In awe

Author: Antin

  • Day493 Pre Race Day (actually TR week 7 or 8)

    Bring all up to date, probably this is the conclusion of the IMTR training arc. We reached the race weekend. As normally, there is not much happening in the last week before the race.

    As some already know, I wrote ahead and not really much in real time. I wrote this at the end of training week 7 and before begining of week 8. I won’t report on week 8, because I don’t want to hold off the race report for 2 weeks after the race. So I am skipping a week to bring everyone to real time. Tomorrow will be race day! Hopefully race report will follow soon after.

    Supposingly, I should already reach my peak training a while back, maybe at week 5-6. However, I was not peaking then. Week 7 / 8 should have been the tampering period. But tapering doesn’t exist in my vocab. Which means, I am just a few weeks behind too. Ideally 10-12 weeks for training would have helped for this race. I have been pushing my training cycle shorter and shorter. This time I am in trouble for having an overly short training.

    Main question is what must I do to get ready for the race day with the little time left. I think I have to focus on food a bit more. The strategy is to eat (sugar (gel) pack or something like that) just before the couple big hills. I need to put those in a drop bag at Skull Gap (mile 15-16). I need to prep some sandwiches. I need maybe leave a couple Gatorades. Races usually provide sport drinks but they usually either overly diluted and lack enough punch for me.

    I probably need to eat something by the time I reach Hurricane Gap. When I come by Skull, pick up some food to carry along toward Hurricane Gap. Race day, pack light, maybe 1 L of water. Normally I carry 2 L. Don’t spend too much time at Aid Stations. Do Quick in-and-out.

    These 8 weeks, I did three (on site) training runs (two of them were reported), one of them was a secret run I did last weekend, not sure if I will report on that. The first two training runs were productive. Not any particular reason that the third should remain a secret, but I don’t feel like writing about it since there are so much other things on my mind. Also Because I should have been tapering, I don’t want tell the world I went and did a double 25 mile run. It is like a last minute rush to put in as much as miles as I can. You all know the body doesn’t work like this. It is what it is.

    Like what I wrote in the last post, I wish I started my training a bit earlier maybe in early June, I am a few weeks short for this race. In June, I was a little too discourage and tired after the MMT saga. I did a marathon but that was not much as a goal for the IMTR. The break before the marathon and after provided a nice change of pace in my 6 years of constant training.

    My summer training did not really kick off into a higher gear like last year. I could blame it on the summer heat. We had some serious heat this year. It was a combination of things. The after effect from MMT was still lingering on me into the summer. I know I should get over it. Plus, my body generally was not what it used to be. I got exhausted easily. I did an ultra in July, Catoctin (8 hr for a 50k run). It was a good run for me, but timewise was not impressive. It could be maybe a sickness like lyme or covid (a long term effect of covid-19, though I don’t believe, I ever gotten it). It is frustrating to be constantly out of breath. I could not really kick into a hard run.

    It made me wonder is it me? Is it of my lack of training? There is nothing to compare myself to. Do I compare to 6 years ago before I started running, or to last year? Or even 6 or 3 months ago? At the MMT I was considered stronger than now. I pulled a 50 mile then quite well whereas many around me were dropping off like flies. I don’t call myself to be strong now. Every season is new and this season hits me like a curve ball.

    What was the Goal again? Reminding myself, I signed up IMTR to challenge myself to run faster. The Distance itself is not a problem for me. I can do a 50 mile today and any given weekend. However, I don’t usually have the ability to run it under 12 hours. This whole training was to step it up.

    Evaluation. The true evaluation will be at the race itself. Honestly, my fitness level is pretty much at where I started 8 weeks ago. I might got a bit better. I talked of being easily exhausted, I think I improved a bit. It could have been worse. Honestly do I think I can run it under 12? I think I can do it in 12:15 as of today. Yes it is very close. 15 mins is all I need to make the cut. This is just a prediction.

    I looked up my last year time. My pace was 14:28. For this race I need to run at 14:20. So I finishing in 12:15 is about right. Last year, the last guy came in around 12:12. I hope I won’t be the last guy, but even if I am, I need to beat 12:12. I am glad, the person was not DNF/DQ for coming in after 12 hrs. Some race is strict (e.g. Devil Dog), one second late would mean a DNF. There is hope for me.

    A lot things will need to work right on race day. I do hope against hope, to get it down to 12 hours. Praying for a miracle. I felt I should be able to make all the cuts except the finish line.

    I was hoping the whole deal of training would give me the confident to say, I could run it. However, honestly I can’t say that. Readers will have to wait till my race report to find out.

    Looking ahead – IMTR isn’t the end all. I made a leap of faith to sign up for the Devil Dog 100, and it is hitting home. IMTR is kind of a prep for a later race. A small prep in getting me ready for DD100. A hundred mile is always a challenge especially the Devil Dog. I won’t go into much detail on it, except it requires the same type of speed I need for the IMTR. It is a nice lead into it.

    Plus I added a couple races to my fall schedule. I will write about those coming up. I am so excited about them. (meta: I know the current theme broke my site, and links to my race schedule and other pages are gone, sad!, I will fix it soon) My schedule is still there for those who know how to find it.

    I mentioned a secret training run. In my last post, I was on the fence of whether to go to West Virginia to run the Moonlight on the Fall Marathon or go for this secret run. In the end, I did not go to West Virginia, but instead went to Damascus (VA) to run once more on the IMTR trail. I know with so close to the race, no amount of training will help. I went because if I had stayed at home, I probably would skip out on any hard training, like I did the last couple weeks. Also, I miss seeing the mountains. So I went away quietly to do this run. Also I fear if I announced it, I would become stage fright and back out. It was a course preview. I did the same loop of the 1st training run on both days. I also helped mark part of the course. I felt good to contribute back to the race.

    Lastly, I combined week 7 into 8 because there were not a lot to say. My week (7) has been pretty bad, in term training. There was always something needed to do. Did I mention I needed to trim the brushes? And that took over my whole weekend and it was frustrating chores kept getting in the way of my training! I was angry about that of how much time it took me and it is still not done to my liking. If I have the money, I would hire a gardener/ landscaper. I know, I’m just venting here.

    I could write more about my secret training run, the good, the bad, and the ugly. There could be so much to say. I like the mountains, the alone time, the companion I had while marking the course. No bads…but this, I ate something bad the night before, and I had diarrhea in the middle of the run, and it was ugly. I didn’t have a stomach ache but fluid just decided to flow out where they not intended to flow and without warning. I literally pooped in my pants while running. No toilet paper was enough to contain the mess. I had to get off the mountain, and made a beeline to the hotel to clean up and then get back out on the trail. My car smelled like poop. Luckily I had a towel with me and that saved the seat. I almost thought my weekend training was toast!

    For future posts, a thought came while driving to Damascus. And a long drive it was, I started hallucinating from sleeplessness the last 5 miles, but we won’t talk about that. I like to share my running experience because to let others see my “glory”. Maybe that is running high. I had a lot of thinking over the weekend. I want so much for others share in my joy. My runs are the best about me. It mean so much to share them. I had a nice thought on a passage in John. Don’t mind me if this doesn’t make any sense. It is for maybe a future post.

  • Day492 Training Week #6

    Six weeks went by already and I felt I just started. Usually, I only need about 10-12 weeks to train, this time I am in trouble. I might need 16+ weeks to get ready.

    Like what I said in my last training, I slacked off too much this season. Not that I could not run a 50 mile distance but I am worried that I can’t do it in the time given. I am pretty sure I can do it in 13 hours. 12 hours is maybe out of reach for me, but let not jink it. I can’t run that fast any more on the trail.

    I don’t know what to do. I know I need some HIIT – High intensity interval training, both to lose some fat and also increase my fitness level.

    Last couple weeks, I have been stuck on some decisions. Yes they are about my races. I couldn’t make up my mind.

    1. West Virginia Moonlight on the Falls this weekend. I couldn’t bring myself to sign up. I guess I am not going.

    2. Ann Arbor Marathon. This one is on my calendar since last year. Again I couldn’t bring myself to sign up.

    3. Atlantic City Marathon. A couple bloggers wrote about this race. At first I was not interested in it, but now I see it as an easy way to knock out one of my 50 states.

    During middle of the week, I was looking for a sign, and guess what!? I think I received them. During my nightly run, one of the guys said he is moving back home, and his home is in Ann Arbor. Yup, one of the signs I should go there. Usually, I only do a race if I knew someone from the place. This meets that requirement!

    Couple hours later, after I finished the run, I opened a Twich channel as I was going home, they were playing the song, Country Road. I felt that is a call for me to go to Weat Virginia.

    Still I don’t feel comfortable (peaceful) to go the race in West Virginia this weekend. I struggled last year about runing that one (because the race is bpring to me, no offends to RD and others who are heading there now to run). It is a 6.5 mile looped course.

    I know it is silly to ask for signs and then ignore them.

    I guess my readers would want to know what I decided? I didn’t sign up for West Virginia race (I know it is still not too late) but I made up my mind. I’m not going. I am planning to go to Iron Mountain instead, for one more training run. My heart is actually torn between the two choices.

    As for Ann Arbor, I signed up last night. I brought my plane ticket. It is an expensive trip. I still need to fimd a hotel and car rental. A whole lot of money just left my bank account. The airfare is twice as much as what I was seeing before. I could do a quick in quick out, fly in on Sat, run, and then leave on Sunday, but I decided to stay an extra night. Suck it up and pay. This will be next month.

    As for the Atlantic City Marathon, I signed up too. This will the cheapest of the three races. I got a 15% from a fellow blogger (SheRunsBySeashore).

    Oh, I forgot to mention my training. It is bad. I did not run at much in Week 6. Maybe at most 6 miles. Nothing to brag about.

    meta – off topic, thank you for reading. Not sure why, but this week I got a higher amount of traffic to my blog. Not that I care if anyone looks at my stuff, but hey, not sure what people find anything interesting. It could be people want to know more about the IMTR… because the race date is approaching. 1 more week guys! Oh gosh, I would be embarrassed if they are using mine to plan their run. Please don’t base off your run strat on my last post. I’m nowhere near to be an expert.

  • Day491 IMTR run #2 (Training week 5)

    I went to Damascus (VA) and had my second and last on-site training run for the IMTR (Iron Mountain Trail Run), a race I will be doing in a couple week.

    This is similar to the trip I took about amont ago in July. Last time, we covered the second half of the course, from Skull Gap to Skull Gap (a loop, shaped like a p) which is from mile 15 to mile 35 on race day.

    This time we covered the first half (mile 1-15 and mile 35 to mile 50) from the town of Damacus out to Skull Gap. It is almost an out and back, with the first 5 mile being a loop, and follow by a 10 mile of out-and-back, think of it being a like a lowercase letter d. The full course is like a q and a d stack together, connected by the handle, or think of it as an elongated figure 8, where the middle is stretch out really long.

    My expectation was this first half (30 mile in total) is easier than the second half (which is on 20 miles). I don’t think I was wrong, but these 30 miles are just as hard too.

    The first half is not a walk in the park as I first thought it would be.

    A reason I might have the wrong impression was, we have 5 miles on the Virginia Creeper Trail and this is the easiest portion of the race, for being flat and on a bike trail. We ran this portion with fresh legs and so it felt fast. Then there is a mile of climb using Bleech Trail to get onto the Iron Mountain. This is hard stuff, probably the hardest part of the entire section, or the whole 50 mile course. After that, It is generally a roller coaster ride of ups and downs to Skull Gap, but I believe mostly up. Here my last year memory apparently blocked out all the ups. There were at least half of the 9 miles being climbing. And when it is not climbing, it is slightly on an upward incline. There are some descends too. The trail in this portion is not technical. However, I am probably out of shape as I couldn’t get into a good running stride for a long substainable time. I was exhausted at the turn around at Skull Gap. Of course, on race day, we would have to do the 20 mile loop out to Hurricane Gap (as we did on the first training run), plus a 13 mile back to the start.

    About halfway to Skull Gap is FS 90, where on our race day will be one of our aid stations. During training run, this was a life-saver, because we had our water there. On race day, that will determine if I will get cut or not.

    I was fortunate to be able to run with Greg (someone I met) on the return portion (about last 13 miles). Greg generally is a much faster runner than I. He was a mile ahead of me by the time I was near halfway. Because it was an out and back, I turned around and ran back to the start when I saw him. He has done the race 5 times and this year would be his 6th. He is well familiar with the trail and the race. He shared some of his race strategies. He said he normally allots 7 hours for the first half and 5 hours for the second half of the course (first half meaning from Damascus to Skull Gap and back to Damascus). Coming back is supposed to be easier than going out.

    On our training, it took us 7:18 minutes to do the out and back. Greg considered that was decent for a training run. It might have taken me a bit longer because I skipped a mile. I imagine it should have taken me 7.5 hours, if I had run the full length as Greg.

    The second portion took me about 6 hours during the last training run. The combined gives me an expected time finish time on race day of 13.5 hours. Note, the race only allows for 12 hours. I have to run faster meet the cutoff on race day.

    I am in a serious trouble of not being able to finish on time on race day. If I must, I can drop down to a 40 mile option. However, I really want to flex that I can run a 50 mile in 12 hours.

    I went back out on Sunday, doing the same loop, hoping I could shorten the time. On Sunday, I was actually slower. It took me 4 hours to descend from Skull Gap to Damascus and it took equally as long from Damascus back to Skull Gap, where I parked. It ended up 8 hours.

    The time is not indicative of what it will be like on race day. I hope I will get faster. I know I run faster when it is an actual race than on a training run.

    Even though I did not reach my target time, I enjoyed my training runs. The weather was generally much cooler. I haven’t been able to have a 70-75F day since the Catoctin Run. It has been 90+ everyday the last few weekends. So this weekend, we were lucky. Sunday, I ran in the rain during the afternoon. The rain felt refreshing. Not just the rain, but the sound of raindrops on leaves and the mist that came as the result was amazing. It was foggy. I like fog.

    Originally, I thought I would have trouble with the logistics being that it was an out-and-back run. On the first day, we had a water drop at FS 90 (halfway point) and I ran out of water exactly by halfway (maybe 8 miles in). However, on Sunday, there was no water drop because I was by myself and I did not know the way to FS 90 where the trail crosses to leave myself water ahead of time. I was concern about where to get water for my run. Then the idea came to me to park my car at Skull Gap and run down into town. I could then go to a gas station to get water and then run back up to Skull Gap. I did just that. While I was in Damascus, I got myself lunch at a Subway. It also was a good practice to ser how fast I could get down from the mountain (no fast as I original had expected).

    No big conclusion. I am fatter and heavier. I regained much of the weight I lost before the MMT event in May. I have been slacking in my training. It shows. I do want to be better. I have three weeks to get myself in shape. I was out of breath.

  • Day490 Q review, Tw4

    TLDR – a review of last quarter of my races and a reminder to myself that of some resolutions made at the beginning of the year

    Briefly, this week training went well. We are still experiencing the heat wave but it is getting cooler. I finally got myself outside during day time. I started to adapt to the heat. I had a big long run (30 miles) on Sunday. I had a lot of joy, in just running and not care for time or where I was going. My training started to fall into a regular schedule, which is good. This coming weekend, I will be going on for another training run on the Iron Mountain Trail. Hopefully, I will give a report. I had a lot of fun last month when I went there for my training. This will be my last training for the IMTR.

    As promised over the last few post, I said I need to pause to do a “quarterly” review. Yes, it has been more than a quarter, but a review is in order.

    While pondering what to write for my review, a couple previous posts got my attention because someone recently read them and I got a notification from their likes. I usually don’t pay attention to WP notifications because likely they are bots that are scanning my posts, but I was wondering what those posts were about, and interestingly they kind of what on the topic of what I am seeking to do at this moment. They spoke to and reminded me of my purpose. I will reference them below.

    I mentioned I need a time to review where I am heading or if I am achieving my start of the year resolutions. To be honest, I don’t remember what they were. And indeed, if I don’t know, it is a perfect time to pause to readjust my direction. Here from Day457, I resolved

    1. run more. Run first thing in the morning
    2. run faster. 4:15 marathon…is that faster than last year?
    3. run farther
    4. run longer
    5. be more organized (strategic) on my runs

    Personally, I feel I am headed in a right way. Maybe it a stronghead trait of me, to never admit that I am lost. To be honest, I have not earnestly try to accomplish any of my resolves. I intentionally made them less precise at the beginning of the year. As to why, maybe for another day.

    Day422 (Moonlight rambling) interestingly was on looking back and looking ahead in 2021. Nothing much have changed this year. I still am doing virtual races, the same ones such as running across Tennessee for the third year in a row and also I’m at the end of the second year of running around the world (CRAW), with two out twelve regions remain. I am still very busy. We will finish it by the end of thos year. In fact, I am busier because full blown in-person races are happening again and I signed up as many as I can afford. Last year was kind of a wait-and-see mode, this year, we are back in business boyz. The pandemic restriction is over. The issue noted in that entry of me not keeping a short note of each day/week/month of events, is still true. I haven’t started back logging my daily day to day journal. There were not enough time each day to do what I want. I know it never will. I still miss keeping those type of journaling. They are like mini prayers, and often show how I have changed over time. Journal for me kind of serve like a prayer book. They are my goals and wishes of things I wish to change or get done. (more on this at a later post, about city map, how people change). By not writing, I haven’t made much plans of the future either, other than my race schedule. In general, I know what I will be doing. I have spreadsheets, a bucket list, to-do lists and such, for long term planning. I shared many of my dreams here already, and they are no secret. Readers can read my previous two posts (e.g. Day488, Day489 and Day479). I am seeking thrills and sonething big enough to shake my world. Ever since I started blogging, I am on this mission of changing myself to do better and run farther. This is pretty much my resolution this year. I think, I was being less precise is to step back and see where things will lead. Basically if taken to the n-th degree, I am hoping running around the world…(a dream, but likely a reality maybe). I want to be in Awe.

    In the post, I mentioned how easy to get distracted and wander away from the initial goal. In a way, I am getting sidetracked this year with social media especially with twitch.tv. I spent way too much time and money on it than being outside running. I spent in total so far about $3000 on running but I spent twice that amount on Twitch. It is insane, where $5 here and there goes. Their subscription fee is $5, per channel, but often time, I got pulled into giving other people a subscription in what they called subathon — marathon is my thing, and so I was into giving out subs. Bottom line is a lot money. Yep, follow the money and you know where my priority lies.

    It is not that I have a problem with twitch.tv. It is interesting and all. Twitch does well in providing a sense of community and give me causes to rally around. I started out following a gamer and then couple musicians and now artists. Two illustrators, whose channels I am active in are lunariaa and wakalaka4eva. Shouting out to them. Please do give them a follow on Twitch and any their other social media platforms. They are indeed worthy of the support. As for me, I need to learn to “balanc” (waka’s community word), leaning back toward my objective, that is to run more, and devote more my time toward it. (seesaw analogy). Everything in moderation.

    Day439, (Interlude) is another interesting post at a time when everything was about to go crazy around me because fall season were about to start and my mom’s illness at the time but me in a bind. That was almost my last review of the year (note, Day450 was the last review) and came quite timely, because I am definitely about to head back into that period this year, because I signed up similar races all over again. I am in an interlude at this moment. I can identify I am in similar position with all the races happened last spring and with many races to come in the fall. Now I am at a time when I don’t have any races until Fall.

    Looking back, stuff (races) I did in 2021 were unique. It was a pop-off year for my running. I reached a level I couldn’t repeat this year. I tried, but this year was not the same. They were new, exciting, and creative! (artist word). This year, I am less creative. Maybe more about this in a future post, of how I see my running as art.

    My races this year, though were hard but were not anything new except for MMT, which we don’t talk about it. First off, my very first race, the Seneca Greenway 50k race was canceled due to weather (rain). Oh ya, the WTF race was also canceled due to ice and snow. It kind of dampened the mood. This came after the Devil Dog, which we won’t talk about that either. I did not run the Grayson Highland this year. Last year, that was my first scary race. I felt I reached another level after finishing it. Nothing like that this year. Also, this year I did not run Laurel Highland race, another fearsome race I successfully ran last year. This year though, I ran the Catoctin 50k the full race, and this was a race I am proud of. Yet a 50k is nothing compare to a 50 mile or 70 mile run. Last year, I only did the short version of the Catoctin Run and this year I got to do the real thing and so I am proud.

    The race that tested my mettle this year was the MMT (Massanutten 100). Indeed, it was hard and I did not finish it. I went in knowing it was hard, but as I ran, I was confident I could finish. Then a twist of fate, and I hit my limit near the very end. Definitely a story to tell. The report is available (MMT report, Day477).

    Forward looking, I signed up for many same races for the fall as last year. Iron Mountain and Lake Ridge 12 hr run, both were races I did last year. Iron Mountain is my next project and then Devil Dog, both are hard. Plus many other smaller races, e.g., Moonlight marathon, which I haven’t signed up yet, but I might, and it also was a race I did last year. I had more fun out of it than expected.

    Plus, I signed up the Devil Dog again, a redo because I did not get to finish it last year. This time I am running a longer distance. I will enter the fall and winter season in full speed. It might not be like last year when everything was new to me, this year, while challenging, they are things I have done before.

    What were my resolutions again? I don’t know, but I have many races to do. (Kick myself, stop being lazy and go look up my resolutions, OK, I did). It is my fault to make my resolutions too vague, that I can’t remember them. Not knowing them means I am not actively working toward reaching them.

    Note to self: Moonlight Marathon signup, Blue Ridge Marathon sign up, Tulsa Route 66 Marathon, maybe, and Ann Arbor Marathon, maybe.

  • Day489 Training week 3

    I am procastinating, if anything involving effort.

    I know in the last blog post, I want to do a review of how I am doing in reaching this year resolutions. What I made resolutions? Ya, something at the beginning of the year but now I don’t remember what they were.

    Yet, that can wait till the next post or some time in the near future.

    I had another night run. It felt so good. After four days without running, and I felt I absolutely have to get out there.

    It was hot even though it was 9 pm. I was swimming in my own sweat. It got better later. The rest of the night, while I was still sweating, I was able to feel the cool breeze. Three hours did not feel long. Miles seemed to fly by. This is kind of runs I love a lot.

    There are many reasons why I love running but one of them is just able to park my mind, not think of anything, well I am always thinking in deep thoughts or daydreaming, but running is something that interrupt my thoughts and I am in a dreamy state for 2 to 3 hours with nothing coherent, and it is therapeutic. I was in a meditative state during my run. I love it.

    The houses and my surounding just melted away. It was just me and the pavement. I was not in pain. I just kept pounding on the pavement and it seemed too soon I reached home again. I asked, that’s it?

    My biggest dream, romanticing, is to run and not stop, forever going on and on, till I go around the world. I know actually doing it probably not that fun, but it is something I wish I can do.

    In my last blog, I wrote how our team is 80% at circumpolar-running around the world, virtually of course, meaning our miles added up will equal to the circumference of the earth or more. It’s a 50000 km race.

    Not sure if I ever will pull it off but that is my dream, a small version of my ideal dream of running forever and not stop.

    What am I trying to get at? Not sure. I have been feeling low in motivation to run. I used to be able to run everyday but now I am like running only one or two days after I feel “guilty” or dread that I am failing at my training.

    One way to feel better is searching deep within why I am doing what I am doing. Where is my love and passion?

    I was able to meet up with a running friend one night. Her passion is photography. And when she talks about them, her eyes lit up. She asked about my running and my eyes lit up and I could talk breathlessly on all the things. She was also into running. She was one of first few running friends that got me started on the road of marathons. A friend sharing the same passion really give that push I needed to get back into running. It was not forced, but the passion was enough.

    A reason I like racing is to get to meet other like minded people.

    She asked me if I have run a 24 hour race? I told her my Devil Dog race (an upcoming event) and a 24 hour race in September that I have waited for at least 3 years to have a chance to run in (Pemberton 24). We will be running a 5K every hour for 24 hours. You ask me, why is that fun? For me it just is.

    For a run addict, any form of running is fun, especially in a format I have not done before.

    What does this all mean? I really don’t know. I think I might have signed up too many races and am a bit burn out too. I just want to stop for a season or so and take a deep breath. I don’t know. At the moment, that is what I feel.

    To my readers, it seems to be an inconsistency, that I want to run forever and I don’t feel enough to go out to do my weekly trainimg and need to stop for a time. Ya. I haven’t able to solve this problem of how to get plenty of rest and at the same time to put out high level of performance.

    I’m not getting anywhere with my questions. Until next time, happy running.

    TLDR – just some ruminating to get my passion back

  • Day488 Training week 2

    The next four weeks between now and until IMTR (my race), there is going to be very little activity except for training.

    This year, I have hard time with finding motivation to train. I know training is necessary. I’m not a prodigy with natural running talent. Some people, if they are young can just go out and run a 100 miles because their body has a limitless supply of energy and they are like Wolverine that can self regenerate after an injury. I am not one of those monsters.

    My hardest problem with training is geting out there. Once I am out, I have no problem in running for a long period.

    I have not run much lately. What is shocking is how hot summer is getting. It shouldn’t be a suprise since it is not my first summer running. I found it is hard to adjust to running in the hot sun. Even night time is hot.

    I had couple nights of running at very late hours. It brought back the old feeling of me being out there alone. I love it. At first, it was like poor me, sun was setting and I still had miles to go before I sleep, but then it brought back memories of several races, especially the first time doing a night run, when a runner came by and pointed me to the sky. We stopped and I looked up and blessed the unforgetable view. It was so beautiful that I got goosebumps.

    I think I am back at ground zero with my training like six months ago. I can’t run for long. People said I do walk and run strategy. True, that was how I trained for the last 100 mile race. However, now I want to be able to run say 30+ minutes without having to stop. I have being doing stop and go not because I want it but because my body couldn’t take it to sustain the run for more than 5 minutes and I’d have to walk. I remember maby beginner runners are frustrated that the can’t run. I wish to rebuild my cardio that would allow me to run far in one breath. I struggled with this at the start of MMT training back in winter.

    I have been at lost. I know where I am headed, like I have all the races for this year and next year mapped out. There was a blog post I held back from publishing, that goes into details of why I am struggling. The tone of it does not sound right. General rule is readers want a happy tone. Even if it is not, there should be some kind of hope or redemption. I haven’t find my magic to solve whatever I am going through. The gist is I am living between a fantasy and the real world. I need money to live the lifestyle I want to live, yet at the same time, I want to leave everything to pursuit the dream of exploring around the world. I guess we all are, its called life.

    I know what I want five years from now. There are some really big bucket list items to do (like once in a life time thing). What I am kind of in the fog is what am I doing right now. Half of the year passed. I know in the past, I have quarterly update to keep me moving in the right direction according to my mid term and long term goals. I was not planning to do a refocus session for another 12 weeks, till near the end of the year, but that might be too long to wait for. I was thinking of doing some kind of review in the interim, sort of like half year realignment.

    Don’t mind me, I am kind of at lost this week.

    What update I can give: CRAW – our virtual race around the world with nine other people, we finally reached Alaska. I’m lucky to have other 9 people to share the mileage, but there are crazy teams out there that have only one or 2 people doing this, and it is taking forever for them to finish.

    For us, we only have 4500 miles left. We will run down from Alaska, cross over into Canada, and then run down the plain of the US and to the Mexico border, where we all started about two years ago. 100 running teams have already finished. The race for a prize ended last year. For our team, we are happy if we even reach the finish this year. We are likely will be the 117th team or team 118 to complete this. Probably will take five months. We aim to finish before December 31. There are about 20 teams in front of us and 20 teams behind us. I was told this race will continue on until next year, so we are not in any risk of being dropped (DNF). As long as we continue to make progress the next five months, it should be an easy finish. Our team is a bit beat up though. Even myself, I’m kind of worn out. Several of our star runners have injuries (as expected) from over doing it.

    After we finish, there is an extended CRAW (for another 10 or so regions) that starts in Africa and cross middle east and then into Asia to the Pacific. We likely will not do it since mentally I am beat.

    My display board of the map showing the regions we passed have arrived last night. I haven’t opened it yet. It will be a good motivation to keep on.

    We have done this race virtually (like a mental excercise), though that does not mean it is easy. I wish one day I can do it in person. Of course, I probably will skip couple regions like the south pole or the north pole. It is pretty cool there are people who actually do walk/run around the world. It won’t take just a year to complete in real life, it probably takes 4-5 years runing 40-50 miles a day. For me, it might take 10 years. The reality is, I am running out of time, unless I start this journey right now. Still, I keep my hope up that one day I get to walk around the world.

    Why I share this? It is kind of esoteric. No one knows or cares that we ran virtually around the world. I think the cool thing as the race director mentioned it, is training in itself is boring, but if we imagine we are running in actual places, training can become another level of fun. Are we actually running around the world the last 2 years, no, but do we feel like we ran around the world, absolutely!

  • Day487 Imtr run#1

    Iron Mountain Trail Run (IMTR) is a 50 mile race in Damascus, Virginia. This year I put on my big pants and said why not, lets run this 50 mile. There are other options like 40 mile, 30 mile and 16 mile event.

    The 40-mile was too easy for me last year, but 50-mile might be a bit too challenging. We don’t know. Some of us were whining why not give us 13 hours or 12.5 hours. Nope, 12 it is. Note, originally I thought it was 10 hours, and was freaking out.

    I have my doubt running this race because I only finished a 50 mile under 12 hours once (long time ago) and that was done on roads (flat land). update: I must have gotten the wrong impression or info that the race requiring finishing under 10 hours, I double checked after written up the post, and found the cutoff is 12 hours, so my chance of finishing this has now improved significantly. I went back over and corrected all places where I was calibrating / planning for a 10 hour run. However, I will still train and aim for a 10 hour finish (5 pm finish, instead of 7), only that I have a lot of breathing room. 12 hours is still hard for me but not as impossible as a 10 hour run.

    The race is on the trail but nothing too crazy like the MMT. The trail is mostly smooth and there is a significant portion of the race being on the road. During the training, I was chatting with the race director of how my perspective has changed from last year and this year. Previously IMTR was the hardest thing I did. Now, coming back the second year, it does not seem that scary, especially after running the MMT..

    I think about 15-20 miles are on the road. And another 20-ish miles are on decent / runnable trails, I call them buttery smooth trails. There might be a few miles (5-6 miles) that are too hard for me to run like either too rocky or too steep to climb/descend while running. Sure, fast runners would destroy the hills like breakfast.

    The harder part for me is the climbs. I have different numbers regarding the elevation somewhere between 8000 and 13000 ft. I think the 2000 ft climbs are at the beginning and at after hafway point. Most of run are gladual changes because we are on the ridges but they suck up lot of energy too. It is not remotely as bad as the MMT, but enough to make it won’t be a walk in the park.

    I went out the past weekend to do the first training.

    If preceeding weekend of the Catoctin run was epic, this Iron Mountain Run is nothing less. I am anticipating the race day would be many times so.

    It was only a training run, the first of two weekends. Damascus is a 6 hour (sometimes 7 ish) drive for me, so I can only afford to go there a couple times and not every weekend. I’m lazy too. I went to all the training runs last year and I wanted to redo again this year, just like for the Catoctin.

    I am slow or fast depending on who or what I am being compared to. I felt fast in the Duluth Marathon. I finished it hours ahead of people. I wrote like I ran fast at the Catoctin 50k, also, but I am actually quite slow in that race, barely avoided the cut by 5 minutes. Too close. The point was I finished under the generous time given.

    This race (IMTR) has a tighter cut off. I fear this race more than I fear the Catoctin. Cutoff is a big reason I want to run this race. Catoctin was not hard, just a lot of climbs.

    My training run kind of proved the point. It took me 6 hours to do a 24 mile run. Note, if it were a road marathon I probably get it done around 4 hours ish (4:30). I believe then my predicted finishing time will be 13 hour, which is an hour over the final cutoff.

    So why did I sign up if I don’t think I could do it under the cutoff? I think sometimes you just have to try to know. I want to try. I believe it will improve me as a runner. My goal for this season is “speedwork”, in quote because I’m not sure how fast I will get, but speed it will be. I have a BMI of 26, considered overweight, but there is a chance that I can pull it off. I don’t know how good a chance (I estimate 65%), but a chance nonetheless. I want to see growth and changes from my training and I bet my readers too like to see that I strive for tougher goals and reach them.

    I hope readers would enjoy reading on my planning phase. Many times I blog only on races I already did. They seem easy (and hopefully motivating). Recently, I been hitting my limit and it was not so fun aby more (Devil Dog and MMT come to mind). Fun and game until someone took away the punch bowl.

    This is one of a few where I write on a race I haven’t done yet. This might also be a race I will get a DNF (fail to finish), but we don’t think about that now. The race won’t be until Labor Day Weekend (first week in September, in case my readers are from oversea). I have about 6 weeks to train and get myself up to shape.

    My strategy on running this race is to keep an even pace when going out for the first 15 miles. Many people go out too fast. I did too last year. The Virginia Creeper Trail, being flat and easy can deceptively tired runners before the first major climb. It is actually a gradual climb, hence deceptive. Once I reach the climbing section, literally at the foot of the mountain, I should take it easy to get onto the ridge. Last year, this almost had me throwing up. I was jostling for an early position (you could read last year report, if I not too lazy I will add the link eventually, here). I ran too fast and then faced with a 2000 ft climb. I pressed on the climb and next thing I knew I was dizzy. Once up, there are probably remain a lot of people in front, I should not rush to pass anyone until after mile 15 (Skull Gap / the 2nd AS), by then half of the people probably would be slowing down or turning back (which is the turn around point for the 30 mile distance) and the trail then would be open up to me. I have last year experience of not making the same mistake.

    From Skulls Gap out is a gradual climb and descent to Hurricane Gap in 7 miles, short for ultra distance but might take 2 hours. Here I probably could run faster. After Hurricane Gap, AS3, is a 10 mile loop circling back to Hurricane (where AS 5 is, probably there is one aid station at Rowland, AS4), mostly decending on the roads. This is probably the easiest and hardest part of the race. If I want, here is actually I could run very fast, and key to “win” the race (I don’t mean first place, but reaching my goal for this race, i.e., to finish under 12 hours). It is a 5-6 miles sweet descent to Rowland Creek and a very hard 4 mile climb back up from Rowland to Hurricane. From Hurricane Gap, it is a gentle climb back to Skull Gap (AS6) on the FS 84, on the road this time, also 7 miles. There is a branch off onto Iron Mountain TR, watch for it, look for going SR600. Most people will walk, I probably will walk, since I will be out of energy. However, if I could survive till Skulls Gap #2, then I likely will finish within the time limit. It is 13 miles from Skulls Gap to the finish back using the same trail (Iron Mountain).

    Note to self. Rowland to Hurricane is probably the deal breaker for this race. I must do it fast but not overly exhausting myself here. Fast because of the downhill. Everyone runs on downhill. But it also the hardest and longest climb back. We run down on the road but climb back up using trail. Yep, it will be frustrating hard, especially the fast run down destroy your body. It is a balancing act. Fast, because of the cutoff at Hurricane #2. (by 2:40 pm, 7:40 elapsed, 4:30 remaining). There is still 20 miles left in the race, a long way, and I might need 5 hours for this 20 miles. So 2 pm back at Hurricane is the goal for me.

    The Saturday Training Run (only 24 miles) was on an out and back from Skulls Gap, took me shy of 6 hours. The goal was to finish under 6 hours (5:45). On Sunday I went out again. Ran the same course. It took me 6:30. Granted, I made a long stop and talked to two local elderly couple, and they were a friend with a Latin/Greek teacher at my high school and asked if I knew him. I did not. I think, I had a different Latin teacher, or I look younger than what they think my age was. I don’t think my high school offered Latin after I graduated. They then showed me the most poisonous mushrooms in the region, called north american eastern death angel or killer angel. I don’t remember the exact name. It looked like a normal mushroom to me, snow white beautiful, but of course, I was not going to touch or try its potency, killing myself in the process. We are talking about real plants here and not drug.

    Anyway, my second run through took longer, but was somehow my better run. I stopped often to take pictures of mushrooms. I felt I was not as tired and I did not cramp up like on Saturday. The first day after I finished, I could hardly keep my eyes open (I was sleepy). I went to bed early. On second day, I was stronger. I think I acclimated back to ultra distance running after being couple months off. The body remembers.

    Still taking 6 hours to do 24 miles was not good enough. I need to bring the time below six hours.

    I am hyped for this race. It will be a long and hard training under the hot summer sun. I don’t have any other races at the moment. I am looking forward to a successful outcome at the end of summer.

    Not related, but more like note to self, during the run, I met a guy from the Rim to River 100 race, Jonathan, I vaguely remember him, note, my glasses broke during Rim-to-River, so I couldn’t see him well, but he said he recognize me and I kind of recognize him by his built. I met up with Greg and Lorraine, sweet people who have done the race last year, and I vaguely remember them. Lorraine is from a far away place, might have drove up during the same morning and immediately drove back. I drove up night before and stayed an extra night. Lorraine and Greg dropped down to the 40 mile distance this year because running for the cutoff is too stressful. I looked up their last year time. Indeed. Note, these people were so much faster than me and they are in their 60s. It was kind of a surprise they dropped down while I went for the longer distance.

    There was Tim and Carrie, they will run this race first time. Tim will be doing the 50-mile and Carrie will be running the 40-mile. I will be keeping an eye on Tim since he is likely will be around my pace. He seems like a guy who won’t go out too fast. Tim will be doing the Cloud Splitter 100 in October. I am itching to do that one too, but not this year. I think it is cool to share, because I have one more race to look foward to. Also couple people were talking about the Devil Bathtub, a race somewhere in Harrisonburg, around Grindstone course. Grindstone too is one of my races to do. And another was talking about Deet (a race, not the bug killer chemical). They say I should try. Of course, Chaz, probably was not his real name (couldn’t find him on the entrant list) from Ohio was talking about Burning River. These people are fast. When runners get together, they talk about races and shoes. Yes, we did talk about shoes. I was wearing Brooks Cascadia (not sure what version, shoes have numbers). I like my shoes because of the color, orange edge on dark gray, just beautiful. My favorite pair so far, but they are quite bad on rocks and when wet. Some can vouch running in Hoka Speed Goat 7 as being the best shoes in the universe (note, there is no Speed Goat 7 Hoka, well maybe there will be). I would like to be a speedy goat. These were the conversation around me during my long run. Well most of the time I was alone by myself.

    TLDR – nothing particular, I’m training to run the IMTR 50 mile, and to be sucessful I have run fast in the middle section, I think

  • Day486 Catoctin 50K

    Races are like a feast to me. What do I mean? While driving down on an Interstate on my way to my next running event for this weekend, there is a bubling joy inside me. An excitement.

    I thought back to last year when I made a similar trip, and many previous trips too, they all overlapped. Driving on a dark night, late hours, kind of rushing to get to the place I would stay for the night, and this had me think back in biblical time, when the people of God would go to Jerusalem for their yearly feast, and they would sing or recite the songs of ascend. It must be how they were like, I am full of anticipation of what the day will bring.

    Feast! My mind wandered. Yes we are on feast. I haven’t been to a banquet lately nor do I want to because they are expensive. Only kind of banquets I experienced was wedding. A few of my friends and cousins got married. You know it takes the bride and groom months to plan their wedding feast. But for us showing up as guests, usually it does not take me that much of preparation. Of course the RSVP is sent in a few months ahead.

    I think what so special about such big events is that I will remember it for a long time (if not for a life time). I felt indeed some of my bigger races, I probably will never forget.

    These might be just mumble jumble to my readers, but to me races such as the Rocky Raccoon, Great Southern Endurance Run, Rim to River, Devil Dog, and Massanutten, were a time that means so much to me. I can even remember the smell or the trees and the sound, the food at the aid stations, and every single thing. It is like the time slow down for me and I can see and relive the moment in slow motion.

    I race for the experience. At least that what I realized recently. I had a couple bad races and a couple good races and they made me to ask why and what was I seeking. And why is a race so good and some others are so bad, I think is all in the mind of how we receive it.

    I’ve done the Grandmas Marathon. I’ve done MMT. I didn’t run Worlds End but I was there. And the Devil Dog. I wrote up on them. (I know I should put links here so readers could easily jump to the reports). Each of those was an unique experience.

    I realized recently, especially for races I already done, that I expect a certain experience on a second go-around to recreate what and how I felt the first time I did it. Of course, it is not always possible and sometimes (as at Worlds End) ended up disappointing.

    On the flip side, you could take a (supposingly) bad race and turn it to good.

    Summary, I ran the Catoctin 50k and had a good time if not one of the best races in my recent racing history. It is actually a redo from a goofed up of last year.

    I signed up to run the Catoctin 50k last year (if I am not too lazy, I will link my last year report here, Day428). And it ended up to be a kind of bad day (last year) for me because I over worked myself by trying to do two ultra races in two places (in two different states separated by few hundred of miles) taken place on the same day at the same time, and I really thought and hoped I could successfully do both. It became downhill early on when I realized a mixed up and I only ended up only doing half the distance of the Catoctin 50k. And by the time I rushed to and arrived at the second race, everyone had already left and had gone home. I ended up doing neither of them in a way that I like. Note that all were last year. I think the reason I did not enjoy it as I should was because I put much energy into it and received only a little result.

    I signed up to run the Catoctin again early this year, hoping to actually be able to do the whole distance (50K) this time. This race was hard, or supposedly hard. I trained for a full month last year, going out every weekend for a training run. This was before I ran MMT. Somehow I had conjured up Catoctin 50k as something on a level as strenuous as a 50 mile race or a 100 mile race. Indeed, if it were my first 50k, Catoctin would have been hard. The signup page warns don’t do it as their first 50k. It should not be a training run for another race, or they will come away hating ultras.

    For me, I love the race, every moment of it.

    My shirt from the race has a slogan on the back compares the race being a “love/hate thing.” To me, it was all love.

    I came off after doing the MMT being beat up by it two months ago. I went to Duluth to do the Grandmas for a bit of R&R. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good time at Duluth. It was quite fun and indeed it was a rest I needed. Since then, I was still in a funky mood having this drag of not being motivated enough to run. I haven’t run much. I missed all the training runs for the Catoctin even though I had intended to go to do them. Before I knew it the race weekend arrived. I wanted it to be my pick-me-upper.

    The forecast was not good for the race day. We also had rain the night before and we would have rain during the race. It is not just a little rain but a lot (2.4 inches at times). There were warnings of flooding in many areas. It was going to be a wet one. Indeed, it was. As long as there is no lightning the race would go on.

    I woke up early like for any other races. I had very little sleep the night prior, maybe 2 or 3 hours. I was late in doing my laundry and packing. The drive to the race was not far but I planned for it to be a 2 hour trip. The park where the race was held opened at 6 am, and so I planned to leave my house by 4 at the latest, meaning a 3 AM early rise. I arrived as expected early around 5:30. I decided to wait at a nearby McDonalds since I did not want to be a “bad” guest by showing up too early. Still exactly 6, I went back to the race course. I apologize that I did not know the bib pickup table was not open until 6:30 (I didn’t read), the volunteer jokingly told me to come back in 15 minutes. I was really early. I got my bib and went back to my car to sleep since the race was not going to start until closer to 8 o clock. There were 2 hours of precious time to catch up on my sleep. The reason I wanted to arrived early so that I could get a parking spot, since they say they don’t have enough spot for everyone. Last year I had to park in a farther lot. This year, I was the second car arriving there and I chose just some feet away from the start line.

    There were a lot of runners. Many had done this race before, and some many times. It is a local favorite. I saw the friends I made from MMT were also there. I met up with Ram and Iris and Gretchen (whom I mistakenly remembered as Geselle). It was Ram first time doing the Catoctin. Ram said he will stick with me and I replied he is going to get a DNF if he does since I am slow, but nothing makes me happier than to run with friends. Gretchen was also there. She is one of the oldest runners I met, around 80 years old. I met her last year during one of the training runs. Ever since, she was a cheerful support to me at many of my races. There are not many elderly trail runners out there.

    We started off slow at an easy pace. I knew I won’t be that fast because I had not trained much for the last two months. I naturally stayed toward the back. I was like the last 20 people or so out of 200, no I think I was the final two people to leave the start. Ram was joking around with other people, so it ended up that we were the last few to cross the starting line. The 25k people were cheering us as we cross the start. Their race won’t start for another hour. I knew the trail is narrow and we did not have much room to spread out beforehand. We were piling up once we turned onto the trail. I know I should not rush otherwise, it was just ruin my day to be sitting/standing in traffic in the woods.

    Ram already disappeared once we entered the trail though I was able to catch up to him later before the turn around point, that was a few hours later. I was deprieved of a good companion. I was going very easy, at a walking pace. The first couple miles are hills. I walked like many did. In fact, I felt there was nothing I could do but to walk because we had so many people and I was at the very back. I did not like hustling people and I know it would not have helped.

    Rather, if I could I prefer having some conversation with my fellow runners. I met Dwight on the way up a hill. He and his partner has done this race 5 times. The best part is if we finish it within 9 hours (5 pm), we would receive the Catoctin Card for our wallet, which we could flex (show off) to other runners. It is kind of a joke (white elephant prize). By the way, I lost mine already. He told me, it usually takes about 4 hours going out and 5 hours coming back (for him). He said that is because it is easier one direction than the other. I listened and putting it in my head. To me since the course is out and back, the time should be about the same either direction. I sure wanted to beat the time he mentioned. Note that I didn’t have time to study the race course beforehand. Any info would be helpful at this point. We have a total of 9 hours to finish. I had to be back be 5 pm. It was an out-and-back course. I was sure I could be back around 3-4 pm since usually I could run a 50k under 7 hours.

    Dwight is fast, at least faster than me. He seems to be in his 60s. He told me of his experience of his last race there when he made the cutoff by 3 minutes and (because) he was pacing his wife, he slows down his pace for her sake. I ran with him for maybe quarter mile or half a mile and we were catching up to other people before he stopped. He said he is going wait for his partner to catch up.

    It was uneventful for the rest of the race. I got back to Delauter aid station. There were very little I could remember. The trail was flooded. I was by myself. I had a big cramp in my left leg. I shoke it off. At the aid station, I took a Gatorade protein bar with me. A few were struggling at the aid station. I ignored them. I did not stop for long. My spirit was lifted as I set out because I knew there were only 6 miles left.

    I kept running until I met “Alex”, who later told me his name is Aref. Aref did not talk much but he is a big guy. He ran on all the flat portions and walked all the hills. I did not mind. I was sure I can climb hills better than Aref, but I did not mind to stay behind. I was so out of shape myself, a little of walking did not bother me. Aref slowly picking up the pace more and more as time went by. Soon he was passing people and was out of sight.

    I did not mind and did not chase. Usually I like chasing people.

    Next person was a lady in front, unfortunately, we did not talk and I did not get her name. She did laugh at my one of my jokes later on. I followed behind her for a few miles because she had a steady pace. She was the longest time I stayed with, all the way to the first aid station (6 miles out). We caught up to a group of four or five infront of us. Then the lady took off. I was stuck behind another guy for a long while. He didn’t let me pass (and I didn’t specially ask him to let me). His pacing was annoying to me but I felt I didn’t had it in me to pass him. For me, if I pass someone, I would try to make sure to be able to stay ahead for a while, like at least a mile or longer. I don’t like leapfrogging one another every few hundred feet because that is exhausting way to run (and dangerous) in a trail race. However, some people are just annoying or did not know the trail etiquette. And usually when you are about to pass someone, I felt like you naturally lead someone to run faster, causing a chase. So for me, if I pass someone, I got to make sure, I can really run and withstand the resulting chase. From experience, some people are willingly slow down and some don’t. As I could tell, this guy in front wouldn’t slow down for me. It would be a pyrrhic effort to pass him and it was just too early in the race to do this kind of friendly battle. Only option was to hang back until an opportunity to pass. Later, I was able to find an opportunity when the guy was struggling on some technical section and I passed and I caught up to Aref and together we caught up to the lady I was following earlier just before we arrived at the first aid station (Delauter).

    For me, I carried a full pack of 2L of water so I did not need to stop for too long. I picked a few pieces of fruits from the table and went out. Aref and the lady stayed behind at the station. They seemed to be done (exhausted). I could tell because they lit up during like mile 3 or 4 but as we near the station, their speed crashed. This is the reason, I rather hold back myself, no need to battle out for position so early on. I did not see them again for the remainder of the race (even after at the turn-around).

    I then found someone going about my pace. The dude was from New Zealand. He commented how it was like back home with all the ferns. Indeed, he opened my eyes of how magical and beautiful this trail is. I ran it last year and all the training runs but I did not appreciate it back then because I was too focused on the run back then to see. Today, we had heavy downpour around this time and it was so pretty. I was soaked to the bone but was happy, so were everyone around me. We were children again playing in the rain. We rather run in the rain than in 100 degrees heat. The temperature that day was 72F, maybe 20 degrees cooler than normal. I don’t remember much but I probably arrived at the 2nd aid station, Hamburg, feeling a bit tired but well. The New Zealand guy pulled me at a much faster pace than I planned to run.

    At the aid station, the aid staff said they have salt for me. Good, thinking to myself. I replied hold that off, I might need them on the way back. We had maybe another 6 miles to go before the turn around and another 6 to be back at this aid station. I still had plenty of water in my pack. I left the station just as quickly as before. No need to stay there forever. I believe I took a cookie or something on the way out.

    Pretty soon I caught up to Ram, a friend I met at the MMT. Ram is in his 50s but he runs quite well, better than me at least. He was trying to run with sandals that day. I think he is crazy but he does his. I think the trail is too rocky for that. And at one point, he almost tripped on a rock or root, but nicely recovered. We stopped so he could adjust the laces or straps. I was glad that I finally have someone to talk to. Ram was witty and poked jokes at me. We both did Devil Dog (and DNFed) and we plan to redo it this year. I tried to get him to pace for me in future races. He is set with his because he had several people pacing him on his last 100 mile attempt. The talk helped passing time on the trail. We then passed Iris. Iris and her husband were doing the 25k so they started an hour later from the other direction. Gretchen was them. It was uplifting to see them. I didn’t tell them, but I was secretly hoping to make the turn around quickly and catch up to Iris since I know Iris is slow. This is like lapping a runner.

    Ram and I headed together to the turn around point. The last couple miles before the turn around, I lost Ram. I was much better at uphill and so I left Ram. Maybe it was the residual from MMT. I could run up a hill. He was not too far behind me, for he finished 5 minutes after me, but I did not see him again till at the very end after I came in.

    As the turn-around (High Knob), a few people dropped out. I was surprised by that. To me it was unbelievable. This was only halfway. 13-15 miles. There were a few runners I passed, and when I looked closely at them, they were as if they already ran a marathon. They were struggling. The couple guys that called quit were much younger than me, maybe college age. They were all so fit. I arrived there around 12:15, so it was taking me 4.5 hours on the outbound. I was hoping to do the same if not faster on the return portion of the race, since I still set my mind to finish before 4 pm. Dwight had tipped me that the return wouldn’t be easy, but I didn’t believe him.

    The return portion was rather lonely. Some runners already dropped. There were only 10 or so runners behind. Those who were ahead, will continue to get farther away. We had a steep descend from High Knob and then a long hard climb. This knocked out a lot of people. I followed a guy and I knew I don’t have what it takes to pass him. I am stronger on uphills but the guy has a better burst on the flat. I think he could handle 9 min pace easily. Fatigue was getting to me. By now I had used most of my gels and might be only one or two gels package left. Out of courtesy, he later stopped for me and stepped aside to let me pass, but we were together for a couple miles or more.

    For the first time, I felt the trail finally opened up for me. There was no one blocking me in front. All I know was there were runners behind. It was mostly like this until the finish.

    The challenge of running alone is having to make sure I was on the right trail and two, run fast enough to stay ahead. The race was not marked (or flagged with the usual race ribbons). This whole race is on the Catoctin Trail and it was up to runners to look for the blue trail blazes to stay on the right trail. The thing is there were a few places that were iffy because the trail light blue color blaze looks at times white. This drove me nut because I started questioning am I on the right trail. There are trails blaze with white in the area too. I think they also have done trail rerouting this year (several other people gps trackers showed the trail is 2-5 miles longer) and some they might have repainted with either black, gray or white blazes over them. It could be confusing. I was wondering am I following on the old trail or the new trail? At a few turns, I was not sure if I had it correct. Luckily I did not get lost, but I felt I ran a total of 36 miles instead of 31 miles and a few people confirmed this.

    I got back to Hamburg aid station. Was I glad! They refilled my pack with full water and I took the salt tabletes. I was revitalized. This is smart running. I learned to use salt from MMT. Not just salty chips but real salt helps. I saw a couple people were cramping there. I had a bit of a cramp myself, but I hoped the salt will get me through. We had about 9 miles left in the race.

    My goal was first to get to White Rock. I imagined it was going to be a long rough climb up. However, in fact, it was mostly downhills. At times I thought someone was on my heels. I chose not to look back. At one of the switch backs, I was able to catch sight of the person behind, maybe about 25 feet away. I kind of said hi, the other did not respond back.

    I concentrated on staying on my pace. Actually, now I felt it is a race. I divided my protein bar into third and told myself to eat a third every 15-20 minutes. My goal was to get back to the finish by 4 pm but I saw the time been slipping by 2 pm, then 3 pm, and then 4 pm. We passed a sign that says 4 miles to Manor. By now, I just wanted to finish. I don’t fear DNF and I was confident I could get in before 5 pm. I knew we were close. Based on my long distance pace this means an hour more to go. Then I saw White Rock. The rest of the race if I recalled correctly was downhill (in a good way). I have been running the whole time, but now I tried running my fastest (MMT came to mind).

    My strategy then was to at least catch up the guy in front. At the time I had no clue who was ahead because for the past couple hours I had not seen anyone. I was alone. Only occasionally I heard footsteps from behind to confirm I was on the right trail. So the chase began.

    I caught the first guy. He would not let me pass, but eventually, there came a wider path, and I easily passed him. You know instinctively if somone would let up and let you or if someone would gun it. He was gunning it, but I saw he was in pain too. He was in no shape to race me. Now was the time to battle for position and duke it out. Not long I was out of his range. I restarted the game to catch the next guy. Not long another runner came into view. I repeated this game all the way to the end. Though the last guy was pretty fast and he scurried up the last hill to avoid me catching him (normally most (slow) people don’t run up a hill in ultras, especially at the very end). He was one that got away.

    I finished at just before the 9th hour (probably around 4:45 pm). My race time was 8:54 (eight hours and 54 minutes). Ram came in a little bit after me at 9:05, he said. We had good bbq food. I stayed for an hour or so chatting with Ram and then helped with the cleanup. It was a good race. I got a shirt and a magnet.

    In a race for me, either I finish or I don’t. Having a finishing time is good only for comparison from year to year. This is my first time running the full 50k cat. (the race short form, people call it a cat). Out of 200 people, I was like the final 10 to come in. There were also about 30 did not finish. Many did not start.

    I enjoyed the run. It took a lot out of me. Still it was a short run not like a 100 mile. I would give anything to have this kind of runs every weekend.

    Aftermath, I was sore. I had rub burn on my thighs. It was painful taking shower. I had blisters on my feet. I was cold and miserable. I could not walk for a couple days. It was because I am in a poor shape. What I enjoy out of it the most was I laughed all the way back. Normally I don’t have the strength in the end, but in this race I was chasing down people. It does not mean much, but it was fun chasing people.

    Lesson/recap. Running I think is a mental thing. Sometimes I am miserable even doing a mile. This race, even though the extetnal elements were bad, but my mind turned it into a fun experience. A bit of note to self, I was singing Rebecca Black Friday song over and over again during the run because it made me so happy. I was also wanted to get back by around 3 pm so I could catch a streamer stream (Wakalaka4eva on Twitch) but I wasn’t able to make it. It helped me run fast nonetheless. Otherwise, it might have been a different blog post (a L instead of a W).

  • Day484 shooting breezes

    TL;DR bye to Techno, gambling in a raccoon game on Twitch, and I signed up for Cowtown

    Happy 4th for those in the States or abroad! Not technically the fourth yet, but a day or two won’t be much of a difference and I won’t wait till Monday to post my blog…I could, but why?

    First off, a salute to Technoblade, who passed away on June 30th due to cancer. I started to watch a bunch his videos during the start of the pademic and he became my hero for his exploits in Minecraft (mostly from the video Potato War). He appeared on my radar might have been due to youtube algorithm and also because Minecraft Monday, a series of minecraft competitions that happened at the beginning of the pademic. He gained a huge following because of it. Last summer, I was sadden when I learned he had cancer.

    I have moved on from watching Youtube videos to switching over to Twitch for real time streaming video since the past year.

    As I have nothing to post today, I scraped the bottom of the barrel and found this I wrote up a few weeks ago, not the actual post itself, but close enough. It was about gambling on a Twitch art channel (lunarniaa, check out her channel and art and her community of streamers). If those viewers found this post, they would be laughing their heads off of the time and energy I went through to get a win. I love them really, hence the amount of time I spent there. I figured it wouldn’t be that interesting if I posted the full writeup on the gamble thing so I didn’t post it.

    In brief, I have been spending my time of the last six months in the Twitch chat at the channel. She has a gambling game of guessing where the raccoon. Mostly I visit there to “gamba”, their term for gambling. She is an art illustrator and the raccoon game is just a mini game she played with her audience in the chat.

    We stop calling it gambling to be more wholesome because it is illegal in certain countries but call it the raccoon game now. We play it during the stream with points given to us based on the time duration we watch the channel, just like a loyalty point system. Points can also redeem awards from the artist, like a small sketch.

    I want a chibi head, a cartoon blowup head of your character (they call it OC, an original character sketch, that represents you, most people on Twitch would use an OC for their profile picture). Usually it takes maybe half a year of watching to earn enough points for the prize, currently is set at 100000 points. I get between 1000 to 2000 points per stream watched. So about 50-100 streams will make it, roughly 20 weeks (5 months) for me because I don’t watch every stream or stay for the full length (normally 3-4 hours). Yes, I would have gotten the chibi head by now if I didn’t gamble. Gambling is a way to gather points quicker as some believe. However, for many, their dreams come to an end each time they gamble. Mine too. I’m an enabler.

    It is a 50-50 chance game, like guessing head or tail of a coin toss. If it is purely random (RNG), then it does not matter of either choice because in the long run, your winnings or losings would even out, meaning zero payoff). However, some of us think it is ‘rigged’ because some people seem to always lose and others always win or we are just saying it to tease the host, Luna. Maybe it is a halo effect. We play because maybe we have better luck than others.

    I think it is just funny to laugh at other people’s bad luck / as well celebrating people’s good fortune. So what I thought was a smart thing to do is ‘reverse rigged’ it by creating a second account to always bet the opposite of what I would bet (I called hedging). This way one of the accounts will always ‘win’. I thought I was clever, but on the flip side, one account also always loses too, which I didn’t see it at the time. In short, it also didn’t prove the game was rigged, but I think it was funny for me to spend my thought and energy on the game to find the best strategy to beat the system. The post would have go into details of the wagers made. I thought I found a way (or strategy) to always win. And the game is usually played twice per stream and I thought I came with a strategy to bet like first round to test the water, and 2nd round to go all in. If it is a pure 50-50 chance, then it wouldn’t matter. As some people who played it already realized, the best thing to do regarding gambling is never to start, especially in real life (with real money)! You don’t lose what you didn’t bet.

    Am I getting a chibi? With both accounts combined I have around 90000 points and probably yes by the time this post goes out. Just a week more, or a quick gamba, and I’ll reach 100000 points needed for the chibi redeem! But I need someway to transfer the points from one account to another (without cheating, what!?, yes I could go into a game/poll where I know I can win, and there is only two people betting, me and my alt (alternate or backup account), and let either me or my alt win, but that would be pretty obvious).

    What this have to do with anything? Well nothing. There might be a little related to investing and that is more practical. At least I tell myself I am “investing” because I have a bit more knowledge than pure betting at chance. I could protect and limit my “risk”.

    I have so much more to say but I will leave it as that.

    —-

    I am in a middle of a season with all my hard races already passed. Fall races have not started yet. You can say I’m on a break. My training for last two weeks have been very little, like around 10 miles ish. Usually I put in around 50 miles or more per week. Not that my body is tired but mentally so.

    When this happened, like I feel unmotivated, I go to sign up for more races. As I was looking for races for next year, I decided to go to Texas for my next destination for my marathon. My goal is to run a marathon in all 50 states of the US. It has been slow going as I am distracted by a lot of other races.

    Then I came across the Cowtown Marathon. I read reviews on that and one of the bloggers on WP I followed also has done it. The price is just right for me and that sealed the deal for me. But guess what, during the checkout I found it offers an ultra marathon version and I couldn’t resist of not signing up for the ultra. Yep I will be going to Texas! But for an ultra again! What am I doing I asked myself. Was not going to Texas to cross off a marathon there for my 50 states goal? I guess I would have to go back for a marathon some other time. I got distracted, hopefully in a good way. Readers will have to wait till next year for the race report. This is what I mean, I pick races a year to two years ahead to do. Usually I don’t post something so far ahead because no one knows if I get to run it at all. Anyway, it is something for me to look toward.

    Ann Arbor is still up in the air for this year, but I don’t feel a strong desire to go there. I don’t like spending more than I should. Also I have enough races already. One more technically won’t break this camel’s back but I am on the fence, so likely will be a no-go.

    As in my last entry, nowaday, I am looking for the experience rather than running for running’s sake, not sure I’m making sense here. I had a good time when I went to Duluth, but as I also experienced the opposite at Worlds End, there is no gaurantee of having exact experience year after year. I’m sure Ann Arbor would put up a good race, but mentally I’m not hyped for it any more and I’m afraid to jink it.

    I also thought long and hard about MMT. I did not finish it (DNF) this year, and I’m hoping to redo at the next opportunity, and have been asking myself if I’m up to the task to do two 100 races in spring of next year. I think I can, but wisdom says to wait. I plan to sit out of the MMT next year, and fully commit to doing the OBX (Outer Banks) one. I will still attend its training runs (and the MMT Academy) and am willing to pace someone or volunteer at the event. The signup for MMT won’t open until fall, but I have my peace now.