 1/5th of that. The reason I mentioned the earth is with a team of 10, last year we finished running around the world. It is a distance dream that maybe one day I could do it for real. I might have already did enough miles to equal to the distance of going around the earth once (if included my training runs over the last nine years).
Here are some race highlights of 2025.
My good races: Grindstone 100, finally finished this after 3-4 tries. I lost count how many years since I got hook into this race. Last year was the most brutal DNF. This year was its redemption. No, I won’t go back there next year other try other than more camping at the Twot.
Vermont 100 – squeaked by this one. Hope to do it one more time. Third the charm they say! As well as Virginia 100, I squeaked by it, but it was very satisfying. It will be my motto next year. The only reason I finished was the song: “He went leaping and praising God.” I was the lame man whom God made whole again! The race felt like a meraculous healing. Then, the latest race was the Devil Dog 100. I just grinded it out. I was thankful I got it done. Hope to run it again in the foreseeable future, at least for 2026.
Massanutten 100 – I was a pacer to a very good friend at the MMT100 for 2025, the only year I sat out because I was too exhausted. God is gracious I was able to help a runner that totally aligned with me own goals. As a pacer, we tried to get our runner to the finish, but ultimately, it was the runner who puts in the work. It was thrilling we got it done. I signed up for next year to run it myself. It will be me, myself to be in the driver seat again. It is a thrilling race to write about.
Old Dominion and Eastern States 100. Both, I did not finish. Old Dominion was harder than I anticipated. Same for Eastern States. Eastern States was at the level I thought where it should be. I needed to work hard at it if I want a finish. I think Eastern States is easier than Grindstone though and even easier than Massanutten. Some of my friends disagreed. Just my opinion. I felt Eastern States is “rubnable.” But I am strong on hill climbs, so it makes it easier.
Thank you Caroline for being at my every race this year. Whether they were successful or a failure, it was a good run.
Trips: I was proud of being able to camp out on July 4th weekend on the Grindstone course. It was my one and only backpacking trip of the year.
Holaday Lake. 50k++ Nothing to write about the race itself but my time surrounding the race was memorable. Most of my trips are also races. We went to Farmville and ran on the High Bridge. It was my first time to visit Farmville. I passed through several time but this time, I actually knew where I was.
GSER – 100k in Atlanta. I went there almost every year since 2020. Last year and this year were most memorable. I got to show the city to Caroline. Of course she’s been there before. What so special is we ran 62 miles through the city from Kennasaw Mountain to Stone Mountain. We rode the train around Stone Mountain and looked at the carving on the rock face. Not sure if I will be back next year, I hope to be. There will be scheduling conflict with the C&O 100. Not that I plan to run the C&O, but I likely will be there to help out. I love my local races anf the Harper Ferry area too.
Utah – DC Peaks. I learned a lesson about winter running. Got to met friend and pacer. I went out twice this year, one for Wasatch to crew a friend and one for my own race. Happy Caroline helped me there. The race itself was too short (because I dropped out early). What we did other than racing left behind better memories.
Savannah. (no report) It was a busy trip. My goodness. I think the journey what captured my imagination. We came back when it was snowing and our plane/trip took us to Baltimore instead of DC. We took the train back to Virginia.
End of the year, it made me to think about what I accomplished what I set out to do for next year. I think my one goal this year was to finish Grindstone (and Eastern States, alas). All other goals were pretty much incidental. I am happy the year did not broke me too badly.
Relationship wise, it has been a roller coaster ride. I don’t even know what to say. There are successes and failures. Not sure if that is appropriate to call them successes/failures like races. They were Events, high points and lows. We finished a course of counseling. There were many crying and times of joy. More laughters than crying. We trudge on. Relationship is not like races. There is no redo. There are a lot changes in the future expected. One step at a time. To me life is like a 100 mile race, there will be slow portion and fast, we go from one aid station to the next.
What’s next. That will be part 2. Somehow, I need to align my current goals with those coming up. I mean for the next few years too. I will be evolving.
Personally, I already signed up for races: MMT 100, Eastern States, Devil Dog, Vermont, Hennepin (new race for me, In Oct.), and Kettle Morraine (new for me, in June). It is quite a load. The one I will be stressing the most will be Massanutten and Eastern States. I will be perpetually training again. Also, Thinking of Angela Ivory 100, should I or should not I? Likely not, but would like to, and that for another day.
Every time this year I become poorer because many race signups opening for registration.
And I will have a hard time limiting myself to run only one race for each year. Yes, it is a joke if I could limit myself to running just one race.
It has been quite a splash for me the last few seasons. 2024 was my grand slam year. My schedule was jampacked to do all the required runs and all my personal (goal) races.
2025, I said I will slow down and run some races I did not get to run during my grand slam year [last year’s (2024) Plan], which still got me running almost every weekend.
Now 2026 is here. I want to slow down yet it will be pretty much the same with 5-6 big 100 mile races and then all the 50k and marathons in between.
I will try to cut back some and only run races I did not get to run in 2025. I’m lying of course. Well, that is the goal anyway, to run fewer races and cherish the ones I get run. Move the ones I did not get to into another year.
As I look at my schedule, they are getting fuller. My mom says I should spend time more with family, with sister, wife and kids and everyone else.
I love running above anything. And these 8-9 years have been a blast. I started running 2016. Each year is something more. So next year would be my 10th year.
Caroline also said, she cannot be with me in many of the races going foward. We won’t be together much if we don’t plan things to be together. So on my 10th year anniversary (2027?) since when I ran my first race, I got to choose my races carefully next year.
I have been wanting to do a 200 miler. Never get around to do one. So maybe 2027 is the year. Note, they cost a fortune to do!
So here below is what I have on my race calendar so far. More races will be added and some will be remove.
My forever Goal: Run in all fifty states (38 states left)
Here are next few races I have in mind for this year and the next. Letting the world peek into my race calendar. See the race history for my past races.
Oct 10-11, 2026. (not reg) Mid State Big Massive Tr 100!!! (early reg opens dec 1), ask for wave 1-3 (eta 31-33hrs), (V3) 8am start for wave 1, 9 am for wave2.
Oct **, 2026, 10/11?, 10/18? (‘) Bimbler Bluff 50k
Oct 25, 2026, (‘) Greasy Goony
Oct 25, 2026. (reg’d) MCM 26.2
Nov 1, (not yet reg) MMTR 50
Nov. Grand Canyon (2 week vac) during Thanksgiving.
Dec 3 (,) Devil Dog 100 (V2)!!
~~~Following year Goals~~~
January 5? New Mexico Las Cruces Marathon. RRCA race. flat
Jan 15. Baton Rouge Marathon. Louisiana.
(Jan 31) (likely) Dark Anchor 100, Savannah, GA (Charleston, SC, airport) or Long Haul 100.
May 31-Jun 1: (conflict!, see below) Fargo Marathon, ND
(June) Alaska Marathon
June 22, 2025?, (considering, but not likely) New York City running Exposition (100 mile)
Jun 20. Highland Sky. Race opens Feb 2
Jul 16-17. (considering 2024?) (Hyped) Tahoe Rim Trail (TRTer) 100/50. reg lottery open in Dec 5. Drawing Jan 1, Stroke to sign up. race is on Sat. 8 hr trail work req for 100Mi. Q: Can I tackle a 100 on the west coast?
Sept 29-30, 2023. Yeti 100. reg opens Jan 2. Virginia Creeper Trail
Quebec Marathon (Oct 5)
(Oct 13-15, 2024,) (considering) **Tahoe Marathon Super triple, 2 marathons plus 70M**. road. around Lake Tahoe. very interested, opens when, Feb?
(Nov 5~) (considering, maybe) Alabama Pinhoti 100. something worth considering or, am I dead focused on Grindstone?
(Nov 11) (conflict, next year) Chickamauga Battlefield GA, Marathon
(Nov 18-19) (considering for next year) Route 66 (Tulsa City) Marathon – Oklahoma (fall), might defer or last minute Audible. Wait till July to decide (money issue).
Nov. (considering) Tampa 100.
(Dec 4~): (not likely/conflict) Rocky 50 PA Fatass. http://www.rocky50k.com/. Always been considering, 1st of Dec
(Dec 3-4) (conflict) San Antonio Marathon.
(Dec 7?) (considering, maybe) CIM – California Marathon.
~~NEAR FUTURE~~
(R2R2R) or Nepal trip, Sydney Marathon
Capadocia ultra trail run
-Jan: (defer)Charleston, SC
-March: (defer)Myrtle Beach SC
–March: (defer) Atlanta Publix Marathon, GA 2024
-April. (considering, alternative) 100 mi NC. Umstead. (likely will defer). Might be boring, loop course
(Jun) (probably won’t) SF Dipsea race. America oldest trail race. believe reg open in Dec. Too far and the race is too short. Plan D.
June: (possibly) Bay of Fundy, Maine
August 23-24 (conflict) Tromsø/Oslo Trip, likely 2026.
-Sep: (defering) Air force, Ohio
(Sep 25) (no for 2022?) Yeti 100. Abingdon, VA. fast, flat, race around 9/25/20. Or wait for another year
-Oct: (considering) Mt Desert, Bar Harbor, Maine
future races:
-(defering)Detroit Marathon, MI, or Niagara Falls Marathon, NY.
-Hawaii Maui Marathon (Dec) (will save it till last) or HURT (Hawaii Ultra Trail Run)
-the big ones, LA, NY, Chi marathons –Buffalo Marathon (Jun?). Chance to go to Niagara Falls again –Niagara Falls Intl Marathon, (OCT) It takes place at Niagara Falls, and will cross over to Canada
I finished the year with my own tradition of running the last ultra at Devil Dog Ultras (100). I have gone to this race for the last five years. (2024 race report).
To me it is a low stress, fun, but also known as a sneaky hard race, which it still surprises me after so many times how hard it is.
I usually don’t train for it but just go in and wing it.
Some people got a natural talent. Mine is to squeak it out and that I did it again.
I think the downfall comes when people underestimated how hard the race is. Pointing finger at me!
Speaking from experience, I did not finish (DNF) this race on my first try at their 100k distance. Ever since, I got a bit better at it.
The finishing rate for this 100 miler is around 50 percent to a low 30%. This is surprisingly low since the trail is not that hard (just my opinion) and is in the suburb of Washington DC, meaning it is easily accessible for training and the terrain is nothing like on top of a mountain or something. It is in a Forest Park, meaning both easy and hard.
This year 61 runners finished out of 112 started, and 8 did not show up, which put it right over 50% and this is a good year with the most finishers ever. The race was sold out too this year. I remember a year when only 37 people finished, was that last year maybe? That speaks a lot. The race is definitely sneaky hard.
I think it is hard because there are slight elevation changes (rolling hills) and roots and a little bit of technical footwork where it feels very runnable, but as the miles pile up, with a slight unfavoritable condition like a drop in temperature (always since it is winter) would easily derail one’s race plan. Even obe slight fall would do it. I took two falls this time and twerked my ankle twice. Each could have been a race ending event, but I walked it off.
While I love running other 100 mile races, such as The Massanutten 100 or Vermont 100 and calling those my favorites, my action proves stronger than words, that Devil Dog 100 is the one race I have come back again and again. I might want to get a 1000 mile, joke one would receive a puppy.
I almost could not finish it this year or the last year or the year before that. I have always firted with cutoffs and this time around too.
I thought I had a plan coming into the race. I set a goal to run 17 min pace first 33 miles and 18 min pace for 2nd third and 19 min pace for the final third. And it is a slow progression, easing my way to the finish two a 31 hour finishing. It was a bit ambitious, I finished at 31:22 (hours).
My body and my feet had a different goal. It ended up being moving slower than I wanted to, 18:05 min (per mile) first third, and 19:30 second third and then 18:30 final third. Noting it down for future planning, if I happen to reread it before my next Devil Dog.
So what happened? The usual. I could not run fast maybe due to lack of training or feet just not ready for the trail.
On the very first loop, I rolled my ankle on a flat section about halfway in maybe at mile 10 or 12. And it hurt. Silly me. I went limping to walk it off.
Then with maybe 3 miles left in the first loop, I slipped and landed on my butt because I was trying to look cool like everyone else running down a steep hill. The cooler 50k people people were passing me at the time. In my mind, I still got that cool light steps of flying down a hill and I wanted to be like them. Nope. Not any more. The back of my shoe slipped and down I went. Luckily, I sat on my butt and all the cool kids from behind started asking if I was okay. Embarrassing. Me an old man trying to run and fall. A fellow runner, Bruce, who is a bit older than me was right behind but did not comment. Then he ran off and I did not see him again until the last loop. Apparently he gained an hour on me by the third loop. That is quite impressive.
So my pace was not going well. I started slow on my first loop and ended up even slower in subsequent 4 loops.
It is a typical ultra thing. I was wishfully thinking I could do a reverse split. I proud that I did pull it through for a finish. No reverse split but did save the race. It took me all effort.
I ended up pushing harder to make the late cutoffs. It was never fun to chase cutoffs.
Overall, the race was peaceful. I have done it so many times and each time is a little different. Some years I was very excited. Last year was cold. This year was still cold with light snow covering the ground. But we are thankful the worst such as freezing rain that was forecasted a week out did not occur.
The temperature was 37F (the car reading) in early morning and it got to maybe low 50s. Overnight dropped again to high 20s and low 30s. Wind was calm. It was foggy at times.
It was not as cold as last year (17F). Still, it felt pretty cold without proper clothing.
I did prepared by dressing well though. Two layers, shirt underneath, and a long sleeve on the outside. I had a winter coat on while waiting for the start and ditched it once we got moving. Gloves, hat, bluffs, arm sleeves, and a windbreaker or light jacket too is almost a must. Note, the park is big so there are some places that feel cooler than in another. So from time to time, we either put on or pull off what we were wearing. I think Camp Gunny is a bit nippier than the rest of the course.
At night, I added a third layer, it was a thin thermo material, maybe wool on the outside and that did the trick for me. I threw on a fourth layer, a light windbreaker after midnight. Since I was moving (running) fast to chase (soft) cutoffs, I did not feel the cold. In the past years, I would put a hoodie or even a winter coat in the middle of the night because my pace was too slow to generate enough heat. Night time was near 20s, subfreezing temperature and many people quitted because of the cold.
Coming into the race with prior years’ experience, I told myself not to worry too much about the race, but I did.
I made a pace chart on a spreadsheet, searching things for my drop bags, packing them and delivering them to the race a day before, and messing with my nutrition plan. It was hectic trying to pick up bibs two days out. Then I went to the race site again the day before. Plus, I did couple training runs there a few weeks out.
I was rushing to get the right stuff into drop bags even up to the last minutes. I started purchasing my food and supplies couple weeks out! The best purchased I did was headlamps from Costco for $25. They served me well, maybe more on it later. I need another pack because it was such a good deal.
The race consisted of 5 loops of 20 miles. Well, technically the first loop is 23 miles and the rest then are 19 miles. In my mind though, I treated them as equal distance for easy math/splits in my head. Generally, I was aiming for 6-6:15 ish hours per loop. With 5 loops meaning 30 hour ish finishing time. The race allows for 32 hours but really one should aim for 31 hours due to the earlier than expected cutoff on the last loop. You have to start the last loop with more than 6.5 hours or else it is very tough to finish. I personally, recommending minimum 7 hours for the last loop. Start the last looo at 7 AM and will be fine. For the 100K, start the last loop by 6/6:30 PM. Otherwise, tricky. Yes, the 100 milers could go at the 100k pace (almost, maybe at the first or 2nd loop).
There are three aid stations on the course with 3 additional water only locations. However this year, I did not use any water-only station to save time. I might reconsider that in future race as part of my race strategy. It worked out well this year for not stopping for water at any station but the first one.
I drank only about 1L of water sometimes even less on an entire loop 20 mile loop.
I did have an extra 12-16 oz of gaterade or various other liquid that I would sip for time to time. I actually did not use my extra bottle until the third loop. I had extra liquid like Red Bull in my drop bags, but because I was short on time, I did not get to use my drop bags often. Later in the race, I just skipped by aid stations or drop bags due to lack of time.
Oh, I wasn’t going to carry the extra Gatorade bottle but someone forgot it in the dinning area before the start of the race and a volunteer thought it was mine and rushed out with it saying I’ve forgotten it, so I took it. It was unopened. It might have been someone’s race plan to run with a bottle of Gatorade. Sorry, but thank you for whoever left me the bottle in the dinning hall. I would complain that it was a zero calorie version, but free is free.
I started off slow at the back of the pack and met other people around my pace. My friend Bruce was there and I wanted to run with him and so was Scott and his son Brandon. Then there was Kevin. Charlie, John, Jeremy, Caleb and Ben we met and chatted before race but they were way far ahead. I met my idol Phil for the first time, who I only know through his race reports for Eastern States. I finally met him in person. I think it was awesome. As the race got going we settled into our own pace. I was mostly with Scott and Bruce on the first loop though later they too either took off or fell behind my pace by the second loop. Scott’s wife was kind enough to crew me too at various aid stations before Scott and son dropped out. I was pressing for time then and it was good to have someone to help the resupplying when I came in. She was back at the finish to cheer.
The course has a portion of out and back and so I got to see some faster runners. Jeremy and friends were 3 miles ahead of me by end of the first loop. I anchored in the rear as the unofficial sweeper I called myself. I came across Sisou too twice, end of the first loop and then third loop. We chatted and were happily reunited again.
First two loops I maintained an average pace of 18 min. I wished I could have gone out faster. I thought I was doing great too on the third loop but I realized by the end of it, I was slipping behind with my pace. I wanted to finish the third loop around 12:30 am but I did not come in until 1:15 am. This makes finishing the fourth loop by 7:30 am tough. I realized I would have to run for it to make the cutoff.
Volunteers were great. I arrived middle of the night at Gunny 2:45 am, and I was going to be quick. They brought me hot cider. I was going to skip the aid station table. I drank it while I swapped out my headlamp for a fresh one. Note, pro tip, don’t change the batteries but swap to a new/fresh lamp to save time.
I was wearing the new headlamp I just brought from Costco. They could last 7 hours on low and 3-4 hours on medium brightness and 2 hours on high. I had it for 5-6 hours and I felt safer to swap it out before it dies. They were available at Costco, 3 for $25. Sorry don’t know the brand. They were well worth the money spent. They work like a $100 headlamp with all the features such as using rechargeable as well as can be used with AAA batteries. I trusted plain AAA battery headlamps over rechargeable ones in the past because I know with new batteries they will last me through the night but with rechargeable ones, you can’t ever be certain.
I got to say it works out well. The downside with AAA headlamps is they are dim. Costco ones are bright and the battery life is good enough. It just a bit heavier in my opinion but about just slightly more than my normal AAA headlamps. I had heavier lamps in the past. Of course, some of those $100 ones are super light.
So I started chasing my self imposed cutoffs on the fourth loop. I wanted to be at Gunny (mile 66/67) by 3:15 am and I arrived by 2:42 am. That was really good. I surprised myself of able to move that fast this late stage in the race. I knew I did it in previous years but this time was a bit harder without a pacer to draw motivation from.
I wanted to arrived next at Toofy by no later than 5:25 am and I did it by 5:12 am. If any later, I would not make the first morning cutoff. Then I wanted to reach Camp Remi (mile 81) by 7:25 (7:30 is the first official hard cutoff), I arrived there at 7:12 am. I added some cushion to my cutoffs. It was not right up to the cutoff, but generally 10-15 minutes to spare.
I had an extra motivation because about 6 miles out from Remi (middle of the fourth loop), I met Alex, who is a godsends fellow runner, as I was passing people one after another and I thought he was struggling on his 4th loop and did not realize he was on his fifth and last loop. He was in pain at the time was stopping for some ibuprofen (note, not recommended for ultra runners to take but that seems to what everyone I know does). He said he promised his wife to be finishing around 7 AM. So he and I partnered up, though none of us was going to wait for each other. We spurred each other on to run our heart out and chatted on hill climbs when slowed down. I had to make my morning cutoff, but he had a faster pace than me and is a really good strong runner. So we ran and we made it. He made it in like at 7:05. I arrived at 7:12, just a bit after he did.
I still had a final lap to go. There, Bruce asked if I am going out again or I asked him the same thing. I was suprised to see him still there. While I just got in so I needed fueling on water and stuff, he was ready to go. He waited for me a bit and that might be his undoing because he unfortunately missed a later cutoff by a few minutes. I believe he would have finished, if he got out the station ahead of me instead of waiting.
I knew the day time would warm up and I wanted to ditch my layers. I kept my gloves because my hands were freezing. That is another story of misplacing my gloves and head bluffs in my drop bags that I could not find them when I needed them. So my hands were cold to freezing the whole previous day until night fall when I realized I could use a spare set of socks as mitten and I wore my sock mittens. I finally found my gloves later on and had them on the whole final 6 hours of the race. Only regret was I did not took off my long pants in the morning. I could have ran with just shorts I had on underneath. The frictions and heat created chaeffing during the morning time.
Well, Bruce left first (not by much though) but I caught up in no time. We had to get to Gunny by 9:00. So I was running my heart out again and did not wait for Bruce, with the best hope of reaching it by 8:45. Running is a cruel sport. At any other time, I would have stopped to chat and walk with Bruce. I arrived at Gunny around 8:43. It gave me couple minutes of buffer for my next cutoff attempt.
The next cutoff at Toofy, which is mile 94 is at 11:30. I made some wrong mental math errors thinking I now have three hours to get there instead of 2 and half hours. So I wasted a bit of time with slow walking. I told myself, I pressed hard on the last loop and it took me 2.5 hours to get to Toofy, so if I realy want to make the cutoff, I should be running just as hard as the last loop regardless what the math says. So I started running all over again, pushing my pace at every opportunity. I got there by 11:20. The plan was to arrive before 11:25. I prayed hard as I ran, please don’t let me be cut with just a few minutes over. I was not sute how strict the aid station captain/timer was (the Bligans), though they are my friends. Rules are rules I told myself. I have to make a good effort to arrive on time.
From Toofy to Gunny, I knew I had enough time to finish. Another 2.5 hours but only 6 miles to go instead of 8.5 miles on my the last push. My pace slacked down a bit. I sat at every bench available whenever I saw one to rest my feet. The first two miles after Toofy was an eternity. Then I toughened up mentally because if I had continued at the current pace, I might not make it in by 2 pm. I must aim to reach the unmanned water station at midway (mile 97). I seriously believe I was the very last one on the course. So I again tried to go at a faster pace by brisk walking. I reached it around 12:30. I wanted to let Caroline know I had only 3 miles to go, but phone had no signal.
These last three miles are familiar to me. I tried to memorize every feature there is in my previous loops. I said there are two big hills to climb and three bridges to cross. And however many rock piles (1) to climb over. I was expecting every unusual tree and turn. I got to the final turn at 1:15. Caroline was waving at me near the top of the hill. Together, we climbed the rest of the way to the finish line.
Like every year, there was good finishing line food in the dinning hall. I got to wind down. Caught up on things. I avoided the DFL (known as dead last finishing) by finishing in 2nd from the last place. It was good enough. The whole time I thought I was the DFL.
Any lesson learned? The Goods: I finally have a good set of headlamps. When I have the chance, going to buy an extra pack for future races.
2nd: set short clear goals during the race. Reach for them. Thank you Jeremy for teaching me this at Grindstone when he paced me.
Bads: Have to train better next time, and not get caught behind the cutoffs. I had a pace chart written out but did not get to use it when I was rush for time. 3. Know where I put my stuff. I spent so much time packing my things (2 hours) but still could not find anything.
Nutrition/water was spot on. Clothing was almost perfect. I still packed too much in my drop bags, working on being more efficient, but it was better to overpack than underpack.
Thank you for friends, family, volunteers, race management team of making the race possible. Thank you Caroline, my love, for putting up with all my stresses and fusses in my preparation. Those who finished or did not finish, may God grant me another chance to come back and do it again and run with them.
So it has been some time since my last race. Holiday and such we are into December at the very end of the year.
So many things happened in personal life, with all the ups and downs, and racing, it is hard to say or remember what happened in between.
Of course, if I run I would remember. Last few events, I have sat out, maybe due to lack of money, motivation, and also to let my body recover from some hard runs I did such as Grindstone and the Virginia 100. Sometimes, it is not the body needed rest but the mind.
It was a season for me to do nothing. One stand out was going to Mountain Masochist 50 Run to volunteer. It was a course I hiked on in my earlier days 2016/2017. Never had I thought that trail was runnable. So it will be my future project to go back to run on it. That reminded me, I forgot to ask the Aid Station captain to sign my volunteering form for Vermont 100 for 2026. Oopsie.
The second event I did was going to Philadelphia to cheer Caroline for her marathon. I ran it two years ago now seemed ancient. I had a good time when I ran and I believe the condition was same this time. We had nice weather.
We executed the plan like my previous trip to Philly. We arrived a day before. My cousin happened to be there at the Convention Center for a gaming event and so I asked him to pick up the race Bib for Caroline, otherwise we would have been hard press to try to get there before the closing. We arrived two hours after closing (5 pm). It would have been tight if we had tried to pick up the bib ourselves.
With the assurance that the Bib was secured. We stopped for lunch in Virginia (Yechong, my favorite Korean place) and later met up my cousin in chinatown at a pizza place where I tried the authentic philly cheesesteak. It was too rush to truly enjoy my first cheesesteak in Philly, so one day, I got to go back and try again.
We stayed in New Jersey since hotels in Philly were either fully booked or many times the price we were willing to spend.
It meant the very next day, we had to get up 3 or 4 in the morning and we made the drive to Philly. I was worried that there would not be a place to park our car but there were plenty public parking garages near the community school. Sorry, I forgot which street that was on. Parking was around $12 for the whole day, which was good. We paid like $15 the night before for an hour in chinatown.
We stayed in the car until reasonable time to walk to the start. I was anxious to get my runner into the chute and into runner village. As I remembered, the walk might be a mile out and for me in the previous year, going to security took a long time. Caroline though breezed through the security check. The runner village where runners waited for the start was restricted to runners only, so I waited outside.
She did not use a drop bag and she wore a light jacket, so she was cold before the race even started. I had on plenty of clothes and winter coat and whole shebang so I was toasty. I saw many runners tossed away their throw-away jacket. She could have done the same like at the MCM earlier.
We waited and finally by 7 am, the first wave came out. Caroline lined up in the 5th wave. There were two sides of the street where runners would be running through. I stood on the midian and betting she would come through from the left. However, it happened just too fast and I did not see her went by. She could have gone by from the right.
When I was sure, no runners were left, I walked to mile 6, which was just a few blocks from the start for us, but runners had ran 6 miles by then. There, I set up to catch her. This time was a success. The street was narrower only like 5 runners deep, so it was easy to spot. Also, by now runners are pretty much slowing down. We could even read out runner’s names on their bibs and cheered by calling their names. I stayed maybe an hour and then had another breakfast at some food truck nearby.
So, I checked the map and followed the crowd to the next location by the river. This was maybe 3 miles away. It was so exciting with everyone screaming. For runners, it was their mile 12. They went up to the reservoir and then running back down, so we could see them twice. So I heckled Caroline again. She was moving well. Pace-wise, on pace for me to arrive exactly when she appeared. So I was please for not having missed her.
After the river section, it was my lunch time. I stopped by some grocery store and brought a bag of chips. Caroline had a long way to go to a turn around point at mile 20. I had plenty of time.
If I had a car or bike or know how to take the public transport, I could have gone to mile 20 to see her. I spent maybe two hours trying to get there but in the end I realized I wouldn’t make it so I started cutting across town to where I think she would be. It was just passed the cementery. Someone told me it was mile 23. Caroline arrived like a few minutes later. So it was perfect.
The final stop would be the finish line. I walked and run using a shortcut to mile 26, learning from earlier wandering around the race course. I think it was using 19th st or something. Caroline came in strong and happy. I was happy but she was tired for sure.
We ended our day at a dimsum restaurant nearby and then it was a long drive home.
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I ran the MCM turkey trot. Nothing say about that other than I love 10K.
At the NCR Marathon, I was not going to run originally, but Caroline signed up so why not do some light running too. I decided to do the Half marathon instead of the full. Caroline then dropped down from the full to run with me. We would receive the same swags anyway – a sweater and a blanket.
I was not as anxious doing a half than if it were a full marathon, knowing I could finish by the cutoff (5 hours). The day was cold but sunny. It has been a long time since running a half so I did not know how to pace. I told myself to go out slow. I used my recent 10k race as a guide, running around a 10 min pace. At the turn around, I pushed a bit harder. In my mind, Caroline was a few minutes ahead and was out of sight. But at the turn around, I saw her again. She just did a marathon a week ago so there was no way she could keep up my pace. Then the full marathon runners came back and caught up with four miles left to go. There I met the second place runner and he seemed struggling. So he said he will follow me, I said no, I am too slow for him. Indeed, he followed me and we finished together. He was dropped down to 5-6th place.
It was his first marathon. He said never again will run a marathon. Oh, brother, I told him to try again. To me, I will never get podium or anywhere near. I was just glad I could finish. I hope he will find joy in running.
We went back to the school and had a lot of soup and later had a good meal at Yechong, a Korean restaurant.
Happy Turkey Holiday and xmas if I am not able to post before then. I wish everyone a safe holiday.
It was my 6th time running Stone Mill. I believe you can’t step into the same river twice. Indeed. I can’t repeat the same race and have the same experience each time, but I still try. Stone Mill 50 miler is such a race. Usually, I try not to do a race again since there are so many races out there and I want to do as many as I can before getting too old. However, some races you just love it so much you want to go back for more and with each time I ran, I am adding more to the experience I had.
I have not reread last report [2024]. It is probably more the same. Each year new memories overlap the previous. I got to say, they all have been good.
Last couple times I ran it, I have gotten slower. This time was probably my slowest still. But a race is not just about having a finishing time but whether I enjoyed it. I knew I could have done in a faster time and maybe to finish together with some of my fast friends. Indeed, I ran with the same people each year, Wayne, David, and Jeremy. I didn’t know Jeremy last year but he has been my favorite running buddy. We just have great time out on the trail. This year too, Caroline joined us, and she is elevated above all my friends. It was an honor to able to share the course with her.
I finished 14:22:56. In the end, in any race it is about having a finishing time. Thank you for volunteers and race director of keeping it open long enough for me to finish. It could have been other way, uff-da. More below.
I elected the 1 hour early start, starting at 5 AM instead of 6 AM, like last year. Not because I did not think I would not finish in time, but it did come close. 13.5 hours would have been a struggle for me, for I run like an old man.
I got several of my friends to start early with me, that is, Caroline, David and Jeremy. Not that they are slow like me. I just need my buddies around me. David and I have done this race together the last three years. David got it down under 13.5 hours. Jeremy, maybe 12 or 11. Wayne around 10. Caroline, well, it was a good run for her.
This was David’s fourth Stone Mill, in keeping with the tradition, he did it. And I hope he will do the fifth time next year for a special award. Last year was my fifth and I got a jacket. David is a new ultra runner, he does not run as many ultras like me. This might be his 7 or 8th ultra. He has done the JFK, Stone Mill, Bull Run and Highland Sky, which seem to be a lot. But mine are uncountable…, well about a 100 for me in the same time frame. And every year since he has joined me running the Stone Mill. I felt special.
I was expecting to finish between 13.5-14.5 hours. I could run faster according to my prior year’s finishing times. However, this year, I have not trained to run as hard or fast as before and I was recovering from several recent hard 100 races. 13.5 hour finishing was the race’s (target/required) finishing time. The finish line doesn’t have a strict cutoff. They do want to go home around 8:30 pm and it was not good to make volunteers waiting around. People coming in after 13.5 would still be considered finishers. So that was good (unlike JFK another of our local area race). Stone Mill as I heard was started in counter to to the JFK50, with lower registration cost ($65 without shirt), generous cut offs (with an early start option), a return to the fun low key trail community event (many of my trail friends were there — it was a whole day saying hi as they passed me by).
The early start gave me a buffer so I would not have to worry about chasing cutoffs. In the end, I did kind of have to chase it, I came close to not making the 5:15 cutoff at Riffleford (mile 41/42). I believe the course for that section was maybe a mile longer than reported (or as planned in my pace chart) so I had to put effort in running to make the cutoff. I think the over all miles were closer to 51 or 52 miles. However, I did not wear a tracking watch so, all these extra miles are hearsay, to be taken with gain of salt. I know every year I felt that the section from Rt 28 to Riffleford is a bit longer but I’ve always forgotten to take that into account when planning my pacing strategy. So putting it here for next year, if I happen to reread this race report to allow myself plenty of time to get to Riffleford!
The weather was mild this year. I could have worn a T shirt and shorts. It was probably the warmest Stone Mill. Earlier morning hours were a bit chilly because it is fall, but could have done it in a Tee. Temperature warmed up quite quickly. I had a long sleeves on. I am not worry about being too hot. I think I had the long sleeve off around my waist as it got warm. I ran in shorts (I think, could not remember now).
I started with 20-30 other runners. David stayed with me for a while. I think Caroline ran at her own pace. For a while we lost her because she went ahead. I got slightly lost after missing a turn. David was with me at the time and said he thinks we should gone the other way. He was right. I was a bit embarrass because I was proud of myself to be able to do the race with my eyes close. Here I was lost.
God gives grace to the humble. Amen. We backtracked and found the turn we missed. I was not paying attention to turns since I have done this race so many times and never had gotten lost. There’s always something new every year.
I kept a steady pace. We reached the first aid station at mile 4, joking unofficial aid station since they were just setting it up. I did not need to stop. They had water ready for us.
Eventually, I caught with Caroline and stayed with her. David then went off ahead. Caroline veered off at the Clopper Lake when the regular people, those started later at 6 AM caught up. We did not know where she went, possibly to a rest room but later we saw her again at the Long Draught aid station. My plan was to start chasing David later in the afternoon as I have done in previous years and usually would catch up to him. That was my plan anyway. Eventually, Caroline caught up to me on Riffleford outbound and I ran with her.
Caroline and I arrived at near halfway point Pennyfield (mile 24) at 11:40 (we arrived maybe at 11:30, 11:40 was when I recorded leaving Pennifield). Timewise was slightly behind pace I set (10 mins or so) but I believe was within acceptable range to pull off a finish. Note, I’ve forgotten that the later section to Riffleford would be quite long and we should have been quick about getting through all aid stations. Uff-dah big time. We did tarry a bit maybe another 10-15 minutes, which is too much time to spend at an aid station since this is not a 100 miler. I was overconfident my handy-dandy pace chart that it couldn’t be wrong. I used the same procedure for setting a pace chart for all my races this year and always, they have been accurate. Well, garbage in-garbage out, is all I got to say. I got bad mileage data for Stone Mill, and hence the pace was a bit off.
Then we got on the C&O towpath. My legs were tired and like every year, I did not feel like running on the towpath. We walked first couple miles there and later broke into a jog to the Stone Mill Aid Station with was maybe about 4 miles away. It was beautiful and sunny. I was enjoying the views along the river.
This year, the Stone Mill (race’s namesake) aid station was set up inside the Stone Mill’s Ruins. In the past, the aid station was in the parking lot. It took more effort to move into the ruin building. I thought that was a very nice touch though. I also stayed very long at Stone Mill, maybe another 10-15 minutes than needed. I was sitting on a rock to rest my feet, since my legs were killing me. They were tired. Again, way too long. We were about 40 mins ahead on our pace chart plan of the hard cutoff there and I thought we had the luxury to rest a bit, which came back to bite us at the end.
After Stone Mill, there was some more road section before entering back onto the trail. We kept pace with another couple, Nathan and his wife, people I met at the MMT couple years ago. I believed we were moving at a decent pace. Nathan was holding his wife’s hand. People were commenting how romantic that was. I’d held Caroline’s too but she wants to run on her own. This was a 6-7 miles section on the Seneca Ridge Trail. It might not seem long on paper but actually was quite long. I think it was a section with the most climbs. We went up and down on hills and eventually arrived at mile 34-35, RT 28. Again, I overstayed a bit resting at the aid station. My friend Mike was there. So chatted a bit before leaving. We were ahead of the cutoff by maybe 40 minutes. I felt confident that according to my pace chart we should arrive at the next aid station by 4:50, well ahead of the next cutoff of 5:15.
On paper, we had about 8 miles to get there and we had 2.5 hours to do it. If only we had 3 hours to do this, I was thinking. It was not a lot of time but also not impossible to make it. I felt if we kept the pace we had been doing, we should be able to make it. However, I forgot that this section was a bit longer in real life than on paper. Likely it was 9.5 miles instead of 8 or 8.5. We would need to move at 15.8 min pace instead of 17 min pace we have been doing. That two mins over 9 miles equates to 18-20 minutes eating into our buffer. We needed that 20 minutes we had earlier.
The friend Nathan and his wife started running and passed us. I felt it might be too early to panic like they did. I would start running if it were 4 PM, an hour away from the cut. My pace chart projected of reaching the midpoint (water only) aid station about 3 miles out at 3:30. We could re-evaluate the pace then. 3:30 passed and we were not there yet. I started to get antsy. Caroline was dropping further back. I knew I would not pressure her to run faster. She would tell me to go on ahead anyway. She has to go at her pace. I knew at this point it was everyone is for themselves. I could sense the atmosphere from other runners we passed or those that passed us, a sense of urgency and desperation — meaning we likely the last ones on the course at the time. It is my special super power to sense when I might get sweep by the sweepers because I was usually near the last one on the course. So I started to walking faster hoping the aid station would be around the corner. I only arrive it after 3:45. There were several other runners around.
Now there is another 4 miles to go and about an hour to do so. I told myself I have to pick up my pace or else I wound be hard press to make the hard cutoff at Riffleford. If we did not tarry long at earlier aid stations, we would not have to rush to get to Riffleford. Always there are some tradeoffs.
So I started running, maybe at around a 12-15 min pace. I think it was more than 4 miles but I got to Riffleford by 4:55. 20 min ahead of the cutoff, and I was relatively back on pace according to my chart. I think every year, I hustled to get here to be on pace with my pace chart.
By now I knew I was safe, that is, plenty time to make the following cutoff at RT 355, which was at 7:20/7:40 and about 4-5 miles away. With two hours plus to do it, the next four miles was a luxury.
I ran the whole way from then, since there was no reason for me to walk or hold back. Just an itsy 4 miles. It is a race for me and I was guessing all my friends would soon be done and now be waiting for me. By pressing hard I reached the finish at 7:20, well ahead of my expected time of 7:45-8 pm, if I had walked.
At the time, I was not sure if Caroline was able to make the Riffleford’s cutoff or not. I last saw her about 4 miles before Riffleford and estimated she was 10 minutes behind of me (She was on one ridge while I was on the other at the time). I was guessing she could be 20 minutes behind me by the time I reached Riffleford, and so it would be down to the wire for her to get there by 5:10-5:15, right at the cutoff. Later, I found she missed it, maybe by a hair. My friend Nathan too, was only 5 minutes behind me, they made the cutoff but elected not to continue, for they legs gave out. Nathan could have finished it, but I believe he elected to stay with his runner to drop out.
As I arrived at the finish. Caroline was there already. The truth revealed, she arrived to the finish before me. I was trying to catch up to my friend David too but he bested me by an hour. At the time I did not realize it but was hoping to finish as early as by 7 pm and possibly a chance to catch him from behind. It was a long shot but it kept me motivated to run as fast as I could.
I was happy to reach the end. Finishing was not too hard, rather it was how soon. This concluded another year at Stone Mill. As for next year, I might or might not run it. If my friends are doing it, I likely would. And I have been on a streak 6 years in a row, and it would be good to keep the streak going. However, I would not want to run it base on that alone. I want to run it to challenge myself on the trail and being out there with friends, doing what I like. Stone Mill was a good run for me.
My first Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) was 2017. I had a big goal that year, that I would improve my time from my last race, and maybe even would run fast enough qualify for the Boston Marathon. Little did I know how hard that would be. To this day, BQ is still some distance dream. MCM reminds me of my once foolish attempt.
My focus since has slowly shifted away from running fast to running long. Some of my ultra friends have made it to Boston. So it is not totally impossible for me to try. Maybe one day. But whenever I run the MCM, there is a nagging thought, I must make the Boston. My friend Charlie ran a BQ time at the MCM this year!
I don’t run the MCM every year. My last time I ran was in 2023 (report). I generally prefer a longer distance, like a 50k. This year 50k was not an option due to the record number of runners signing up for its 50th anniversary, and they need all the resources for the normal event. I was not going to sign up but a few friends hyped me up for a chance to run with them. In the end due to the big crowd, I did not get a chance to see any of them either.
I was slower and still was recovering from a lot of hard races I did, the Eastern States from August, Grindstone 100 in mid September, and most recent the Virginia 100 a few weeks back during October. My legs were still stiff. The pain was gone unlike when I ran the Bluff in Connecticut. So I knew I was healing. Yet legs were still a bit sore. I was not expecting to run a fast time. Why am I even running you ask me? I’m dead. Fomo maybe.
MCM is Caroline’s special race. She has done it 100 times, she claimed it was her 25th, but she has couple of those she did that she did not count. 25th or 26th all the same to me. I used her time of last year to base off my pace chart for this year. I ran a 5 hour in 2017 and 2023 would still put me at around 5 hours. My feeling was I likely would get 6 hours.
Coming off from an ultra, where I generally set my pace at 16-17 min mile pace, checking the time required for the marathon was a shocker. It says minimal pace is 14 min. That is a 6 hour finishing time. A sub 24 in a Hundo. A very fast time. Wait, this is a marathon. I was thinking if could I pull that off.
My previous marathon race pace chart was made for a 4:30 finishing time. I am not going use that. So at the very last minute, in early morning hours before it was time to get up (we set our alarm at 4 am) and there I was at 3 am in bed furiously remaking my race pace chart on my phone to a 5:30:00 finishing time. Caroline ran a 5:30 last year, so it was good to base the time off that. They still had her splits on their webpage. It helped a lot. I felt better once that was done. Alarmed went off and up we went getting dress and to the race. I kind of hinted how much sleep I was getting. Near none because I was always too hyper before a race. Generally, I don’t sleep well.
We were fortunate to be able to park close to the start near Pentagon City Mall. I read later on the news that Metro was packed. More than packed, they called it crush load. I have seen photos and videos. Nowhere would I want to be near the crowd.
We walked to the Pentagon with thousands other people. Note, we knew we had to get there two hours before the start. Even then there were a ton of people already. We did wait around at a Starbucks earlier when it was not crowded. Caroline had to use the rest room. Yes, best advice is to hang out in a Starbucks, have breakfast before joining the crowd.
The walk to the Pentagon was not too far. I did not know the way, but Caroline was familiar with area. So she led the way. I don’t remember which way we went. Maybe went down the Army Navy Drive. Somehow eventually Pentagon came into view. It was still dark. None of us brought headlamps. Once we in the Pentagon’s parking lot, it was just a big wave people all going to the same direction. We joined those who were exiting from the Metro. We arrived at the race entrance for security check to enter the runner village. Security check was brief. I had a hydration vest on and thought it might cause delay like at the Philly marathon. Nope, a soldier took a look at it and my drop bag and waved us through.
So glad to get through that and we were off to UPS trucks location to stove away my drop bag. The trucks were numbered 1-40. My truck was 35, which was the first two digits of the bib number. I did not know it at the time and went to the nearnest truck to me, thinking truck 14 was an easy number to remember. Glad I did not have remember my truck number. I would have forgotten it by end of the race. There I was redirected to end of the field where the truck 35 was parked.
After that it was a walk to the start. In total I believed we walked 2 miles already. I suspect from our wave to the start line was another mile. Not that it matter to me but be warn, that is a lot of walking before we even started running if anyone is planning to run the MCM in the future.
People were everywhere. Many were sitting and stretching in the parking lot. Of course long lines at the potty.
I was glad I did not need to use the potty. Caroline did and she held it until we were about to start, thinking she was going to duck under a tree or bush to do her business. Oh there were a lot of people going to the brushes in the dark. Gross, yes. There were enough toilets I think for everyone, but still some people prefer the tree of scrubs for their business. Unfortunately or fortunately, a female soldier caught her as she was stepping away from the crowd and pointed her to use the real potty not too far ahead. She agreed. So I waited for her, since we were not moving too fast, since the crowd was just too big, to get to the real start line (arch). We were still in our corral at the time.
I was told the race in time past started officially at 8 am. This year the time was moved up to 7:20. I hope no one was late. Some will always be late.
We lined up in our corral. There were three waves, one for the red bibs, the yellow bibs and the green bibs. I had the green bib. Caroline has some grayish olive gold color different from mine since she was going the challenge run, that is the series of doing the half marathon plus the full marathon (not on the same weekend), and I was not sure what corral she was to be in. She said blue or something. There was no blue wave. I think she has the privilege to be in any corral. We lined up with the 5:00-5:30 group.
At 7:20, the howitzer fired, signaling the start. The race was officially underway. Note, there are roads or walkways on either side for people to get to their corrals. So we saw runners running on either side to rush up to the front either to get to their corral or to look friends, while we stood with the mass in the middle waiting for our turn to get to move up. There were no movement or very slowly were we moving. A few runners decided not to wait and left the crowd to go out onto the road to move ahead. I waited along with many others. No point to start early. It was like 40 minutes later, at 8:03 when I officially crossed the start line.
Not writing out of frustration, but for those who wanted to start earlier, they could move to the either side of the road.
There was no rush for me, since I knew it would be chip timed anyway, there would be no rush to get to the front. From experience of my first MCM, I knew I would run into a walk of people even if I rush. The best strategy was to trust that the race organizer would space out different wave groups so as not bunch together too much. Indeed, this year experience was much better than my former years. Maybe my pace is slower and there were not that many of us in the back since many have rushed on ahead.
I joined the 5:30 pace group. They were doing walk-run, 1 min walk and 2 min run. Their run was like 10 min pace and the walk was brisk fast walk. Still the first few miles, they were slightly behind pace, according to my pace chart. We should be doing around a 13 min pace, but we were moving at a 14 min pace. I was a bit impatient. Caroline already ran off by herself. I could hear her somewhere over the noise of the crowd, hoohoo-ing as she ran.
Slowly but surely I got ahead of the 5:30 group as we crossed on the Key Bridge into Georgetown. The sun was beautiful over the Potomac. I remember during the 50k, the instructions were 50k goes left and marathon course goes to the right. Today, everyone would be turning right into Georgetown. The crowd was cheering as we reached Georgetown.
I carried my hydration pack so I did not need to stop for water. From Georgetown to Rock Creek. Seeing the 5k marker and then 10k. I did a bit of course study the night before so I knew the course, at least the important junctions, though I wish I knew every mile of it. The turn around at Rock Creek was at mile 7.5. That was a long way. My feet started get tired by mile 8. We saw the slack wagons (buses) that marked the tail end of the marathon, and they would pick up runners who decided to drop or who could not make the pace. We cheered runners who were at the very back.
I was happy once we got to the Kennedy Center and on our way to Haynes Point. Soon we reached the Blue mile where the halfway point is. Caroline just so happened to pop right up from behind. I passed her somewhere and did realize. It reminded me I caught up to her there in 2023 when I was running the 50k.
Another thing I looked toward at Haynes Point was someone set a table with adult beverages. I was hoping they would be there this year. And they were. Oh so lovely. They had OJ, Whiskey shot, and Miller Lite. I chose the W. That got me going and off I went.
We reached mile 15 and arrived at the DC gauntlet. A runner was struggling so hard. This was where people started bonking, aka, hitting the walk in marathon speak. I reassured him he will beat the Bridge, the checkpoint at mile 20 we need cross by 1:33. He has two hours and half, plenty of time. People around started asking how many more miles and such. I felt like an experienced runner on this course, and started giving out this and that stats.
At couple miles later an ultra friend called out. Wow who could find me in this sea of faces? It was Keith! Then David at mile 19, and Mike at mile 20. My wheel came off at mile 20. I was out of water and I finished all my gummies. I have beat the Bridge, the 14 street bridge crossing over the Potomac into Crystal City. I have plenty of time to beat the Crystal City Gaunlet. But I was not running any more.
I had to start walking. Just like in ultras, when you can’t run any more, you fall back to trusty walking pace. There were sea of people. It was a joy to see so many runners. On the other bridge, I395, was bumper to bumper traffic, some cars would toot their horns at us and we waved back at them. What a long bridge! A mile! Good thing it was not very hot this year.
Once arrived on the other side, we ran around a big parking lot and entered into Crystal City. The crowd and the energy their was off the chart. People were crowding into the running lanes. Whole street was filled with people shouting and all. Note, we were not fast any more. I could hardly keep a foot in front of another as we stumbled down Crystal City Drive. It was a mile out and turn around. We had a few miles left.
I reached 40k at 5 hours. Less than 2 miles to go. My legs failed me the second time at mile 25. I knew the last mile is always the longest. We just had to walk it out. Many were walking and some were pushing hard to finish it. It was humbling, as fast as I wanted to go, I had to walk it. Highway 110, there were no crowd here. Just a long road. We knew a hill at the end waiting for us. And soon enough the hill came into sight. Mustering all I had, we ran up and into the finishing chute. Time of 5:19.
It was a great finish. The time was way better than I had hoped for. This was a similar time as the Virginia Marathon I did in spring, but that one had way more hills. I felt I ran fast and I ran hard.
We slowly made our way out the finisher village. People were everywhere. I gathered my drop bag, changed my clothes, and had my meal. For those not from the area, there are plenty reataurants right in Rosslyn as runners exited out. I went to a Korean Carryout, Seoul Spice and had two bowls of bulgogi rice. Caroline finished 20 minutes after me. She met me up outside. All said and done it was 5 pm by the time we left. We went out for a real dinner to Yechong (in Annadale) to mark our successful run. I could always eat some more.
We did not use metro but had to walk couple miles back to Pentagon City. I later read Metro had serious issues that day. Many took a long time to get to where needed to get to and some couldn’t get to where needed since they closed Rosslyn station for couple hours due to crowding. The line for Metro was wrapping around the block. I was happy I did not have to rely on Metro like in did in other years.
Any take away from this race? It was a fun run to test truly what my recent speed is. I like it being short enough and hard enough, yes right at the tip between a hard ultra and a short run. Marathon is a good balance for me. I like hard long race, and a marathon just hits the spot. I know, a lot of friend would not consider a marathon as an easy run. I have done enough (on my personal tracking page, I reached 100 races of marathon or longer distances). Wohoo.
Hello #8 (last year anniversary): Somehow, it is my 8th year here on WordPress and 9th year of running marathons. How I remember it this year is the charge on my credit card (I did not sign up for the free version; the paid version has no ads). What can be better to celebrate by writing a race report! An ultra too. The reason I started out blogging was to journal my leap into my first ultramarathon. I think was a 50k in December 2017 (Virginia 1st Landing Seashore 50k, now goes by a different name, I might run it again). How the time flies.
Now onto Bimbler in Connecticut I recently did.
I ran the Bimbler’s Bluff the last few years, and have been going there with my girlfriend, Caroline.
Bimbler’s LakeFall colors on Bimbler’s Bluff (mile 9)
My friend ran by the Bluff’s overlook and said sorry no time to look. We’ll come back next year to enjoy the view. I took a quick snap and moved on.
My friend likes to heckle me, runner what are you stopping for when I stopped to retie my shoelaces and enjoyed the view. Yes, I got to pick up my pace too.
For this race, we have 11 hours from the extra hour of the earlier start. Other people have 10 hours. The early start was given for those runner who would not able to finish within the 9 hours and RD did not want runners to feel the stress of chasing cutoffs. This year, I really needed the earlier start because I had no confident that I could make the cutoffs.
Even with the extra hour, I had to keep moving in order to finish and also each aid station had their separate cutoff, with the last being the strictest (2 hours to run 9 miles to reach it, whereas the early cutoffs were around 2 hours to do 4-6 miles). Indeed, I would have to arrive by 4 pm if I were to run under 9 hours, and I was 15 minutes late and would have been cut if not for the early start.
I have a streak of coming in as the back of the pack runners in races so I know full well I got to keep moving to finish.
This year was especially true having came off from some recent hard races such as the Virginia 100, my legs had not been ready to do the Bluff.
I expected I would be walking the course. The day started off nice and warm at 42 F (5 C) and later would rise to 65 (18 C). Technically I could wear a shirt and maybe arm sleeves and be warm enough. Since I suffered from hypothermia not too long ago, even a bit cold got me scare. I bundled up with long sleeves and sweat pants and added a fleece on top. It was pretty early on I knew I did not need a jacket, so that became an extra item I carried. I did not mind carry extra stuff.
My pace was slow at the start and soon was the last one in our group of early starters. My girlfriend and I were battling to see who would take the lead. During one of her breaks, I snuck ahead of her. She soon though caught back up. She always then chased me forever until we got to mile 15, when our pace diverged. Though I got an update that she was only 10 minutes behind me at mile 30.
I came into the race with the injury from the Virginia 100. So at each aid station, I asked myself if I have the ability to get to the next station. Each time, I felt I could handle the pain/sore and went out again. Note to others, don’t run with an injury. Don’t do what I did. I need to preach that to myself too.
The first aid station was 9 miles out. There many faster runners started catching up and passing us. It served as a third of the way in the race. Note, the long stretch between aid stations. It’s an ultra so 7-8 miles are the norm.
Then by noon I reached mile 15, that mentally is like a halfway point but I knew the course was long. A fellow runner (Roy) told me that it is 33 miles and not 31 miles. I knew that deep down the course is long but hearing from an experienced runner reinforced it, that I had to run steady and be patience. It is a trail race so, distances are measured with an ish to the end. Plus/minus a few miles are acceptable to us. We knew we were getting our money worth. The race was really low cost.
Then mile 22 came. I reached there by 2 pm, pretty much in line with my last year split time. I had fun racing with a guy called Kevin. He was walking and I was walking. He arrived exhausted, so was I. Later though he passed me. He was part of the normal start so in theory he was still an hour faster than me.
I was two hours ahead of the cutoff. We had 9 miles to get to 5 pm station. 3 hours to do 9 miles is doable. This next section was on a double track (jeep road), so in theory everyone was moving faster. I wish I could run, seeing so many other runners passing me in full sprint.
I reached the final aid station at 4:15 pm. Now I gave myself a challenge if I could do 2.3 miles in 45 minutes. Note, this section is one of the toughest because it has a lot of roots, and tricky footing as well as rolling hills. It was hard to run fast.
I climbed the last hill hearing someone clapping and cheering. There was Roy, a guy I was trying chase down too but he finished like an hour ahead of me and came back out here cheering runners. I ran in to the finish, the clock was 4:59:59 (pm), but maybe because it was chip timed, my actual elapsed time was over 10 hours. Oh well. It was a good attempt to get under 10.
In 2023, I was waiting there until 5:15 when RD told me to pick up my friend Caroline because she did not make it pass the last aid station. This year, I was wondering the same if I needed to drive out to rescue her. Words were she’s gotten past the Rt 80 aid station and could arrive any minute now, since she was only 10-15 minutes behind me. We waited. Roy, our mutual friend went back out on the course to look for her. I stayed at the finish in case they want to send me somewhere. 6 pm came. Then we saw her coming in from the other side of the road. We knew she must have gotten off course or something but we were glad she made it back safely. Roy then came back out of the woods in the nick of time, so we did not have to go searching for him either. This race has no sweepers (there might have been for earlier sections but not here at the end). Other sweepers were handing in the course marking flags. That could be worrisome if the markings got taking down while runners were still out on the course. We had everyone accounted for by then. It was a good race.
Like any other years, we had to drive back home in Virginia from Connecticut. A six hours drive could easy extended to 8 or more due to traffic and rest stops along the way. We did not arrive home until 3 in the morning. Of course, we both had to work the next day (which is the very same day, since it was past midnight by time we arrived, but in my mind work is still the next day because I haven’t gone to bed yet). We tried to snooze snooze couple hours before daybreak and hope to survive work.
As for dinner, it was inconsequential. We tried going into New Haven on our way back at our usual place but could not find the restaurant. Possibly it has closed down. Panda Express at the Thomas Edison Rest Area on the Turnpike was the backup choice.
Time and season changes. We would like our experience to be like the former years. We wanted to see familiar faces and friends. We left Connecticut with a heavy heart due to receiving bad news some the people we know at the race from prior years are suffering with a serious illness or have a recent death in their family and so we did not get to see them this year. It was part of life cycle. This was my third time going up Connecticut, and we hope to make it one more time next year. I believe it was Caroline’s 9th Bimbler and next year would the 10th. We will see.
We praised our RD to able to negotiate with the weather god of giving us such a nice day to run. Thank you to all the volunteers for being out there.
It was my fifth 100 Mile race this year. I did not plan to run this especially since it was the race’s inaugural year. I’d rather let others be the test bunnies but in the end I glad I did show up and put on a performance of a lifetime. A master class in running a 100 mile, Antin’s edition.
A friend and I joked about that we have to find a race we call it our own such that from its first year to the last, we would go back year after year until we couldn’t do it any more. To be the ground pounder for that race like 40 times. I think it is crazy to run the same 100 miler that many times over. Truly a groundhog day. But we ultra runners are a crazy bunch so that how I signed up. Maybe this will be a race I will do every year.
Every race has its story. I hope my race report will bring it out. On the surface, it seems a rather boring race. Flat. Mostly out and back. Plenty of time to do it. I asked myself what would be the challenge? Well there were plenty, and of course like any true 100, (bad) things happened unexpectedly and a good race is how as runners we make it right again. We call it grit. Rubber hitting the road. I don’t think I have the grit but those around surely did, especially my girlfriend. One who would not let me quit in many of my 100s. This time I saw it with my own eye, running along side her.
The race was supposed to take place last year but it was canceled due to Hurricane Helene hitting through southwest Virginia. The race was pushed to this year. I was flirting to run or not to run till I was on my way to my first race of the year, the Old Dominion, which was another Virginia 100, I signed up. Oh, an interjection. A few of us wanted to do all Virginia 100s in one year too. We now have 8-9 100s in our state. They (or we) called themselves the Joe 6-pack. Back then there were only 6 100s in Virginia, but now more and more pop up.
Another reason I signed up was many stella runners (friends) signed up and I wanted to be with them. Most important of all was my girlfriend signed up. I had to go regardless if I were running or not. Better to be there out on the course than sitting waiting at the finish line. In the end many of them did not run and only just me and my girlfriend ran. Everyone else bailed out, not sure their reasons. They had their reasons, maybe conflict of interest or they were unwell. I on the otherhand was just back from couple bad races, and hope that this one would make everything right.
Don’t let this imply that the race was not good. It was super good. We had best weather and many finishers. Plus, this race gave 32 hours where many only give 30 hours to do. Spoiler, your truly used all available time (31:08) almost earned the DFL award (also known as the last runner) to finish it. That what makes it a awesome race. A lot of tears and pain to get to the finish line.
Third reason, was I was there to pace my girlfriend. I did not really want to, since we usually fight and have our disagreements on how to run a race. Let just say my way might be unconventional or I am just inexperience. She would never follow my pace anyway. So it was really ended up she was pacing me. I think probably was too fast a pace for me.
Probably I could have paced her regardless if they allowed or not, but by signing up, there was no if-or-but. I was out there on the course as one of the runners.
This was a twist in that the race ended up way tougher than I thought. I think it was the lack of training for this particular kind of super flat course. The race hurt my feet due to the repetitive pounding! Unlike other trail races where there are hills to break up the same motion, there are none for a flat course. The RD warned us it is hard (or harder) to run on a flat course. It did get hard for me at the final third of the race. More will be told later.
Note, my girlfriend asked why she was not mentioned more in many of my previous races, she wants to make an appearance here, I don’t want to be mean, but she should write her own report. This will mostly be about me and my race. Yes, she was there. I hoped she enjoyed her time and the challenged she went through. Her being there was incidental (I would have run either way) but did have a major effect in the end for my race.
Let’s start from the beginning. So on our way to a 100 mile back in June, I went and signed up this race when my girlfriend brought told me about it. I guess she has been training for a whole year. For me, I checked that money just was available, I got paid, and my schedule was open.
Schedule being open meant I don’t have another race that weekend but I did not check that I have a 50 mile the weekend before and a 100 miler two/three weeks earlier. Maybe I did know and thought i could handle it. Hey, it is flat how bad can it be.
Note, I was eyeing this race since last year, as it was on my to-do list, but money was tight last year, so I had to take care of my A-list races first before jumping on the B-list. For those who don’t know, it is better to sign up the next race before running a race since usually after running a 100 mile (or a marathon), one would never want to do another one again. That was my secret of signing up so many marathons or 100s the last couple years.
I ran 16 x 100 mile races so far and the goal is to reach 100. Interestingly, I met a runner (Rosie), she is on her way to running 100 x 100 milers, and at this race it was her 98th. We were rooting for her hard to reach her goal. Not sure when she started her goal of 100 but it seems like she runs every weekend. So, reaching a 100 could be achieved within 2-3 years. I think 5 years is very reasonable.
This year, I have done one almost every month starting from June. 5 so far with one more left for the year. I have to keep up at this rate to reach my 100 x 100 by time when I retired.
The five 100s I ran this year:
June, Old Dominion
July: Vermont 100
August: Eastern States
September: Grindstone 100
October: Virginia 100
I have one more left for the year, Devil Dog in December, rounding to total six for the year. I did not finish Old Dominion or Eastern States, so possibly only have 4 finishes this year.
It was almost a pattern, one race I would not finish and then the next I would. If I did not finish Virginia 100, I would have to go back next year. 50-60% completion rate seems like a poor planning, but that was the idea if I reach 50% I know the challenge is hard enough and I am not underestimating or overestimating myself. If I have 100% completion rate, it maybe is too easy for me.
All five races I have done this year have been hard, and each finish (Vermont, Grindstone and Virginia 100) was a pyrrhic victory.
Remember in Old Dominion, I was doing on time well until mile 75. Then I blew away all my lead and ended up not finishing.
Vermont 100 was almost the same. I got to Camp 10-Bear (mile 70), then race got hard, after midnight and there were doubts if I could pull a finish. But I did and finished at near 29 hour (1 hour before the cut off).
Eastern States was a repeat of the same. I started just by walking early. The race gave 36 hours, so I should have enough time. Somewhere between 4-6 am, I lost a lot of time due to fatique and sleepiness. I was able to cling on until 10:30 mile 75-80. The race ended with a ride to the finish. I had a pacer too, where I did not have one at Old Dominion or Vermont! I did get lost, but if I have been a stronger runner, that would not been an issue. Getting lost is part of the fun of running a 100 or any trail races.
At Grinstone, mile 80 at Camp Todd, I got fresh strength. It was raining. I was wet and cold. The extra time at the aid station allowed me to change into dry shirt and put on rain jacket helped me stay in the race. The end was not pretty but got it done with 15 minutes left on the clock. That was what different between Eastern States and Grindstone, time to burn at the end.
There seems to be a pattern that mile 70-80 is pivot moment whether I will finish or not finish a race. It is similar to mile 20 in a marathon, called hitting the wall.
At Old Dominion, I blamed it on the weather. Rain came around 4 AM and it wrecked my running pace. I slipped and fell. Injured my toes and so forth. There were no cutoffs but finishing was not realistic and so I asked for a ride back. I was very tired.
At Eastern States, it was a battle of time. There was just not enough time to do it and zero chance for error. I slept three times during the night. Used up 15 minutes, I could have used at the end. Also I had some issues with technology. My phone was not showing me the way (the map was frozen). It was one of the portion of the course that I have skipped studying because I thought it should be easy. So got lost there. That sealed my fate. As a lesson from that race was to prepare better for the night run and for fatique by bringing Red Bull and caffeinated drinks. Also, study the course well!
At the Virginia 100, it was my leg acting up at 4 am in the morning. I got it done, barely, finished at 31:08:33, 8 minutes ahead of the last runner. It was a slow walk to the finish from mile 78.
All these flashbacks are a bit boring but hopefully they serve a purpose for my future races. It is a learning process. We learn from our mistakes.
So back at the beginning, I was a bit nervous as I headed down to Max Meadows, which is 6 miles from Fort Chiswell. We went there a day before to familarize the driving directions. It was not hard. There are plenty hotels and restaurants nearby.
We stayed in Whytheville, maybe another 10 miles away. I would recommend staying at Fort Chiswell. Prices are relatively inexpensive. Camping is an option, but hotels are way better for post race. Because Monday was a holiday, making staying the night after the race a better choice, without rushing to get home for work.
The drive down was long and food was bad. We had Subway – Cheese and Sub but I chose the wrong kind of cheese. Not that Subway was a bad choice, but I just customized it poorly. Anyway, let not complain about the food. Dinner was good. We had all you can eat buffet for 11 dollars. Where? I forgot the name, but it was near Days Inn. Yes, if stay there in Whytheville, stay at the Days Inn, where it is near all kind or restaursnts. They tempted us with senior discount! Sweet and what a steal. Though they forgot to put the discount in our final bill because I did not look old enough. Oh well. The food was good though and worth the buck.
I could eat anything before the race. So food was not an issue. I cared more about what to wear. The forecast was to be cold and rainy like my time in Utah. 42 F. I could handle 42 degree but just not the wetness. So having learned from my last weekend fiasco in Utah, I dressed as warm as I could and put plenty of shirts and jackets in my drop bags. I rather carry on me than not being able to get warm. Once you have been through like in Utah, I don’t ever want to be cold again.
About the drop bags, we were all required to use 2 Gal Zip-loc clear plastic bag. The size of a 2 gallon bag is about the size of a standard 8×11 paper. It is small for a typical drop bag we used in a race. The RD stated that any other bags would not be accepted. It was a last minute scramble the night before to find 2 Gal Zip-loc bags. My fellow runner and girlfriend told me she started not like about this race. Hey, it was for our good we were limit by what we could bring.
For me, it was a challenge to put in my drop bags all the things I think I needed, such as headlamps, coffees, granolas, socks, shoes! How on earth do you fit a pair of shoes into a zip loc? In the end shoes did not make the cut and neither did my trekking poles. Wait for it. More to the Trekking poles. They did not fit into the bag. I prioritize caffeinated drinks adn food over everything. I put in canned soups.
We went to bib pickup on Friday night. Drop bags were to be collected the next day before the race, which is a bit unusual. I was fine with it because it gave me more time to decide what to be placed in them. The start/finish location was easy to find. It was one straight road from Fort Criswell, then made a left turn and another left, we were there. There were signs. Follow them and should be good.
The race required us to purchase parking passes. It was more an honor system. We purchased a 2 day pass, but were handed only one day ticket during the commotion. Yes, should have double checked. In the end it was not an issue. I don’t think anyone checked, not on race day nor at the finish. Crew vehicle too needed a separate parking pass for various crew stations since some of the places are on private properties. Parking passes were $7-10 a day. We did not have a crew so that was not a thing for us. We did not have take care of their parking passes.
The next day, we arrived at the race bright and early (it was dark and foggy). Still I think 50 cars beat us to the start. We wanted to park at the very front and be close to the start and finish, thinking when we came by during middle of the run, we could use our car as an aid station. Nope, the course did not go through the parking lot. It did not matter at the end, but it was good after we finish, because it was just a short distance for me to limp back to the car. My girlfriend moved the car. Oh how did we get a closer spot even though we showed up late? My friend moved her car closer because I was near the last to finish (second to the last). Everyone already left by then so plenty of room to park. Also, everyone was parking on the first row, we followed the latecomers to start a second row so we were lucky to be parked closer to the starting line than other people. It did not matter though since the aid station was not in the parking lot but on the course itself.
We dropped off the 3 drop bags allowed, Gambetta (mile 28 and 35-ish), Hiawasie (mile 68 and 78), and Start/Finish (Mile 54 and 92). Each of those we would pass by twice. Those who run will need to strategize what to put in each of them.
The early station at Gambetta did not matter too much, maybe some food, drinks and socks.
The night time station such as Hiawasie is more important to have warmer clothes. Headlamps and spare batteries for all locations.
The course was a 3-way out and back, a sideway Y shape. The finish is right at the center. Two branches go to left (Fries) and the other branch to right (Draper). We were running on a rail to trail. The course was not marked though except at the turn arounds and at the couple turns we made. Almost everyone should know where to turn even if the signs were removed. But we appreciated the signs.
We started in the dark. No one mentioned that we did not bring our trekking poles along. I remembered earlier but then forgot while eating breakfast. There were too many things going on. There was a morning devotion for Christians and believers, so while attending, I forgot many things. It was not important at the time. It came back to bite me the next day toward the end of the race.
Foggy morning
The first 20 miles out to Fries were peaceful. We went at a 16 ish min pace, sometimes as fast as 14 other time dropping to a fast walking pace of 18. In early stage there were fewer aid stations. I think there were only two. One was at Jubilee (mile 9) and the other was at Fries Junction (mile 15), which was a water only station (with sodas). It was a fancy water only station. The cutoff was around 11:30, we reached it an hour early.
The second major stop for us was at Gambetta, mile 28 ish. It was the second out and back from the Fries Junction. We went to the waterfall for a turn around. Miles started adding up. My legs were tired. By evening we reached halfway. From Gamretta we went back to Jubilee. My friend Scott was at the aid station, volunteering. He has been going from station to station.
I did not need much help, so I sent him over to help other people. I had packed evening I needed in my drop bag, including food, clothes, socks, drinks. Night was coming, so I needed to put on reflector vest, christmas light decoration (be-seen reflector), warmer clothes, gloves, and some rain protection. The whole process took me 20 minutes to put on. Yes, I spent way too much time, but I thought it was worth the troubles. Caroline, my friend, already left 10 minutes ago. So out the aid station I went chasing her. I wouldn’t see Scott again until past midnight at Hiawasee, mile 68.
Between Hiawasee was a water only aid station called The Depot. On our way there, we saw faster runners coming back. Most are fast and still moving. As the night deepened, runners were slowing down. We rarely passed anyone now since we too were slowing down ourselves. Right before we got to Hiawasee, the wheel came off for my girlfriend. She was in pain. It was the witching hours (midnight). We were basically limping from that point on. Caroline found some stick from side and used it as a trekking pole. Later, I did the same. Don’t belittle the stick. It got me to the end. It was only two miles from Hiawasee but it took us an hour to get there. I knew we were in serious trouble (meaning no way to get to the finish).
Not much could be said for the rest of the night. My friend found herself another pole and used both as her trekking poles. Our pace were no longer in sync. I knew I had to abandone her if I want to finish the race myself. I went on ahead to Draper where the turning around was and arrived there around 3 am. It felt a mile longer than on paper. We were told it was 5.1 mile but I believe it was like 6.1 or longer.
My pace continued to degrade on my way back from Draper. Here the rest of the field passed me except for a few. From Draper, we just had to backtrack to Hiawasee, and then to Depot, and back to Start and Finish. At the start and finish, we still have another short out-and-back to Austinville. There were only 28 miles left.
It seems short but actually it took me all night. Morning would come soon at 7 am. I was hoping to get to Depot by then. It was like waiting for water to boil, only it never would. My right leg now started to develop a slight cramp, in the back of my knee. I would massage it from time to time to ease the pain. At first, it was some discomfort and slight pulling, but as the miles piled on, it got to the point I had to stop and rest every so often. It was to the point, where I think reaching the Depot was no longer possible. When hope was about to fade, Depot showed up. The time was 7:30 am, which was still within the projected time for a finish. Two other runners were there filling up their bottles. I told them, I don’t think I could make it back to the finish. They said they would let the volunteers know so they could send someone back here to pick me up. I told them likely we were the last three runners on the course. They agreed.
So I filled up my pack and found a bench to sit on. I still wanted to slowly make my way back to the start but moving at the race required pace did not seem possible. It was about 8 miles to the Start/Finish aid station. I had to be back by 11 ish to be still in the race. I was doing calculations in my head. Yes, that likely be the time if I would get there. If I get there, then I could quit.
While sitting on the bench on the side, a runner and someone on a bike passed by. The runner turned and saw my bib and exclaimed, you are one of the 100 miler runners. I said yes. I planned to give up. She then said, they were the course sweepers. So got up from the bench and started walking with them, and also explained my leg hurt and I could not run any more. I have been going from bench to bench, to sit down and then walk some more. There generally a bench every mile or so.
The eight remaining mile to mile 92 went by eventually. The sweepers were commenting, I was moving at 17 mile pace and I could still make the cut off. Indeed, I got to the aid station at 10 am. We had 4 remaining hours to do last 8 miles. I decided not to drop at mile 92.
Though I wanted to stop there for good but thinking if my girlfriend were there she would not let me stop. She in more serious pain had walked the night before to Draper, I now could walk 4 miles to Austinville. It was in God’s hand whether I could make it back from Austinville or not. He raises up kings and deposes them as he pleases. Some race I could do it and some I can’t. I accepted my fate. I got a sense of relieve as I thought of a kid song about Peter and James went to pray and they healed a crippled man, who then went jumping and leaping, praising God. I wanted to jump and dance too. Amazingly strength returned and I went jumping and leaping figurative out to Austinville and passed a friend and 2nd to last runner, Josh. Thus I avoided the DFL, being the very last runner.
On the way out to the last out and back to Austinville, I saw all the previous runners who were still on the course. We cheered for each others. I was still maintaining a 17 min mile pace even though I knew a 25+ min pace would get me a buckle. So the buckle was certain. I came in at 1:08:33. I took me a little over 3 hours to do the last 8 miles.
Railroad TunnelThe BuckleTrestle, one of many we ran on
Conclusion: Hard to come up with anything to say. I almost thought I could not finish and then I did. There were so many twists and turns, like first I was way confident that it would be an easy race and wasn’t. I am very glad in the end. A time on the trail was a spiritual renewal. This race also helps me to rethink everything about running. One was trekking poles helped a ton. 100 mile has a way to strip everything bare and to go back to the fundamentals.
As for future races, everything is on hold so far. I have to dig deep and decide what race I really want to do, otherwise, I likely get more dnfs and not finish what I set out to do.
My girlfriend drove me back home. It was always good to have transportation arranged beforehand. Food must have been good, but the memory of the trip is fading fast. I think we went to Tony’s for some connolies and fried squids. I woke up somehow at the restaurant back home. I am grateful to the RD and all the volunteers. I made new friends. It was a ton of fun. That’s ultra in a few words.
(I wrote this while on the way to another race, Bluff, hope to get that report out soon, if ever. MCM is coming too, so I want to focus on that).
Uffdah Utah, Another DNF — a did not finish race, but it was a blessing in disguised.
My 50 mile DC Peaks race in Salt Lake City ended as soon as I started after 10-ish into it at the first aid station, due to hypothermia. I wanted to continue but the staff noticed my uncontrollable shivering and decided to pull me out of the race. There is no arguing for a medical reason. We never argue with volunteers since that would be an automatic DNF and ban from all future races. We always treat volunteers well.
At the time, I was debating inside me if to continue or not before being pulled. The staff made the decision easier for me. There was no more ifs, only obey and accept the outcome. The decision was then out of my hand. I was shivering uncontrollably even long after getting back to the hotel and after changing into my warm and dry clothes. It was always the right call to be cut for health reason. And I was glad I did not continue. Who knows what would have happened if I did not get warm and dry and were out on the trail for another few hours before I get to the next aid station. It would likely have ended in a medical emergency or worse. So it was definitely a right call though the decision was not for me to make at the time.
The race was originally to be started at 5, and I originally planned for an even earlier start at 4 am (which was an option at this race). Due to the wet weather condition, the course was rerouted to a lower elevation and thus should have been an “easier” course and the start time was pushed back to 6 am for everyone (in the 50 miler).
I showed up, and felt I was appropriately dressed for the occasion with layered clothes and 3 rain jackets with me. I only had one on at the time, with the other two packed away. Wind was blowing but I felt warm enough and a bit hot as I started running. I incorrectly believed that soon the sun would be up and temperature would continue to rise and it would have been enough and even with a little rain added, it was not anything I could not handle as I have done this many times in the past. That proved wrong real fast as the rain and cold wind started to beat down on us.
The rain started when I was about a mile in. It was a light rain at first and I had on a light rain jacket. It was still sufficient at the time. Then the wind blew on my wet clothes. The thing is running in the rain would get us wet regardless what we wear. Pretty soon, what I wore was insufficient to keep the cold draft from getting in.
Our route for the first 10 miles was an out and back lollipop with some rolling hills and one major climb near the turn around. It was nothing too technical. Most of the time, we were on the exposed side of the ridge overlooking houses below, with occasionally dipped under treelines and into tree covers. Those time were great, being sheltered away from the rain and wind. But the sheltered portions of the course were short and few in between. At the end of the outbound, morning came and we climbed our first mountain (pass) maybe about couple thousands of feet upward with the gray sky above. It was not too hard. But we were met with the really cold rain, and it might have been sleets or freezing rain, plus the wind blowing at us constantly and we had nowhere to hide. My temperature started to drop and to me it was no longer fun.
Our pace was slow on the ascent. Soon, in my mind I was thinking how much longer before we get back and was wishing to be back in a sheltered place. My hands though had both mitten and glove on were soaked and cold. The gloves were not waterproof. How I wished I had them someway somehow, even if they were kitcken sink gloves (as a friend of mine wore them in a race at the Reverse Ring before and how ridiculous he looks I thought and now I could not be happier if I had those on), just something to keep my hands dry and warm. My pants too were not waterproof either. Legs were of a lesser concern. Still, they were losing heat and having them covered and keeping them warm would have done me much good. At the time, I knew my shirts were wet. Running in the rain, you get wet regardless what you wear. The key is having clothing that could still provide warmth even when they are wet. I was longing for my fleece jacket even a puffy jacket would have be good but I did not have those with me. They were in the car, back at home. After a few hours plastered by my icy wet shirt, my body no longer could maintain its core temperature.
At the time, I did not know the actual temperature, but when I was rescued and on my way back to the hotel, the car temperature reading was 42F at 10:30 AM. So, around 6-7 AM, the windchill and wet temperature was probably around 32-35 F. I did not have much winter gear on. I was running as if it were spring or cooler summer night. The temperature might have been even lower at the pass or top of the ridge. I was really lucky, my body did not give out even earlier on.
I got into the aid station at mile 10-12-ish. Seeing the two blazing fire bins was a welcome sight. Rain seemed to pour harder as we huddled under the aid station’s canopy. Nobody wanted to leave the comfortable aid station and get back into the rain. Everyone was staying close. My first order of business was to eat something and to stand next to the fire for some warmth. However, after 10-15 minutes there, I was not getting any warmer. Volunteers helped me with my hydration vest and clothes. I was asking around who would be quitting there. Everyone was saying hell no, but none wanted to leave either. Some eventually left and continued on with their races. But most of us were just standing there hunching over the fire.
It was not a crew aid station, so no friends or families were around. How I wish my crew and friend would be there anyhow, so at least I could go inside a car, which is generally a no no too, a ground for DQ (disqualification). The next best thing was to put on some of drier clothes I had brought along, like the rain poncho. I had to get my hydration vest off first that is under my rain jacket to reach my poncho that was stored in one of the pockets. So I had to put off the jacket before taking off my hydration vest. From the vest, I got out the rain poncho. It all crumpled up into a small pod and it had to be expanded and fluffed out. This was taking a bit long time to do since my hands no longer obeying me. Everything was wet and sticking and it was hard to take things off or put on.
It was a bit too late to put on a rain poncho, but I felt I might give/trap more heat if I have it on. I did pack a hodini in my hydration vest, but again it was too late for that. I did not bother with it. If I had that on earlier, it might have saved my race. So because I was wet and cold and was getting colder every minute. It took me maybe half an hour or so to put everything back on at the aid station even with couple people around me helping. I think the staff realized by then, I was in no condition to go back out onto the trail and thus they pulled me a few minutes after checking on me.
At the time, I think they also were talking about calling S-R (search and rescue) for some runners they had not accounted for. So they did not want to risk me going back out either.
I was shaken like leaves from head to toes and was miserable. The words from the aid station captain was a welcome relieved to me.
I was grateful they also asked someone to put me in a van afterward and turned the heat on high while I called and waited for my crew and friend to pick me up. I was shivering the whole time during the wait. Even talking was hard. I pretty much continue shaking even hours later.
There were others who came in with me and who did not leave the aid station either. I think they later ended up dropping there. They were not as cold as I was, but the weather was not great. Throughout the day, the rain continued. The temperature did rise to around 52-53 by noon before dropping back down to low 40s. It would have been a very long miserable day even if I could continue on had I not been pulled from the race or suffered from hypothermia.
Lesson learned, dress warmly especially when it is winter/fall rain. I brought rain pants but at the last minute before the race start, I decided not to use it since they were baggy and would get in the way of running.
I could have put on more layers early in the race. I knew it was going to rain, and I should have put on the rain poncho at the start or soon after the rain started instead of waiting till I got to the aid station when it was already too late. Again, not saying whether the outcome might have been any different, but definitely would have increased the odds of me remaining in the race. It is what it is.
Did the altitude limit my running? I think it did. After 5 miles, people started running on the downhills on the way back to the aid station at the start, I found myself unable to run and keep up with them even though I did not think they were moving very fast, which was very rare for me not to be able to keep up. It was definitely a sign something was wrong. I think the altitude was affecting my ability to run. Another explantion was I was already worned out from the rain, wind and the cold temperature and my body had overspent all its energy.
So it was a very short race for me.
The positive outcome was I got out of the rain before many other runners. I was back at the hotel for a good rest and then a good long meal. We did go back to the course to one of the aid stations to pick up my drop bag. It was good to see some runners were still running/moving strong.
For lunch, we got to try a Korean hot soup in Salt Lake City’s Chinatown and Galbi (flavored grilled meat). Then we went for some good tea and dessert at a bakery next door named 85C, I like anything hot that day. Too bad they did not served hot ginger tea. Finally we spent a nice evening to unwind at a friend’s house before flying home very early the next morning. In all, it was a running trip became a vacation. If not for me dropping out, none of those would have happened.
As for the trip, all was not lost, since I went out to Salt Lake couple days before the race, I was able to hike some of trails on Thrusday afternoon after we landed. That was all worth it. As for Friday, I we did not do much other than having lunch at the Rooster (got to try Utah beer) with a local friend and went for bib pickup.
The slower pace of life rather than the DC rush-rush was refreshing. I have an intense schedule for the rest of the month ahead, and so the 10 mile run actually put me in a good position for some later uncoming races. It definitely would prepare me for a winter race I want to do in February (The Reverse Ring and possibly a Massanutten’s Revenge) in term what kind of clothes I needed to wear.
Hiking around Spring Tunnel (near the finish area). It was such good weather couple days before the race but quickly turned gloomy on the race day. I got a good sunburn too for being out too long. Talk about a quick change of the weather.
I do want to go back again. There are so many other races on my schedule, I am not sure if I would be able to do so next year. From this race, I was introduced to Goat Rattler (Ogden 100), which was either hosted by the same race organization or related. I wanted to attempt it in the future, possible be next year if the stars aligned. September though is a very busy month for racing. They say it is harder than the Bear or Wasatch 100. So, the reason I was in Utah I miss those big mountains in the west when I was first encountered them last year at Wasatch 100. Definitely, I want to be back in Utah for more.
For some races I knew what I want to get out of it and and so would be very easy to do a race report.
However for Grindstone, I came in with no goals. The race kind of sneaked up on me. Obviously I wanted it done but also I did not want to disappoint myself for setting my hope too high. Main reason was my training was not anything to write about and after two years of not being able to get to the finish line, I knew how hard the race was befor doing it. I was not sure if I could finish it this year.
At the beginning of the race, the Race Director gave us his last bit of thoughts, he said to know your “Why” of why you are running. And Hold on to it when things get tough. It would get tough. We needed to hold on to what keep us going.
Grindstone was a very tough course. It requires digging very deep to pull it through. Like any races, there will always be an easy way out. Also equally true is there’s no easy 100 mile. At another equally hard race earlier, The Eastern States, I chose to give up after mile 80 when things got hard. I told my pacer, I don’t need another finisher buckle, I just want the pain to end. Grindstone got to that point, that finishing was no longer a goal, ending the misery was at least that was the prior year. I suspected many went through the same thought processs, should I call it quit or should I stay in for more of it. However, the finish, when I did reach it was never more sweeter. Three years and after three attempts, finally crossed the finish line for the first time. It was not a pretty finish, but a struggle to the very end, and almost come in at the very last finisher, known as the DFL. Some said, I have grit but I think I was just lucky. I had to fight to the bitter end. So, the race was like that. A lot of slogging through the dark hours.
In a race, people will either remember you as the fastest guy or the slowest guy. There is no shame as being the last one, except it is equally hard to get it. It means being out on the course the longest, and suffering the longest too. I almost earned the DFL. I just finished 10 minutes ahead of the last guy.
My journey to Grindstone began several years ago and I had no memory why I wanted to run it. Probably just out of curiousity because it was near where I live and many runners have done it.
I remembered I was very excited to receive the presale discounted price. The race had just been sold to UTMB. The old website was still available but the new website on a different address was also there. I signed up. Then I met some of people who were doing training run, Adrian, Mel, Scott (scott-n-stuff), and others. And I enjoyed those times. As previously alluded to it, I did not finish that year. So, as an ultra runner, you don’t just give up after a failed attempt. I signed up the following year and another year. Same result until this time around. There is no special formula of why this year is different. Well Maybe. I got to thank all the people who put up with me and helped me through. They are the reason why this year is different.
There are many reasons why I love running. Grindstone was just a race that scratched many of those itches. Mostly I was impressed or intrique by the challenge. Another reason was the people you get to meet and to be friends, and third the time spent on the course, and journey itself being alone in solitude was priceless.
I do love the Grindstone course. It uses part of the Twot loop (the Wild Oak Trail) which I have been on a lot of time. I did several camping trips there and love to hike and run there. Hone Quarry is also nearby. It is very beautiful. Reddish Knob is a well known lookout point. I love the race for such beauty. I love the remoteness but also knowing that towns are just only 30 minutes away.
About the people. In the past, it was about me. I go there to run. This year, the focus was really the cast around me. My community, several of my dearest friends came together and got me through the finish. They say it is the runner who runs, but I say without the various supports from friends and family, it would not have been possible for me to finish. I had two pacers who took turn between 10 to 12 hours each to cover over 22 hours. It is a luxury to have a pacer. Indeed, it increased my odds significantly.
As for race preparation, from last year report, I wrote I needed to have better rest on day before the race, monitor my nutrition, to eat at aid stations, know my pace, and stay awake at night.
A big focus is placed on resting before the race is because the race started in the evening at 6 pm, meaning for the slower people like me, we would be spending two nights out on the trail. Not having that extra rest would either make or break the race. Dealing with sleep deprivation is big for the second night. My previous race ar Eastern States did not end well because I was overcome by sleep and did not move as fast as I needed during the night (and that was only for one night, but at Grindstone, we deal with two nights). I really have no idea how I got through except with a lot of caffeine.
I usually don’t sleep well the night before a big race. It was no exception this time. I worried about my drop bags and spent whole evening packing them till late in the night. One thing I did do differently from last year was to take a day off on the race day. And use the extra time to drive to the course. It was only two hours away but we had the whole Friday morning set aside for traveling. It was a low stress day. Then I napped in the afternoon until the race start.
As for what I packed in my drop bags, I put a lot of food, drinks (sodas), canned coffee, Red Bull for energy. They did the trick! I did not pack caffeine pills but I got some from my pacer and they were very effective at 250ml each equivalent to a can of 16 oz coffee. I did not struggle with sleep walking/hallucination during the race. I was alert and perky even on the second night.
On food, it was very important for long race like this to eat regularly and eat well. Last year, I believed I ran out of energy due to not having enough food (calories) by mile 80, thus making the last 20 miles very hard. So this year, I have granola and cashew nuts in ziplock bags at every crewed station. I would go in stop and grab my food bag to take it with me out. I also had cans of chicken noodle soup to slurp down, Cambells or Progresso, and if I could not finish the can, I would tranfer the soup into a ziplock and take it with me on my way out. I think that work out really well. I had also crackers. I love pita bread I carried on me and nimbled at it from time to time.
It is especially true for Grindstone. Not to complain or anything, I think the food from the aid stations was not enough. Maybe because being a tail end runner, many aid stations already were out of food by the time I came by. So word to the wise, pack your own food. BYOD.
The play by play account of this race was not that exciting. It is a lot of grinding. We started in the evening. We ran a mile or so around the camp area. By the time we left the camp Natural Chimneys, it was half hour after the start. I saw Caroline, my g friend and pacer one last time before leaving. She would be sleeping at the campground. Since she would be pacing me the next morning, I did not want her to meet at the first crew stop at 4 am, mile 32.
Jeremy my other pacer made it to the campsite just in time to see me off. I thought I would miss him since he said he was not going to arrive until after 6:00. He was running a bit late. Originally, he was going to come on Saturday afternoon to pace me through the second evening. But the race required pacers to register at the start on Friday, so Jeremy rushed to get there. We said a brief hello as I ran by him. He was offering his hat if I needed. It was like a lucky sight to see all my pacers at the start of the race.
Stephanie, Scott Lee’s wife also waved excitingly and said hi when I ran by. At the time I did not recognize her but later in the race, I got to see her several times. She even crewed me when my friends arrived late.
We also came across another friend who crewed me and paced me at other races, Wayne. He would be pacing Dan, another fellow friend and runner this time. I was hoping during the race to stay with Wayne and Dan for company when my pacers were not around. It ended up, we did.
The race then headed to the first aid station at Lick Run at mile 5-6. The sunset of first night is always gorgeous. We went through the countryside. Some farmers sat in their barns waving at us as we passed by. It was a peaceful scene. This was a section I did with Caroline a week before. It was good to tread on familiar ground.
I started as one of the last three or four runners to cross the start line so, we were with a bunch of slower runners. No one really talked. I think because some runners were from overseas so they could not speak English. I met a guy from Kentucky. His name now escaped me. I think it could have been Dustin, but I am not sure. We were buddy buddy to Lick Run and then we climbed the first hill. There our pace started to differ. He went on ahead and later I caught up and passed him and he passed me back by the time we reached Wolf Ridge at mile 12-13. After that, I have no idea.
I was going at a much slower pace this year than before. We passed the first two aid stations with 30 mins margin before the cut. I knew, it probably hard to maintain the buffer after the next aid station at Reddish Knob. It was a 9 mile climb. I arrived by midnight there. I think they close at 12:30 or 1 am. I was glad I made it.
From there it is about 5 miles to Little Bald. The goal was to get there by 1 am so I would have plenty time to descend to North River Gap.
From Reddish Knob to Little Bald was not technical. We ran mostly on jeep or fire road. The footing was easy. I was tired by now, because we were at least 22 miles in. During this time, I came across a guy without a shirt. I came to know him as Dustin. He and I pretty much leapfrogged each other for the entire race.
The dude has no concept of distance, cutoffs, split time for the race and would ask me how far to the next station or how much time we have left. So I would tell him, we have to reach North River before 4 am. Dustin could run, so he would run ahead. I was much stronger at hill climbing, so I would caught up to Dustin whenever there was a hill.
Dustin later told me he got to North River Gap 10 mins before I arrived. I arrived at 3:50 am. I had just enough time to fill up my water and went out before its cutoff.
At this point, there were quite a few who dropped at North River. This is typical as I have seen year after year. The first 30 miles kind of hit runners hard. Also quite a few runners also left with me out of the station. Interestingly there were maybe 10 or so runners who got lost after leaving the North River Gap. The course turned right and hike a quarter mile on the road before making a left on the Wild Oak Trail to the swinging bridge. There was a sign on the road but no direction were given to turn left. So a bunch of runners continue running on the road for a mile or so before discovering they were off course and had to come back. They arrived back at the sign as I was about to turn left onto the trail. So I asked them, what does the sign say. One runner said, it was caution, slow down for runners — direction given to vehicles instead of us runners. They were mad, and they quickly passed me and climb the Lookout Mountain. I went at my own pace.
I hoped to arrive at Lookout Mountain station by 5:30. I was half hour late. Morning would be dawn soon. At Lookout mountain, I passed several runners, and some were not doing so good. At the aid station, one runner was having stommach issue. Dustin and I quickly left the station to press on to climb Hankey and then the descent to Dowells Draft, where our crew awaited.
Last year I arrived at Dowells draft at 7:45, and I hoped for a repeat. But last year, I was running at this portion since it was very runnable with slight uphill. Not this year. I walked most of the time until it was really on downhill. I passed maybe 5-6 runners including Dustin, thinking they might not make it. Dustin said he had enough and I thought he was going to call it quit once he reached Dowells Draft.
It took me 40 minutes to descend the two-ish miles. I knew according to my pace chart, I need to leave Dowells Draft by 8:30 to have a chance at finishing. I arrived at 8:15. Caroline who was going to pace me was not there. A woman came up to me said Caroline is not here. I assumed she must be someone I know. She said she is Scott Lee’s wife. And Scott just passed couple minutes ago. I ran with Scott in many races, so I definitely know Scott. Glad I finally got to meet his wife. Wayne left maybe 5 minutes, she told me. That was an important information. I might not be able catch Scott but I might be able to catch up to Wayne. She told me also to expect rain. I had nothing to do differently. We had to carry a jacket and rain poncho as part of the required gear. But I guess, mentally preparing for the rain was good, since before the race start, rain was not likely at all. She then offered to help me to get food, got my drop bag, filled up my water and helped me empty my trash. Then off I go. The whole exchange was about 4-5 minutes fast, since I know I was kind of 10-15 minutes behind pace.
From Dowells Draft to Dry Branch is a long climb up on Mt Crawford. It was like 4 miles up and 2 miles down. We had two hours to get to Dry Branch. It was at this section that first place and many other front runners would pass us on their way back, coming from the opposite direction.
As I was on my way to Crawford, my other pacer and friend Jeremy caught up to me. He said something about switching with Caroline, and he would pace me in the morning while Caroline would pace me at night and hope that I would not mind. Nope, not at all. I was going to go out by myself, but having a pacer was definitely many times better than not having one. Jeremy would pace me from mile 45 to 70. We had a good time, sharing many highs lows from 8:30 in the morning until 5:30 in the evening. He would have gone on to pace me at night too if he didn’t have a 200 mile coming up in a few days.
We caught up to our mutual friend Wayne and Dan as we climbed up to Elliot Knob. Dan was not doing well. We passed Dan and ran our hardest on the crazy descent. This was a very rocky two miles like the Bird Knob of MMT. We passed whole slew of runners. They might have thought the two of us were crazy. I believe, here I might have passed another friend Mango from Carolina, but I did not know he was running in the race or expected him to be there and so I did not recognize him. I was focusing on my footwork at the time and did not look up. He is a youtuber, so I might find myself in his video.
We got to Cold Spring and greeted by volunteers and a lot of gnats. It was mile 61, 100K in. There were 5 miles on the fire road to Dry Branch. Time was running out. We had to be back by 3:30 pm. Jeremy and I set our goal to get back by 3 so I would have sufficient time to climb Crawford a second time to go back to Dowells. I would say, this was my hardest point on Saturday. I was sleepy. My feet started bothering me (a rock or something was scratching me) inside my right shoe, I was chafed in between my legs and other areas. Aid station had no more food left or very few selections (at least from what I could see). They said sweepers were coming and there were only a dozen or so runners left on the secrion we on. They were started check runners who needed a ride back (assuming runners wanting to drop). Jeremy told me to hurry get out the station. I did. He would catch up in couple minutes. Also, the sky was making rumbling noises, because an impending storm was about to come.
Off I went. Climbing Crawford was not fun. Our consolation was going back should be a shorter climb. 2 miles up and 4 miles down. Jeremy lended me one of his trekking poles and with that I made it back to Dowells by 5:20. We had until 6pm there.
Caroline, Stephanie (Scott’s Wife) and many others were there. Wayne and Dan arrived not long either. Wayne said don’t let him catch up to me. Stephanie said Scott just left. Caroline got my water and food. I had a concoction of Red Bull, iced tea, coffee, and chicken noodle soup, which was really a bad idea for my stommach started hurting. As for my granola, I grabbed the bag with too much force and everything spilled out all over the ground when the bag or zipper exploded. I was about to change sock too since my feet were killing me. I ended up just emptying whatever sand and grits inside my shoes and that was fine for the rest of the race. We did not have time to change. While it seemed fast with so many people helping me, this was the longest stop. We stayed maybe 15 minutes.
Caroline went out with me and paced me from mile 70 to the finish, mile 104. The course was longer than 100. I knew that but I tried not to think of it. We focused just the mile ahead or the hill ahead at the time. It was a very long night. Rain did come. We rushed down to Magic Moss aid station, it was only second time I actually ran fast in this race. I thought incorrectly that the cutoff at Magic Moss was 7:30 (instead of 8 pm) and we arrived there at 7:29 pm. Once, I cleared that aid station, we had until 9:30 to get to Camp Todd, which was 5 miles away. It was very doable to do 5 miles in two hours. Many people passed us on the road portion, including Dustin. It was my first time to realize Dustin did not drop. He was running strong. We saw him a few more times. He finished 15 minutes ahead of me.
We arrived at Camp Todd by 9:00. I wanted to go in and go out making a quick turn around. However, I was wet and cold so I decided to better change into dry clothes. That took 20 minutes. I had helps from a good volunteer, but I was cold and could not move much.
After Camp Todd, Caroline said I was on fire reaching Little Bald in about an hour. At the top, Dustin asked me how much time we had left. I told him, we had 3 hours to do the next six miles and we had to arrive before 1:45 am at North River Gap 2. This was plenty of time. I arrived there at 1:20. This was almost the same time as last year.
Wayne and Jeremy was there to greet us. As usual, I got my food. Dried off myself. They wished me luck. We had a little over 4 hours to do the last 13 miles, which was very doable.
There were like 20 runners coming into the aid station at North River, but only maybe 5-6 went back out. By the time I left there, I had an eerie feeling I was the last runner. That proves almost true. Three or four runners passed me on the road.
We made the mile climb up to Tower Trail. I had a deja vu of last year. We were at this place the same time and same place with the same struggle. My feet could barely lifted another step. The ground was wet and slick muddy. Eventually, we reached the Signal Tower. Even though, Caroline and I came out a week ahead to run this specific section, it was now very foreign to me. Caroline found the trail to turn off. I was doubting if that was correct, so I paused to double check the map on my phone. She was correct. Surprisingly it was quite a very long descent. I had expected it to be half a mile but it ended up a mile and half. Three times longer. Unlike last year though, strength started return on the descent and I started running again. We caught up to a runner. I believed he was the real DFL, final runner to finish.
Once we reached the Lick Run’s Jeep Trail, I knew, we got it down. This year would not be like last year. We climbed like 7 hills on Lick Run before hearing the welcome voice of the aid station people at mile 99. Costi, my friend was there doing the graveyard shift. I could not be happier. He snapped a selfie of us together and sent it off to the guys in our group chat. There was very little I needed at the final aid station. Only thing left was to make the push of the final 4.5 miles to the finish. Caroline said I finally was happy because my mood was very bad for the last twelve hours.
Caroline ran on ahead. She was excited to be on pavement. Not me though. Every step my feet hurt again due to some raw blisters. I preferred the earlier softer ground on the trail. I started running somewhat but at a very slow 18 min mile run. Eventually, the campground came into view. They hurried me to get it done. We went on a half mile trail around the camp to a big field. We crossed to the other side of the field where they have the barricade and fences up to formed the finish chute. We ran through. The announcer greeted us. I finished in 35:46. Scott and his wife who finished more than an hour ahead were there to greet us. We watched as the final runner came in. I avoided the DFL.
I did not have any special insight after finishing the race. It was a feeling of calm that this freaking devilish race is finally over. Reflecting more on it, the race helped me to focus on the fundamentals, that is, nutrition, water, rest, pacing, and the ultra spirit of one step at a time, keep moving and eventually the end will come.
Another, I was super grateful for friends who gave up their time and weekend to help me accomplish a personal goal. They didn’t get a buckle for their work. It is good to have friends, where your goal becomes theirs too.
It was not a thrilling finish, but was good enough. A finish is a finish. We all felt a sense of relieve that I don’t have to go to back to Grindstone for another year.
In awe 