In awe

Category: life

  • [Day600] Re2023/Xmas

    My last review (day550) was almost a year ago. Not much has changed since but definitely I am expecting something new going forward (wispering Western States, more on this).

    Every 50 posts I do a review of what has happened to serve as a stopping point for myself to reflect and take note. Those who follow my weekly blog, there is nothing new, because this is just a summary. For those who pop in once every six months or a year, this serves as a quick catching up. Indeed. A year has passed. Soon a new year. As for myself, it serves more as a bookmark, or a bookend. To be honest, I don’t remember much of the last few years if I hadn’t written things down.

    Life is hectic for me, always, because usually I tried to do too much. Even if life being dull and slow, a review helps to zero in a few instances of the good times. As they say, there is or should be never a dull moment.

    I don’t remember much this past year either way. I ran a lot of races, almost as many if not even more than last year (stats, in 2022, I ran 21 races, in 2023, I ran 26, almost a race every other week). According to my memory, 2021 was awesome, when I truly finished my first 100 mile race. 2022 was a year of setbacks. I guess I reached my limit. This year, was a reversal of it, I ran five 100 milers and finished 3 of them. Maybe I trained harder but more likely my body adapted to the longer form and I also am more experience to avoid past mistakes and improved. This year I doubled the total 100 milers I did in 2021 and 2022 combined. I also ran 5 marathons. Traveled to 5 different states, with Idaho being the farest.

    In my last update, I wrote that I finished my first Devil Dog 100 and then I ran Blackbeard Revenge 100 in the spring 2023. I was pretty hyped up to finish two incredible races when I wrote the post because compared to the year before, I could not finish any 100s. That was quite a feat to rebuilt my confident of being able to tackle this extremely long distance race.

    Since then, I also ran the Devil Dog again, which I did just a few weeks ago and I also finally finished my first Massanutten 100 this year. I am proud of this one accomplishment alone. It was the hardest race I ever attempted. I finished a total 3 one hundred mile races! We won’t mention Grindstone or Burning River, the other two 100s I attempted over the summer at this time but did not complete them. I will try them again next year.

    As for marathons, my main bread and butter, I ran the Toronto Marathon and many other races in 2023. Toronto was my goal race. It was a race of stepping out in faith because it was my first race outside of the US. It is though now seems less significant when compared to my bigger ones.

    I visited 5 states. In Fort Worth, Texas in January, I ran the Cowtown 50K, then ran a Lake Hayden Marathon in Idaho, ran Blimbler Bluff 50K in Connecticut, Ran in the Philadelphia Marathon in November in Pennsylvania, and finally, ran the Space Coast Marathon in Cocoa, Florida. Connecticut, Idaho, Florida were all new states! Technically if counting only marathons, then Idaho and Florida were the two new (marathon) states added this year. Regardless, I am quite please. My goal is to do about 5 states a year. I consider this was reached. They were so fulfilling. Each of them was amazing in their own right. If I have to pick, definitely Toronto, not so much the race itself but the city.

    Course of Philadelphia Marathon, which is mostly an out and back along the river. A random pic for my audience. I enjoyed my time in Philadelphia. I love maps. Most of races/runs are to explore a city

    I don’t have a plan for next year for which marathons to run because my head is still reeling from the WSER good news and also I will be traveling oversea, so there will be less fund and time available for marathons. I will try to squeeze a few in when I can. I signed up for Taiwan Marathon, which is pretty big I think. I am expecting a good time. My first race in 2024 will be the Clear Water Marathon, just outside of Tampa Florida.

    As for Ultras, I am redoing most of this year races next year: Massanutten, Burning River, and Grindstone. The new race is definitely Western States, and possibly Old Dominion too. OD100 is on the fence, but I am itching to try it now. Some asked why not go for the full Grand Slam? My question is are you crazy or am I crazy. I have a sort of my own grand slam of running 5 x 100 mile races over the summer.

    Yes, a year ago when I could not even finish a 100 mile race, because they seemed so tough, now we are talking as oh just another 100 mile race. Lets do five of them and maybe back to back such Vermont 100 and Burning River are on a back to back weekend.

    The most challenging race for me will probably the Western States since I could not train directly on the course and the race is a big unknown. Whereas, other local races, I have done it or that they were in my area and I could go out to train. Old Dominion, I haven’t done it but the course is much similar to Massanutten and Grindstone.

    People who know what Western States 100 is, I won’t say much more. For those who don’t Western States and Leadville 100 are two US 100 mile races where the best runners go to compete. Some compares them to the Boston Marathon. They are well known in the ultra marathon world. There are 100-ish 100 mile races in the US, but Western States being the oldest and having most fame, received tons of attention. I am setting my sight too do do most if not all the 100 mile races, plus maybe one day the grand slam, but not now.

    I will be blogging my week to week training until race day for WSER. I don’t want it to define me for 2024, but it is and will be. It is difficult to process everything around this race.

    I hope I haven’t lost my audience. I threw out a lot of names. To my audience they probably don’t mean much. Even to me, they might mean something for that week only when my focus is on just that one race, then a week later, a new race. I meet a guy, Paul, at a recent event, the Naked Nick 50k. He asked me if I really do a race every weekend. I guess so. It seems like it. I can’t tell you guys all about my 26+ races. If I have to pick one as a favorite, it would be hard! If I really have to,

    I leave you guys my very first race this year, Blackbeard Revenge. Why? Because I ran a point to point from one end of Outer Banks to the other end (a bunch islands on the coast of North Carolina), and as I near the finish, I saw the sun rising. It was my first time to finish a 100 mile race as the sun was coming up. I had that fresh burst of energy. It was the most exciting and amazing feeling at the end of a 100 mile. It was just me and the road and the finish line. It sums up my experience of 2023. It is something that can’t be explained.

    Of course not all my races are like that. A lot of them, it is really suffering and I don’t want to remember them. I still like to do them as a race. Back on topic, as for 2024, I know I again a lot of races. I will also difficulties. Nothing ever is smooth sailing.

    Some challenges I face this year and next year are same as before. I don’t feel I have trained enough. At least not to the level I deem is acceptable, if we are judging at finishing time. I am still putting very low effort toward my races. I think mostly it is hard to wake up in the morning to train! Western States led to a change to be more consistent in doing my training runs. I hope it will change my life around in term of habits and how I eat.

    Sunrise at Signal Knob during a training run for Western States (week 1). Just a random pic to fill the blog. Actually a lot of my training runs are in beautiful places. I just don’t have the energy to post them

    -Managing time, money, resources, energy is a challenge. I am a bit better. I have a group of friends that kind of help me at races. This is the logistical stuff I always wanted a manager to oversee. I am also considering of hiring coach. The bottom line is I have to work smarter also harder.

    -Scheduling. One of my goals is to go to Napal for trekking the Annapurna. It was supposed to be this year, 2024. This would have to be deferred for a few more years. Next year I am going to Taiwan and Sydney, plus Western States do requires a ton of resources, time, and energy, that there is nothing left for another trips. I want to remind myself, there are other things besides running.

    -The challenging of keep trying harder stuff is reaching the Peak. After doing almost the same thing over 7 years, I come to a point of plateau-ing. It is harder and harder to go a bit more above what I just did. I know I am not at the peak yet, but I am asking myself, how much farther I can go. Maybe it is the law of diminishing return.

    Another challenge I have from time to time is finding a Reason to do what I do. I struggle with defining myself. I don’t want things to define me. Yet I want the achievement. They seem to be opposite. I don’t want to underachieve either. These 7 years, I have pushed the envelop. I keep wondering where is the boundary. At times I thought I reached it, but now looking back, they were just a baby step. Part of defining myself is Looking forward, which is hard for me. I lack imagination. What’s next!

    I came to a bit of understanding while writing this. It is not so much of pushing more boundary, but to see the freedom already available to me. Now, I could do so much more than before and having done some harder races, like 100 miler, I gained the confident in my body of being able to sustain me on some of tougher and longer runs.

    Western States was a total surprise to me. But then after that what’s next? Anyway, we will know once we get there. I don’t have an answer.

    Until next time, I think will be either summer or earlier fall (Day650). By then a lot of my goals will either have reached or else and I will get to write about them. I hope this report has been a good read to you and to me.

    Yes, it is Christmas and New Year! I am not ready. Happy holidays!

    Most proud and most recent medal from the Devil Dog 100 Edurance Run. I notice long races are called endurance runs

  • [Day584] Hello 6

    I reached another year on WP. End of the fifth year and beginning of the 6th. See last year entry (here).

    This time I don’t have much to write. I have been busy doing so many things. Last year I wrote about mission creep (plan2023), indeed, I was drinking from the fire hydrant in term of running. I run in any races I could get my hand on. Each year, it seems I say the same thing, but each year I add on more and more races.

    I am a bit tired at the moment. I need to refocus of what I want to do.

    The idea I don’t need to do this has not occurred in my mind. Indeed, I don’t need to do it.

    I am happy though. 2023 brought me up on another level. At the start of the year, I did not know where I was headed. Somehow I managed. I can run some hard races and it was not a 1-off.

    I wanted to meet some awesome people and I did. This was one of the goal. I partly succeeded. People such as Greg, Wayne, Tek, Lynn and Caroline have made my running much more multi-dimensional. It has been an interesting year.

    I want to step out and be bold. I did. I traveled to Toronto and ran their marathon. I ran Blackbeard’s Revenge 100. I finished MMT 100 for the first time. I tried the UTMB Grindstone 100, which was one of the harder race. I did not finish but it was a leap of faith to try. Same for Burning River 100. Try something hard and even when I don’t succeed, I am still happy.

    Something new I did was pacing a friend in her 100 mile race and the emotion of seeing her crossing the finish line was exceptional, probably something I will remember for a long time.

    The question of what’s next is always on my mind.

    I want to do more. I want to do something unique and memorable. I want the next year to be new and different from before.

    Next year, I want to be radically different, yet still reaching my goals.

    I am imagining myself playing chess and then sweep all the pieces off the board and still play. I want to approach like that with my planning. Things currently are too messy. Let sweep everything aside and start fresh.

    End of a year and beginning of a new year is a good time to reimagine what and how I want to be.

    Simple is good. I need to simplify things. I don’t need to run gazillion races. Maybe one or two races is good.

    I think I got a bit race envy this year. I met some high power runners this year. Four or five people who are running (like me) every weekend in various places. It becomes like a friendly competition to see who can out do who. Not really, but our races were like our street creds.

    There is also kind of pressure I put on myself to do races so I could write about them. It is kind of silly. I am sure my readers what me to be healthy and enjoy the runs I do. It does not matter though if I don’t have fun. It has been hard for the last several weeks as I tried to set my schedule for next year. I know what races I want to do, but I was reluctant to sign up any.

    I am still looking for a race/run or an event that will define 2024.

    Less is more. What’s next. Soon. I don’t really know yet. To be determined. Hello Year #6

  • [Day583] slow news cycle

    From now to maybe the end of the year, I have a race or so every weekend. There will be plenty to write about. As of now, it is a waiting period.

    I know the end will come fast. I am waiting, because I haven’t decided what to do yet for next year. I touched on this a few times in earlier posts. I am procastinating.

    This weekend, there is a training run (for Stone Mill 50, which I will run next month). Then on Sunday I will run for my 14th state in Connecticut. Blimbler Bluff, a 50K.

    I never thought it would be a new state. It is a 50K. I might go back to run a bona fide marathon later.

    I don’t advertise things before they happen in case things don’t work out. Then there wouldn’t need for an explanation if things go down badly. I mentioned this now, so I will have to do well.

    I kind of decided to go to Connecticut at the last minute. I was originally bound for Vegas because I wanted to go to Twitch Con as well as a 6 hour race there. However, the price though for the airfare became too expensive. Prices nowaday are like that, but I felt I could have gotten it cheaper. Maybe for my pride, I am not going because I am not willing to pay more than I think I should pay. There is always next year, they say. $1000 for a party is maybe too excessive.

    My weekend opened up. My friend asked if I wanted to join her in Connecticut for a run. Sure, 50k in 10 hours. This seems like the type of race I like. If they give us 10 hours to do, it got to be hard. A 50k usually takes 6-7 hours. It was still open for signup.

    I needed the distance for my training. Training for what? Many runs, especially Stone Mill. I am excited about that. Lots to share in the coming weeks. Not just Stone Mill, but Marine Corps, and then Rim to River weekend.

    Now news of the day, I am still struggling of what races to run for next year. October is the planning month. I use this time to lay out all the trips and goals for next year. Here, I am being indecisive.

    Today, I signed up and booked flight and hotel for Space Coast Marathon 2023.

    Not sure I mentioned, Florida is on my target. I wasn’t going to pick Space Coast though I love space and technology because going to Orlando over Thanksgiving is so much more expensive than going there other time. I saw the price was falling, like by $50 the last couple days, and I jumped in this morning.

    I worked out the flight schedule and all. I tried many different ways and in the end, direct flight from my closest airport won out for less than $600. It is still a lot because I think normally, I could fly to Orlando for $200 ish.

    Couple weeks ago, when I decided to go to Florida, I signed up for Clearwater Marathon in Tampa because flight there was under $200. It seemed like a good fit. When I signed up, they offerred 50K as an option, so I picked the 50K. This will be next year. It should be my 15th state unless I fit another race before then.

    Finally, this is the race I have been on the fence. The New Taipei Marathon (they call it something else) in March has just open! I want to go while at the same time on my way to Sydney for my cousin’s wedding. I checked the airfare. It should be doable. I am nervous about committing it. I don’t get to go out the country much. I am sure there are people that can speak English in Taiwan, but still nervous to go to a chinese speaking country. My chinese is not that good.

    There is still so much to write about. I will stop now. What’s next is my 100 miler in February. Then maybe two or three more marathons. Baton Rouge, La Cruces, and maybe Myrtle Beach. I am so undecided.

  • [Day581] off week / non racing week report

    Life happened. I don’t remember much what happened during the last two weeks.

    Running front not much to report.

    I was going to run the Army 10 Miler, which I ran last year during the Columbus Holiday weekend. I was not going to do it again this year but couple of my friends wanted to do it, so I decided to join in (was pressured to join) for the fun of it. We signed up probably back in June or July. For some of them, that would be their longest run ever.

    Supposingly I’ve heard my friend looped in 20+ of us to sign up, but only about 8 showed up for the run. The one who gathered us all to run this jokingly said she should collect a fee from all the no-shows. We should have paid her instead of the Army Ten Miler! Easy money.

    Something happened to me and I did not get to run it though I signed up and paid for it.

    It was on me. I lost track of the day for picking up the bib. No bib meant no racing. They did not allow race day bib pick up.

    I was planning on going after work on Friday for the bib pickup because my workplace is closer to downtown where the race and pickup was. However, a last minute urgent task came in at work and I was stressed over in completing the task. I am blaming work but I know it was on me.

    In my mind, I already crossed off picking up the bib and so did not plan to go to downtown on Saturday. I had a training run scheduled on the Saturday. I did the training Saturday morning and went straight home afterward totally forgot about going by downtown for the bib or the next day event.

    It completely escaped my mind. By Saturday evening, I was mentally rehearsing through what I would be doing on Sunday and preparing for it. It then occurred to me I did not have my bib.

    I knew it was too late then. I did not know anyone who worked for the race organization to get it for me on a private channel. It is such a big event and there bound to be someone who know someone and possibly can get it during off hours. There were still 12 hours before the race. It was not happening. No way could I reach someone to get me a bib for the run.

    To say I was disappointed was a mild way to put it. I was frustrated at myself and the whole thing. I was fuming the whole night and all Sunday. I was sulking the whole Sunday (the reason I didn’t post this).

    I had this long 3 day weekend, normally I would fill it up with a long trip, like running or camping at somewhere far away. Now what was I going to do. I ended up doing nothing.

    The race fell off my schedule. I had nothing to cover for it. Ended up I did not do anything on Sunday either.

    Monday came. The holiday. Columbus Day. I was going to use it for my training. Then my good mother wanted me to take her to a park. That basically messed up whatever plan I had left for the weekend.

    I did not want to do it. I was like, my Saturday was ruin. My Sunday too and now my Monday. I wanted to head up to Shenandoah. My mom believed she “saved” me from my trip. She thinks I went on too many trips. I was a bit miffed and irritated by it. I took her to the park.

    In the end, no one to blame but for myself. I am very jealous of my own time. There is a tug of war: me or the world. I have been “winning” for a long time and this weekend was one of the “bad lucks” in that I did not get to do what I wanted. I gave in not because I lost, but because my heart was not in it any more.

    Summary, very little running was done comparing to my usual volume. My ankle though does need the rest. It recovered much since July trip to Ohio, but it never is at 100%. It does not hurt any more, but it does not feel strong. It always feels like I bump on the funny bone type of sensation when I run on it. It is a strange feeling. I don’t like the cracking sound it makes whenever I try to stretch it. It probably missed a bit of cartilage there.

    Whatever happened, I know it was meant to be.

    Other than running, I have been ruminating on my next year run schedule. I have been at this for a month with very little progress.

    I know what races I want to do. Yet unlike this year, I don’t have anything bold I wanted to try. This year was the Massanutten 100, Blackbeard’s Revenge 100, and Grindstone 100.

    I will run the Massanutten 100 and the Grindstone 100 again, but they won’t feel like I will be shooting the moon. They are not as challenging as before. All my runs of these past few years always have been me trying push the boundary of what I am capable of. Each time I pushed past one, it felt I have reached a new level. Eventually, I reached where I am today. It makes me pause like what’s next.

    I have to find my focus.

    I am proud of what I have become. I like running long. I don’t get tired. 30-40 miles are good distance for me. 50 mile runs feel really good. 26.2 are really easy now.

    I have a vague idea of where I am heading. A few new friends have a goal to attempt the grand slam (run 5 famous 100 milers). It would be nice for me to try those harder races.

    A 200 miler is also in the play. I think I can do it. Next year is not the right time yet. The one I wanted is cowboy 200, but I promised to pace a friend there. I am not serious yet to run a 200 at the same time. Maybe 2025.

    Another idea was to do fifty states for 100 miler. Two friends of mine are attempting. I don’t have to follow them. I know I will eventually do it since 26.2 no longer as appealing. I started on it already. However, I can’t run as many races as marathons. I already ran 50 marathons to-date but only 5 100 milers.

    I am paralyzed by indecision with regard to what races. I want to feel sure about what I am going to sign up. If a race no longer has the “feel” than I don’t want to force myself to run it. In the end I am running because I like it and not because I have to do it. Forgotten Florida 100 seems like a good race on paper, but I don’t have the passion for it, while Red Dirt 100 doesn’t seem to be as a good race, but I really want to do it. They are both on the same day. Normally, yes follow your heart! My head would not let me though. Red Dirt is “harder” in term of logistics.

    My next event would be pacing a friend at Rim to River 100 in West Virginia in November. Yes, I gave her my word I would do it. It is coming up in three weeks.

    That’s that. Nothing new to report except for my whining. Until next time.

  • [Day580] giving back at Yeti 100

    Grindstone 100 is still big on my mind. After a few days of rest and pondering, I committed myself to the next year event. Pre-registration actually opened before we even ran this year event. Some runners were offended by the “money taking” move. However, I am glad they open the registration already! Because I can sign up at a discounted price. It is about $20 more than than last year, about 6% increase. Inflation, what can we say, but please take my money.

    I have been feeling great so far. After Burning River in July, I was crushed, not so much because of the DNF, but something about that race just did not sit well with me. I did not run much for two months after that. It just sapped my energy.

    I was in motion but was not getting anywhere. I tried to sign up for other races next year, but was not able to will myself.

    After reading a friend’s post, it reminded me that, I possibly was having a burnt out at the time. For doing too much in things I no longer find joy in.

    I don’t mean that I have been running too much. As for the amount of running, the “much” part is relative. Some considers running 100 miles in a month being too much. I do that amount in a weekend.

    Grindstone helped me find or rediscover my mission. I did not want to run races just for the sake of it. I know I have a longer term goal of to run in all 50 states, because that was fun to me and it gives me a reason to travel, which I really enjoy. But that my mission has a component to help others achieve their running objective! I think that what energized me over the weekend.

    Something about Grindstone, that my neighbor said I looked more recharged. This is rare because usually after doing a 100 mile, I am beat up. My neighbor was asking what has changed in me. I said just a race!

    This was for the first time, I actually finished the race feeling more refreshing than going into it. My outlook changed too. The past whole week has been great. I have been asking myself, what races to do for next year. I am upbeat. I did sign up for Grindstone again for 2024.

    This weekend, I helped a friend with her 100 mile race. She was with me at Grindstone (Lynn). It was tough for her to do two big races back to back. Her third big race is in a month from now (and I might help her in that one too). On a side note, I checked the entrant list, and saw a few familiar names of those who ran Grindstone with me last week. There are some amazing people out there. I was rooting for my runner. I am excited for her and of her ambition, and so I was willing to help what I can to get her through this.

    From Grindstone, I had more realistic expectation as a pacer. My experience helped Lynn through her difficult times.

    Just a small update, I originally wrote this entry before Lynn’s race, and was going to publish it, but somehow did not have the time. Lynn finished her run. As a pacer, I could not take any credits for it. It is her own strength, she found somewhere to get her through.

    I was with her from mile 49 to miles 85. 34 miles-ish.

    I met her around 6:30 from Damascus crew station and we arrived back 6:30 in the morning.

    She was the first person I paced who actually finished! It was not easy for her. My job on the otherhand was quite easy. I just stayed with her and made sure she’d keep moving.

    The exciting part is sharing her finish. It was her hard work, yet I got to say, I helped! Back to the topic of finding joy! Yes, I had a good time. I met several other runners at the finish, and they were surprised to see me there, and I said, I paced my runner!

  • Re(view) 23:14 [Day575]

    Midterm review / Summer-Fall 2023

    Summer has gone by too fast for me. The last review was around April (Re 23:13). The goal back then was to train to run faster for the Iron Mountain 50, especially Grindstone 100.

    Let just say, it has not been easy. I have gotten slower instead of faster. I blame my left foot, which still gives me problem. I DNF’d in couple races. And Grindstone is about two weeks away.

    I started the summer full of confident from having conquered the MMT100 (finished under 35 hours), and I finished the Blackbeard 100 (OBX) last march in 28 hours. I felt I could now tackle any 100 miler. I felt I have matured in tge sport.

    I went and signed up for Burning River 100 thinking it is comparable easy like Blackbeard and I should not have trouble of finish it.

    As superstition has it, I took the finishing photo before runing the race, and I was thinking, it would be an embarassment if I don’t finish, and so it turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. I stopped after 28-ish hours at mile 86-ish (I ran 89). It was a mess of a race. It rained heavily as the race got underway. I was soaked thrpugh and through. I was not prepared for the rain, and did not pack as many sets of dry clothes as I should. I had shirts but no extra shorts and underpants or socks. It was a struggle throughout the day. I was severely chafed by mile 26. I felt several times. The trail was muddy and slicked. I did not wear proper trail running shoes. It was like skiing downhill. During one fall, I might have rolled my ankle and it was swollen by midnight. And I could no longer run. It was as bad as could be.

    One of the lessons learned was I “over”-trained before the race and did not taper and so during my big race, I was out of reserve. By midnight, I was pretty much done. There was no reaching deep in my heart to draw out that energy to push me through. I slogged through the night only moving another 20 miles. It was too little too late. I DNF (did not finish/cut) when I failed to reach the last few aid stations in time. My pacer was pleading, it is just half a marathon left, which on a typical day, would be a morning run. Shout out to an amazing pacer, Amanda.

    Burning river 100 left a big impression in me (full report here). I will definitely will do it again. This was one example of how my whole summer was.

    The other race I DNF’d was the Iron Mountain 50. (report can be found here). My summer was supposed to run faster so I could do this race. Somehow, maybe the time required to recover from the Burning River and also from an earlier 100 mile race (MMT), I was not able to train as much on speed as I should. Iron Mountain was a bloodshed. I was destroyed. I finished an hour later than my goal. Good thing was I was not injured from the race.

    As for other races, I ran the Catherine’s Furnace 50K more as a training run. It took me 10 hours to do it. Normally, I should/could run it in 6-ish hours. I did not really write a report. This is as close as it get.

    An highlight of my summer was I went to Toronto and ran the Toronto Marathon. It was not a fast time, but I was pleased. The report can be found here. Note, my report was mostly negative, but due to other reasons.

    As for other races, MMT100, OSS/CIA50, Catoctin 50K, readers can read their reports. I am tired so not going to write much on those. They were all good race.

    So what is ahead? Fall season is about to start. I have plenty of races, both big and small ones. Grindstone 100 is ahead. Devil Dog 100 is in December. I have been reluctant to commit to 2024 so I have not signed up too many races for next year especially the 100 mile races. I promised to help my friend at what to be her last 100 mile race, Cowboy 100 in Nebraska. More on this as the date approach.

    Red Dirt 100 is in February. Burning River 100 is in July. I plan to run MMT 100 again in May. Iron Mountain 50 in September. Cowboy 100 is in September too, but I won’t be competing, so won’t be stressed out about it.

    As for marathons, I will run a few of those. My goal is always the same – to run faster so that I could finish some harder races, and not be embarrassed. I don’t mind the DNF, but it is a like a mosquito bite of plain annoyance of not being able to finish when I feel I could do it.

    I have an international trip planned. Likely will be a marathon in Taiwan.

    Conclusion if any, I am a bit jaded after this summer. I kind of see it coming. I am still in love to run and run far, but I am a bit at lost of which race to run. I know which race I want to run, but I am not as aggressive as before. I don’t want to run because I have to; I want to run because I am passionate about doing it. My nightmare is might fall out of love with my running and next year might be my last year.

    My next review will be 6 months from now (early January or February). I will likely do and end of the year thing, new year resolutions, and an anniversary post.

  • [Day572]

    More training. This week I will “run” it back. Between last entry and now had been two weeks. I have been lazy in posting. I am repeating what I did in last post. Almost exactly. I drove down to Damascus (VA), going to run on Saturday (course marking day), and then immediately, going to Mt Solon tonight, and then tomorrow, will run on the Grindstone course.

    Labor Day is next weekend, which means IMTR – the Iron Mountain Trail Race.

    I have been looking toward it since last year. It was going to be a redemption since I did not “finish” the run last year. If you look for my name on the ultrasignup list, I was not listed, because I came in after 12 hours, though I think my name was on the excel results sheet at the IMTR website.

    Anyway, the past Tuesday, a friend reached out asking if I am free on Labor Day, whether I am up for some backpacking they were planning. I said I have IMTR coming up in a week. They were not a runner. So I said I plan to run 50 miles that weekend (actually just one day, Saturday). Of course they are impressed. They might be planning to hike about 50 miles over 3-4 days.

    I said, if the backpacking trip is near Damascus, I would like to join them after my run. Now in my head, I am planning, like during the race, I will be running in the woods. Nearby (maybe about 50 miles away) is Grayson Highlands. If their trip is around Grayson Highlands, then during the run, I just run there, of course, I would be DNF/DQ. IMTR is an out and back route, so I will just run out and not come back to the finish. I will let the last aid station know when I pass by that I will drop, so they don’t have to look for me.

    Yes anyway, that only if the trip is around Grayson Highlands. Iron Mountain is kind of connected to Graysons Highlands. I have “done” this route vaguely couple times. My friends said Grayson Highlands is 6 hours away for them and they don’t want to drive that far.

    When I told this plan to my other friends who were going to do IMTR too, they said how sad that I would not finish. True. I don’t think I will finish even if not for the backpacking trip. This summer, I was going to work on speed, but I have been too lazy and did not spend a lot of time training. So, I don’t think I am capable of running 50 miles under 12 hours, especially on the Iron Mountain Trail.

    I have been driving long distances these past few weeks. Last weekend, I went to Fayetteville, WV to do some trail work with the River Gorge park service people (nps). I intended to afterward run on the trails there, since that was part of the course for the River Rim 100, which I ran few years ago as my second 100 race. There were a lot of fond memories.

    The section I worked on the mountain bike trail. It finally dawned on me why during my race there there were so many turns and small hills. During that race, I broke my glasses so I could not see much. I kept getting lost on the trail because every couple steps the trail would turn off to a different direction and I kept on bumping into trees. Later on in that race, I found a buddy, who would kind of leading me, so I was no longer getting lost and bumping into trees. That was a wild night for me for sure. I might have mentioned that in the race report.

    All these memories came to me as I stepped back on the same trails, but this time I could see clearly and in the day time! After my service work, I was too tired to actually run. I went to my camp and slept for 15-16 hours till almost noon the next day. That goes my running for the weekend. I did do some light running around the ACE Resort campground, then headed home. It was a long drive that night, and I did not get home till midnight.

    My weekend last week was the service project and long driving. This weekend is pretty much the same. I drove about 6 hours Friday. Probably another 5-6 hours today. Maybe run for a few hours. Will do the same on Sunday. The bulk of the run will be Sunday if I am not too lazy. Then will drive home.

    I was thinking to myself, why do I drive so much. Why can I just drive 30 mins to somewhere nearby and run instead of driving 300+ miles away? Because I am usually lazy. Whole summer I have been thinking to do that but if the place is too close to my house, I ended up staying home every weekend and ended up not running. Going somewhere really far forces me to run after arriving.

    Anyway IMTR is next weekend. I will be meeting a lot of my running friends. I might or might not do backpacking on top. I already booked the hotrl for all four days.

    Wrapping up, I had nothing to post so I went of on some tangent. The sci-fi series I was reading turned out be boring and frustrating. I am on book 9. Yep, my week has been like that. I spent time reading. I started this since 5-6 weeks ago, since Burning River. As you know, I have not been training much for my races since that one. However, fall season races will start soon. Some even say now is fall. We had some really nice fall weather this week. I think I have lined up myself with a race every weekend from now until Thanksgiving!

  • [Day570]

    Nothing much to report. Been distracted by various things.

    Into reading some wushu fatasy novel (I shall seal the heaven), on book 9 now.

    Not much running done since the Burning River, only did about 4 miles in the last two weeks. Training for Iron Mountain and Grindstone this weekend. They are both super hard races. After what happened in Ohio, I have so little faith that I could do either of them, but the show must go on.

    Eastern States Race is this weekend. Two of my friends are running in it. One will be my pacer for Grindstone. The other gave me the super duper headlamp I used in the Burning River. I am cheering them from afar. Of course, I would like to be present on the course to support and all, but I have my own training runs to do.

    My friend Caroline dropped some ideas about which races to do bext year. Big Horn 100 in Wyoming in June (hopefully it won’t conflict with Old Dominion). Also Nebraska 100. I don’t know the detail yet. Nebraska would her last race she said and her last 50 states. I said I would pace/support her. Is she thinking about the Cowboy 200? That is the race I have been eyeing the past year.

    When I wrote my race report, Burning River did not rub me that hard, but now as time sinks in, I am asking myself why I did not finish. The answer was obvious. All the what and how were mentioned in race report. But now the feeling hits me. I am feeling beaten up by it. It is like a black hole eating me up inside. There is nothing I can do. I just need to move forward. My two friends who had done the Burning River comforted me. One shared of her experience how she also did not finish it the first time she tried. She said she tried again the following year and finished it. My awesome pacer Amanda, also said she did not finish it the year she attempted it. I am pretty sure, if she tries again, she will be able to do it.

    What am I getting at? I am itching to sign up races for next year.

    Oh about me foot, The swelling has gone away. There is some pain still. It is not broken, but dang it still hurts. This is worse than in January.

  • [Day567]

    Summer. Heat. Sweat.

    I started to run more consistently in the past week. My left foot still hurts but it is getting better. I could flex and unflex and rotate it. Shin only hurts after running 3-ish miles. Yes, I know, I have three events coming up. I need the foot to be ready.

    This weekend, Catherine Furance 50K. Hot run. If it will be as hard as Catoctin, I might not be able to finish it. I think it will be hard. MMT hard.

    Sunday, Birthday 5K. I run this every year. I look forward to eating cupcakes afterward.

    Next week is the Burning River 100. The challenge would be the distance and the heat.

    I told a friend that I will be running the burning river and he said, is that the river that is so polluted that it caught on fire. Maybe. I thought it was just a description of a hot run and did not expect it to be literally on fire.

    Nothing much to report. I haven’t touch IT stuff for the past 7-ish years except for work after I found myself a new hobby (running). I started this blog hoping to write more of the geeky stuff.

    This week I had a chance to look into buying a wifi router for the house. After looking at many models, I picked one and had it shipped to me.

    I felt like a kid again drooling over many different models. They are all like looking at lamborghinis. Sure, I could technically affort them but is it partical for the house. It was hard to finally pulled myself away from the highends of the latest and greatest to settle on something mundane.

    I felt proud of myself of having set it up successfully last night. Our home network is still “bad”. I did not go with the latest gizmo, though my mouth was watering for those 10 gbps connections! I settle for 1 Gbps backplane connection. It’s a two generation old router, but their immediate availability and low cost hooked me.

    Truly we only have a 10 mbps uplink at our housr so any would do, and a 1 gbps network is an overkilled. We don’t even have any computers any more. Only phones. Anyway, I had my fun setting it up. However, in the future, I plan to dabble back having a server in the house. That’s for a future project.