Signed up for Seneca 50K last night before going to bed after seeing their runsignup notification email. This is like a race I have run many times. It felt like a well familiar race. However, last year was my first time doing it and right at the start of the pandemic in our area. It left an impression, maybe a deep one. Plus I did their fall companion race, Stone Mill 50, and I was really training for that one thinking I might not able to finish if I didn’t train.
One of my memories was there were a lot of doubts if the race would be held. The race went forward. None of us wore masks at the time. We were only concerned if it would be canceled since many others were canceling that week. The race kind of served as a bookend, before life turned up-side-down by the pandemic (the life-as-we-know-it). I hope this year race would be another bookend, where life would revert to normal (we can only hope).
This year, everyone has become wiser. There are more requirements to run this race, both for organizers and us as participants. No spectators allowed. No award ceremony. We will have wave-start at every 3 mins (like they did at stone mill). There won’t be cups. We have to carry our own bottles. Not too hard for me since I have been doing that in many races. Also many people usually carry hydration pak in ultras, quite normal for ultras, except this race is in the city (suburb), so a lot city folks are not used to the ultra format.
I look forward to it because I have no upcoming races until May and kind of felt weird of not having something to train for. Not that I am training for Seneca since it is literally 2 weeks away and I just recovered from the 100 mile. I felt alright now after almost 4 weeks of light running. I can say I have recovered. My speed is not good but that can be improved. I am aiming for a 7 hour finish (last year I did it in 6.5 hours). If I am lucky I might able to repeat the 6.5 hour feat.
Last three weeks since coming back from Rocky Raccoon, I gain a new appreciation for training from watching twitch.tv of people doing music practices. Not that I have difficulty with mine in running, but watching others gave me an extra motivation. Those people whether they are professionals or young aspiring musicians, they put countless hours into their craft. They truly enjoy it. It is natural when you enjoy what you are doing, you spend time on it.
I saw my so call training runs go from 30 mins twice a week back in 2016, at the time I thought that was a lot, to now almost every day and spending hours outdoor and it is still not very much. I hardly scratch the surface of my ‘craft’.
The body is amazing. It can bear up to all the training I did. I try to be careful of not overdoing it or risk injury. So far so good.
In awe 