In awe

I’ll try to get back to blogging more frequently.

Indeed many things happened. I selectively chose what to write, with most of the time being race reports. There are a lot more going on than racing! Funny, the things I posted on Facebook that I thought no one would look at attracted a lot of attention this week! It was a picture from my first race this year (Holiday Lake). I only am posting on Facebook once a year. I sneaked in my finish line picture and for couple weeks the algorithm didn’t pick it up. Once it, there were an explosion of comments and likes. To my facebook audiene the event was fresh, but to me and what I wrote on here (WP), that was already old news. There were many things happened in the interim, like the OBX 100, that is many times more significant than the Holiday Lake race. However, that race does have good ‘optic’. It is like fake news, I choose what to spin.

Things also slow down with my life now after the 100 mile is done. I am in a recovery mode. My skins are peeling from the sunburn. They are ugly. I feel like a reptile. Not that they are bad, I just don’t want to look like one.

Blackbeard’s Revenge was an amazing race. I still from time to time think back on it. Like today while out running a severe storm blew in. I could have taken shelter, but as wind whipped up, it reminded me back at the race when we were crossing over the bridge that afternoon. It was exciting facing the headwinds and were only fifty mile in. I like the intensity of the storm. We told ourselves, we had to get the race done. I do miss the race. We did get it done.

It was a relief to get the race out of the way. I was not stressed about it but I am always a bit anxious when there’s a race. OBX was a pretty big race.

I don’t remember what I did the week afterward. It was just resting for the body to recover.

Last weekend, I went to South Mountain (SOBO) in New Jersey, originally to run a marathon. Originally I wanted to find out what SOBO stands for, if it is like FOMO, fear of missing out. It was just a boring accronym. It was a 6 hour timed event. I had an interesting trip. I woke up at 2 am in the middle of the night and drove 4 and half hour almost to New York City. Arrived on a rainy day. The trail was as muddy as it could be. I was slipping and sliding and fell down once. Yes fun. Then drove back while a storm was brewing on I-95. I made some pitstops though. Stops were more fun than the race itself, but that for another story. I packed enough to spend several nights on the mountain.

As for the run, We run on a 3k loop. After the first loop I knew getting the marathon distance would be tough. I would be lucky if I could get 12 loops (36k). A marathon is 42k. So I would need about 14 loops.

I kept at it until halfway having done 7 loops. My hope was to get 8 loops by 3 hour mark so that I have some buffer for the 2nd half since usually my pace would slow down. This would guarantee that I finish with a marathon distance.

However, even with 7 loops, if I kept my pace, 14 loops were possible. Then I saw my friend ahead, and decided to walk with her. It was mostly for her I came. She is an amazing runners. During her “youth” / younger days she broke some women records. The same friend who was suprised I took 12 hours on the Wild Oak Trail while she did it in 7.5 hours at my age. She would be running circles around me if we were the same age. Indeed that day, the lead runner (a female) was running circles around us.

It was my recovery run so there was no need to push for a marathon distance / or do it at a marathon pace. My friend finished the 12th loop by 5.5 hours. We still have 30 minutes left on the clock. I believed going for one more shouldn’t be hard. The RD kind of doubting I could make it back within the time cutoff. I know I could do a loop within 20 minutes. So I went for it and got my 13th loop in. It took me about 16 minutes but not enough time left for the 14th loop.

The race anyway would not have counted as one of the marathons for 50 states completion because there were less than 10 finishers. We only had 8 people started in our event. In order for a race to be counted, we need at least 10 finishers.

It was one of the reasons, I did not push as hard as I could knowing, it did not really count for the record.

I ran a marathon in New Jersey before so I did not need the run for my own 50 states. My friend though still needed New Jersey for hers. I felt bad we did not have enough runners. Originally there were 10 runners but two didn’t show up. I could have bring couple friends to make it a 10 person finishers. Anyway. It was a good run.

This kind of things I get excited. I like the challenges.

I like how things are working out. NJ Trails series, the organizer for the South Mountain Run has been on my watch list because I wanted to run their Watchung winter run. But the last two years, their races have been canceled for various reason.

The past weekend somehow led me to run with them. I found out they also host 6 days at the fair, which is an amazing race/event I want to do in the future. Yes as it sounds, it is a 6 day race! I want to test my mettle to see if I can run all six days (with/without) sleep. I met a guy who did it, and put in a total of 450 miles over 6 days.

Up next, I have a few races/events. This weekend is happy easter – I have a chocolate bunny night run. I will write about it later, if it is interesting. I hope to have some choco bunnies when I finish. I ran it last year. It is a MMT training run #4, The last training run for the MMT race, which I wrote a lot already.

Following week would be the BRR 50. Ya another big race. I did couple training run on this. I assume I will write a full race report on it because I love doing a indepth detailed report.

Then there will my international marathon debut! in Toronto Canada! I haven’t planned much on the race. Only thing is I know I will be driving there. I have not requested days off yet. Hopefully I get everything done. It is a point to point race, so gonna be fine.

I am still on the fence with some races this fall as well as races for next year. Slipping this in, a friend just finished the Georgia Death Race (74 miles), the race registration for next year race is open with 4 spots left. I want to run it, yet not sure if I have the ability. I am getting cold feet.

It is also a point to point course. I don’t want to sign up unless I am sure about it. It is so early to commit for next year! Grrr, I don’t know how many things I have been sleeping on it.

The problem is, too little time, too little money to do everything! Freedom! Having choices is my bane.

By the way, I did my first run in the heat today! Boy, I’m not used to running in the 85 F. It was so hot. However, MMT possibly will be hot during the day and cold during the night!

Got to go for now. I still have many things to say especially about what races to run for the next few years. Ohio Burning River is on my target and the midstate ultras grand slam. I woke up in the middle night thinking why do I have to wait till next year to do it, why can’t I do it this year? Indeed. A lot to think about, even in my sleep I am thinking about races!