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.
In awe 
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