In awe

I was about to write the same things as I did back on Day300, and something in me prompted myself to check the previous review. It was good thing I went back to reread it, so I won’t repeat myself again.

Guess what? I already repeated myself in yesterday post Day349, in which I listed all the virtual races I did and the long runs around my neighborhood. That was part of the things I wrote in my last review. It was not word for word, but I totally forgot I did it before and had done it so throroughly.

So what did I do in the last three months?

It has been a bit of ups and downs (e.g.). First of all not long after Day300, I finished the GVRAT (1000K). Then I slacked a bit (no actually a lot, for whole summer). Then I ran a bit because something special came up, and then slacked a bit again. This happened over and over until the summer was over. Slacking/down time was pretty much a constant theme.

Laurel#4 trip was kind of cool, and I forgot all about it. It opened my eyes, that all the running for GVRAT and in the spring I did, had not prepared me for Laurel (Laurel Highland Ultra). It was a good thing, the race got deferred/postponed (first to September, later on to next year). I was going to run 70.5 miles that day (June 18?), but only was able to pull 8 miles, (gate to 8) and back, and it was one of exhausting runs I did. I was dying on that run. The worse thing about that day was I rolled my ankle a few times (and it had not healed even when August came).

RYOR Camp Anderson weekend was like the Laurel weekend. I almost forgot all about it. RYOR is almost like BYOB (bring your own beer) but for running (Run your own race). It was a virtual event over July, we could go there to Camp Anderson to do the run any time during July, but almost everyone showed up on that last weekend, July 25?, and it was crazy for corona time. I had one of the best time this summer because of it. I had my second most challenging run of the summer too there. I threw up in the middle of it (I think from heat exhausion). The friendship formed from it was great! Very similar story as the Laurel weekend. A ton of fun.

The rest of the summer was spent on my two attempts at doing the GSER (Atlanta Virtual race) (one, two). Both times I thought I had a great chance to crack it, especially the second time around. There were tons of preparation went into them. And there were tons of entries with before and the aftermath. I must have written about 10 or more entries. They are all heavy reading, even I don’t want to reread them again and give you guys the highlights.

The post can be ended here, the rest of the entries, can be seen as life in under corona/covid19 time. Doing the GSER, I was able to travel to Atlanta. This was rare and scary. Both times, my impression was flying out from an empty airport and there was the surreal feeling, but then landed in a packed airport at the destination.

The first trip, was when we had some improvement in the fight with the corona and life was improving. People had been staying home for 3-4 months and were starting to come back out again (like me). On my first trip I was scared of catching the virus. When I came back, I put myself in a two-week of self quarantine. Then over the summer, cases of Covid19 resurged around the country. Georgia was one of those states with very high number infection (top 5). The governor refused to close back down the state but went ahead with many measures to encourage the full reopening (wearing masks were discouraged argueably; fighting for personal freedom). Some of my posts were about tracking the Georgia infection numbers. I can see a difference on my second trip there compare with my first, with places in full reopening. Not sure if I explored this in an entry.

I did not write much on BLM (Black Lives Matter, but it was a big news here in the US and spreaded around the world of the unequal treatment of Black people by law enforcement, due to continued revelations of blacks being shot and killed by police – seen by the public as wrongful deaths.

It is a whole slew of divisive issues (because some don’t see it as a big deal – as our president said so do white people are being shot and said more white people are being shot at by police than black so what the big deal (my word); and now it has shifted to social disorder – rioting and we need to have a strong militarized police for law and order, whereas there were those calling to defund/disband the police). There were marches and then rioting in many cities and people being killed – just chaos.

While in Atlanta I was nervous. Even here while running around my neighborhood, I was nervous when I saw marches. It reminded me of my time down in Chile how I saw good cities ruined by riots and protests.

Personally, what affected me more, was being lock-in the house. By now we have been in stage 3 of the reopening since July. Many restrictions were lifted and life returned almost to normal. We could go places now (like camping). Yet we are still in it. I haven’t met up with any of my hiking or running buddies. We don’t go out for a meal any more. Even seeing each other on Zoom (video chat) was exhausting. I spent many days watching Youtube videos and was growing fat (e.g. many such posts). Psychologically/mentally, I was affected some what. I had a bit of depression for being at home for so long. I stopped running too. Readers were asking why I don’t set goals like I did in the spring? I don’t have an answer. I bet many others are feeling the stress of the covid and our nation, especially now schools restarted.

A bit look ahead. I haven’t decided whether this is the last review of the series or there’ll be a Day 400 or Day 500. I felt the day numbering has gone high enough I want to have a bookend and call it a year and to start over! Why am I doing review in the first place? It is to help me reach toward my goals. When I am not sure what my goals are, it is a good time to restart again. When the day numbering has reached such a high number, it has kind of lost its meaning. A good question to ask, is how have I changed since Day1.