In awe

Category: life

  • Day525 resolve

    New Year is already here! I am behind on making my resolutions. I am not a big fan of making resolutions because I usually fail after a few days. I also the type of person who needs to have them because I love structure.

    I did not start the year with a bang, but I did start it off running. Seriously, I ran a 50K on January 1st. I still need to write a report on that.

    In other areas besides running though, I have some “debts” to repay. I felt behind on a bunch of things. There are two race reports to write! I need to prepare for several trips this spring (Texas, Canada, Outer Banks, Roanoke, and Massanutten). One is next month and I haven’t reserved my flight. And most importantly, I need to refocus myself for this new year.

    Originally, I was going let it slides, like I have been for the last few years. This year was going to be like the year before. It is not far from the truth. Same old same old. I figured the previous year resolutions should do for this year.

    However, after reading some other people posts, I want to give this year a serious thought. I lile from RunningOnFumes of choosing a word or phrase for the year. For me, I would like 2023 to be *resolved*. Hopefully, I’ll reach some goals.

    SeizeLife at LiveTheMoment/EatTheMoment mentioned about 168 plan. We have 168 hours total in a week. How do we use it? I Googled and downloaded the spreadsheet. Basically, it helps listing out what things are important and ideally helps you to focus your time to have a fulfilling week. I will look into it and hopefully will use it.

    Resolve 2023.1 – practice and use the 168 plan

    I know People/cities die for lack of vision. I live by purpose. I want it to be meaningful.

    The last few years I have been quite unfocused. I tried aiming toward a target to transition from road running to trail running, and it took over three whole years to do it. Looking back, it wasn’t bad, just me stumbling through life.

    What does this mean? Running 100 mile races helped me understand pace degradation. You know I could run a marathon between 4-5 hours, 26 miles. In my head, I know the pace. Miles just fly by. Every couple hours, you get 12 miles.

    But in a hundred mile, you experience the pace slowing down. In your mind you still want and hope to run a 12-13 min mile pace. Reality is your body is moving much slower.

    When I run, I set goals, like by what time, I should be at a certain place. Pace elongation stretches out the time. a five minute wait becomes 10, and 10 mins becomes 20 and so on. It seems a step taken should be closer in distance to the finish yet would take much longer time to get there. The famous Zeno’s Paradox! Every step only brings me half the distance closer but never reach it.

    This is how I feel with planning the last three years. Originally, things I wanted to do in 2018/2019, finally only got them done last year. Yes, what or why did it take me so long!

    I still love setting resolutions! Eventually, I will get there right? I recheck my to-do bucket list and glad some of them are finally coming off it. Yet there are still so much more to do.

    This morning I was exploring from 100 mile races in the Philippines! They have The Hard 100 – they give 40 hours to do. So it got to be hard. I want to do it! Now I am aware of it, it probably will take couple years for me to get there.

    Three years ago, I would not dare to dream about running this 100 mile race, but now, ya, it is more about when I can go and how it will fit into my schedule.

    Last night, I met up with David, my running friend who has been doing runs and races together this past year, and we were talking about tons of races through out the night. One of our mutual friend wanted to her first (half/full) marathon. We were excited of sharing our knowledge. At the same time, I was checking my schedule to see how they would fit in, because I want to run races with them. Our friend Siri has interesting idea of going to the spa and hot pot after “our” race — DC rock n Roll, which I haven’t signed up yet.

    Marathons on my new lists to check out is Las Cruces in NM, Burlington in VT, Space Coast Coco Beach in FL. I can’t do the first two yet because of scheduling conflict this year, but Space Coast is a possibility!

    Oh yeah what about my resolutions?

    I resolve – 2023.2 – to not be lazy with my training, specifically waking up in the morning to train

    2023.3. plan better

    2023.4. sit down and get my Annapurna trip together. It is supposed to be this year but I am so scared with the planning

    2023.5. put sydney marathon on my planner. I could definitely go this year, because my schedule is open, but need to take that step to make it happen. Also so scared about travelingbout the country. Going oversea isn’t scary but how to meet up with my cousins and auntie there, is. idk, it should be excited, but i’m shy.

    2023.6. mexico trip: likely won’t happen this year, but good to dream to run with Ramamuri (Tarahumara). Caballo Blanco Ultra 50 mile in March. From The book Born to Run. One of my favorite ultra running books to read.

    2023.7. walk the talk (resolve to get things done). Pretty much this year theme. Resolve to resolve.

    conclusion: the whole post is about to get myself to make some goals and they don’t usually get done on my time table. This leads me to not make more goals. However, I should look hard and get my things done. So I made some new year resolutions. Let’s be bold!

  • Day524 End of the year

    Last couple weeks, a recurrently theme and more like a question to myself, was what am I going to do next.

    I do know and at the same time not know. I could fake an answer, but I cannot to lie to myself.

    For running, I have a long to-do list. I always wish I could share it all. I call it my rainbow table because it is in multicolor of order of importance of which race I want to do. I do keep a year or two of races on here, though the list is not as pretty.

    While the list is like the most practical things of when the rubber meets the road, it sometimes does not immediately tell the bigger picture.

    That is – when I look at my list, instead of it giving me excitement, it sends me a feeling of dread and being overwhelmed. Maybe I am doing too much.

    I got to remind myself — The reason why we all do something is because we love it and passionate about something. At 50000 ft, I do love running. Even down to the street level, I do love it – like if there is a weekend 5k or 50k I do it.

    As a matter of fact, this coming weekend, there is a 50k, called Redeye, and I signed up. It is called Redeye because it will take place on New Year day, after a whole night of celebration, and the race assumes no one has time to sleep. I am running it like it is a local 5k. It is local to me. It will be on the same course as one I did my Devil Dog 100. I told my friend Caroline, I had that course memorized. My feet would know where to go. She was wondering if I am ready for it.

    The last few days, the top things on my mind is not so much if my body is ready for a race, which normally is, but much more what I am doing with myself on a more fundamental level.

    This kind of questions pops up to me from time to time, especially right after a big race. Just like last time back in May when I had soul searching questions, I’d reread my older blog posts. They helped. I reread last year vision statements (or new year resolutions – the ABC. They helped.

    What is ABC? it is not an accronym. It is just the name I gave to a series of blog posts at the beginning of 2022. The first one started with A, then B, so forth. I found time and again rereading them, reset me. They made me feel better. The gist of it is as follow.

    I realize something of what kept me going this year and the last few years is hope. My hope rests on that I will improve and I will get to do greater things even though I am not there yet.

    The fact is 2022 was not that great when I planned it. Nor has it been since the start of the pandemic. It is like I could not do anything. Now the pandemic is kind of over, I am asking what 2023 will be like. Could I plan to do something awesome? That I am kind of don’t know any more. Maybe I lost the meaning of what awesome is. Maybe that what 2023 is for me to find that out.

    This is what I thought awesome used to be.

    I mentioned some bigger things I wanted to do — some of them are near impossible, but some are definitely doable. I wanted to run across America, to run across Tennessee, to hike the Appalachian Mountain, to travel to Napal and do the trek there, to visit Alaska and paddleboat there, to run a marathon in Sydney, and maybe some day run around the world.

    Granted I am doing none of these next year or even the next few years. I haven’t done any of them this year or last year. The easiest on the list is probably going to Alaska or Sydney. I haven’t done them because of the cost.

    But I settled something closer to home. I am planning to do a marathon in Toronto. I signed up already. It is set in May. I got one of my friends, well Craw team member, (who lives near there) to join me. Caroline, also excited when I told this to her. Not sure if she is serious about following me to Toronto. I plan to mention the trip to the rest of my Craw team maybe, maybe, they would too, join me in Toronto.

    What is Craw? Craw is (or was) a virtual race in which we run around the world from the comfort of our home. We are about two weeks away from finishing. Since the theme is running around the world, we should at least do some traveling. I set Toronto my destination.

    Back to the bigger picture. When I wrote up my race recap (twice), I came to the question, what will I do next. My answer and I did not want to say at the time, was same old same old. Basically same as we always done. This year was like last year. Next year will be like this year. We race.

    I was asking myself where is my excitement now. Unlike 5 years ago, I was brimming with joy then. It was until I reread my vision statement. Yes, there are bigger goals out there. And doing these tiny goals maybe in some ways gets me to the bigger ones or at least kind of replace them. It is just like doing the Craw — none of us will ever get a chance to actually literally run around the world, but if we imagine it, we do and could run around the world even from our own home. Yes it is not the same, but the illusion could get you pretty close. Doing the small goals, we could imagine ourselves doing the bigger ones.

    I will leave it as that for now. I don’t have the answer. We try our best to find our next step.

    All said and done, I hope this helps me and others to come up with their new year resolutions. By the way, I need to think up some. Happy new year!

  • Xmas

    National Christmas Tree

    Our running group made a stop by the White House this past week to take photos of the National Christmas Tree. There were other smaller trees representing 50 states and territories. They are already posted on social media sites (not by me).

    Last couple weeks, I also visited other christmas trees in DC. My running friend Caroline joined me on the tree run and caroling night with the DC Tri, but caroling was just a click bait for Caroline because none of us sing Christmas songs.

    Those who found my other social media sites already saw some of the pictures. I’m doing better in “consolidating” or managing them. It tried anyway. I started twitter and IG. I restarted my tumbr. WP is still my main though because I like doing longer posts (journaling).

    Xmas trees at other places. Canadian Embassy, Capitol and Union Station

    It has been a quiet week. I did a recovery run (Naked Nick 50K) in Pennsylvania. Yes, I survived. I’m too tired to write a report. My friend Caroline drove me there. It was one of those first time trip going out of state with someone to run a race. Caroline loved it a lot. To me, somehow it was meh, a run. There were 500+ runners. The highlight of the trip was the ride there. We spent 7 hours in the car, and I ran for 7 hours. The run did what it did. It allowed me to “recover” my body and reset my mind.

    I did couple other runs and mostly on a treadmill. Nothing spectacular to write about. Maybe due to laziness, I used treadmill (we call it the dreadmill). After the 100 mile, I did not have much motivation to run. Hopping on the treadmill for 30-40 mins is the most I could do at the moment. It is also cold outside. Treadmill seems to be a better option.

    Winter Soltice has past. That means, each day should be longer. Apparently, it is a important festival for chinese. We had a family dinner. It is like Christmas – the focus is to spend time with family/friends.

    Some other news during the down cycle and I am excited about, I signed up three races! Two of them I mentioned in the last post. I signed up for Seneca Creek Greenway 50K (March), Shamrock Marathon at Virginia Beach (also in March), and Grindstone 100 (in September). I’ll give my reasons why I decided to run Grindstone in a later post. It is more than because they had a presale, so I jumped in. For now that is a good explanation, but I am excited all these.

    Peace on earth and good news to all. Merry Christmas!

  • Day521 I’m ok / 2022 race recap

    I have been recovering well the last two weeks. I just have nothing to blog about. I was thinking of doing some kind of highlight reel of my 2022, so here it is.

    It is also a time to pause, meaning what am I doing next. I know I have a bunch of races for next year. Nothing truly is challenging me except for the MMT 100 and possibly Teach’s Revenge 100 (OBX), though what I am excited about is the Toronto Marathon! Yes, I am thinking about racing all the time. I guess more to be revealed in future posts. Plus, I have a few vanity races such as Lake Tahoe, and maybe will do the CIM (California International Marathon).

    So much have happened in 2022. I had a great fall season! Nothing new here for those who kept up on my blog.

    I started up the year slowly, with a bunch of baggages. I was injured after last year Devil Dog, and I believe it sidelined me for at least 8 weeks. My mom was sick during November-December time frame that created ton of pressure in my family, resulted in a big dispute between me and my sister. I had hard time focusing as much as I tried to ignore the distractions. I tried to focus on the issue and not so much the emotional turmoils. Less talk/cry more work should be my motto. All in all, my spring training was delayed.

    Then I did manage a couple marathons in the spring, Newport News and Salibury. I was happy with my results though they were not my best time. I love those two races and they were on my list for a long time and finally was able to run them. I linked to their reports. Then I ran the Massanutten 100 (MMT) as I was returning to a good running shape. Though I did not finish the race, but it was the high point because it was a hard race and I gave it my best shot. It helped later in the year. MMT was supposed my A+ race.

    After MMT, I tried to reset quickly. During the summer, I trained and ran the Iron Mountain 50 (IMTR). It was also another high point to see if I could beat the course 12 hour time limit. I did not succeed but it was also a valuable lesson that I need to be better. And it propeled me into a strong fall season. I also ran Grandmas in Minnesota for fun. I had fun.

    There was no time to be upset about Iron Mountain. I was not much upset by it. A failed attempt is a failed attempt. Do better next time. Yes, I waited four years to run it, but there is always a next year. Iron Mountain was not an A race, but it was very close there, like a consolation prize. (I don’t really plan for B races).

    Things picked up fast in the fall. It was like I got an extra boost. I did a race almost every weekend. They were not hard per se but many were adventurous. I traveled to places like Ann Arbor and Atlantic City. They were places I have never been to. It is one of the reasons I like doing the 50 states marathons, to visit different places. There were many other races I did and they were all great, but they are just too many for me to remember and name them here. (I will try to find links to my spring plan, summer plan, and fall review and plan, where I mentioned some of them).

    A few of the races that stood out were the Stone Mill 50 and then JFK 50 and of course the Devil Dog 100. They were my biggest races. I could not imagine of even doing one, even last year much less all three together. I trained a whole season just for one event in the past.

    Devil Dog was the best because it was last and is in a league of its own. I can’t say enough. It was the most intense and most gratifying. My mind is blown away by it. I did finish and that probably made it a great year. It was as if I came back with vengence to redeem my last year failed attempt and the two earlier races of this year. I want to prove I can do it. It was a risky plan because the implication if I have failed again is huge and that was a reason I did not say anything about either the JFK or the Devil Dog, but I made a lot of noise about Stone Mill as a diversion.

    I still wish though to give a list of marathons I ran this year. Originally, this post was going to do it, but I got bored when I was about to get started. Maybe will leave this for another time. I ran maybe 5 or 6 of them. The list of all my races is somewhere on here or the internet, but I like to make some comments and reflection on them.

    Marathons do get easier now (this year). I did feel nervous when I ran Newport News, and other marathons but by the time I did the NCR (last one of this year), I was completely confident that I could finish. Even running a 50 mile is easier for me now at the end of the year than at the beginning of the year. My perspective shifted after completing the Devil Dog. I guess with trainings, the body can be conditioned to make the run seems easy.

    I still remember not long ago, I was thinking how could people run a two marathon distance in one day and I was amazed by that at the Roanoke Marathon where some runners signed up to do just that. I get exhausted just doing one. I know it is all about pacing, but still to my early days, it was impossible. I want to say 100 miles too is the same but I think, a 100 mile is a different beast. Spoiler: I will finally attempt doing a double marathon in Roanoke next Spring (already registered).

    Anyway, this weekend, if weather holds up, I will be doing a 50k “recovery” run (Naked Nick) in Pennsylvania. Should be an easy run. A race report will be available later. Question is can I do it? I don’t know. I only had two “runs” since my 100 mile race. When I said runs, they were more like a walk. OK we’ll see. Don’t ask why I signed up a race so close following my one hundred. I agree I am out of my mind sometimes.

    ps. or fyi. Seneca Greenway 50K registration opened two days ago. This is my favorite. Also I am thinking of fitting Shamrock Yuengling Marathon in my schedule. Yes, time for signing up more races when I have nothing to do.

  • Day519 lessons

    The Devil Dog is so much for me to debrief in a go. I might need some time, maybe some weeks later. It was a good race is all I got to say for now. Here below is an entry I wrote probably back in October (the airport trip) but did not get a chance to post.

    I am at the end of a long series of blog posts that started around at the end of summer. At first I did not mean for it to be a theme for the fall, but now fall is over, so I like to close it with this entry, to put a lid on.

    It all started when I had a lot of thoughts prompted by a friend of exactly why I love running (day502) and a lot of things were going on at the same time because I entered one of the busiest race schedule I have ever done my life. I tried to write them down as much as possible and saved them for later postings because I did not want to overwhelm the site with too many postings at once. There was a time I posted evert day, though now I try to keep to usually 2 posts, and maybe a third very short post, which usually announcing something I am very excited about, e.g., like the Waterfall 50K at the beginning of the year (WTF50).

    I entered the fall season with a bunch of races. There were too many for me to remember. I enjoyed going to Ann Arbor. And recently I went to Atlantic City. This reminded me that I should do a post, listing just all the marathons I did this year. I think I did about 6-7 marathons.

    I did a couple 12 hour/ 24 hour runs. I did the Iron Mountain and Rock n the Knob race. I love both of these races.

    Then there were a bunch of training runs for the Stone Mill 50. The final report already posted. Originally, this post was to be published first before that one. However, I was too excited about that race, and posted that one first.

    If you ask is there is a crescedo from all the races to a finale, the answer is maybe. This fall season is definitely something, unlike any previous year and I am not exhausted yet, and I hope I won’t burnout again like last year. I clearly remember by this time of year, I was. I have the Devil Dog coming up still but I am not sure if that will be the highest peak of this season. It will definitely be my hardest race this year other than MMT or Iron Mountain. These three races are the high points of this year (MMT in the late spring, Iron Mountian in the end of summer, and the Devil Dog at the end of fall (if we can still call it fall!) Maybe it will be a finale. I want it to be, but then who knows.

    If readers did not see the hypes leading up, that is fine. I have not been focusing too much on the Devil Dog. I was kind of keeping it at a low profile and hiding it in plain sight. That’s right. Because, I am afraid of running in this race.

    Now to the main topic, a few weeks ago, I asked myself whether there is a lesson in any of this. I kind of seeing a pattern from my running and writing reports of them.

    I had reread some of them whenever I write some reports that referencing to some earlier posts.

    In a way, I do know all what I have written but I am also so forgetful. To me, I am felt like drowning in the water called life, and from time to time I resurface and am able to breathe again. It give me a moment of clarity. Then I resubmerge in the world of forgetfulness again. This is not a lesson but an observation.

    I also note my work and recreation is also similar. Work is killing me. My weekend is what restore me. I do enjoy my work but often time it is a part of my life I don’t want to talk about. We work maybe 5 days a week and we have two days of rest. My weekend is like when I feel alive again. Specifically, running makes me feel alive.

    It is my fear that I will forget something like who I am and what I was doing. I have to write then down. There might be a brief moment of clarity in the middle of this. I tried to capture that. When I reread my own blog, I said yes, I remember now, that was what I was trying to do.

    It is funny how fast I forget thing. Sometimes when I reread my blog, it was like seeing things for the first time. And then the memories from the event start to reform.

    Also the stuff I write, sometimes they are repetitive. Maybe life is like that. We do things again and again. Maybe we go through a cycle. We often do not realize that. We have been there done that.

    When I reread my blog entries, I noted that I want every race to be uniquely special. And Yes they are. Sometimes, it is not really so significant, but I make as if they are the best race in the world. They were to me. This is my sixth (and maybe 7th) year since I started running (I lost count).

    This season, some races I have done them for the third time, like Rock-n-the Knob and many other races. There’s got to be some what different this time. I don’t know. Usually, I forget immediately after I have done them. I retain some vague memory. If a race is a repeat, the memory gets overlapped. I might mess up recalling which year is which. But thank to WP, my blog, things get recorded. It is fun for me to pull up a prior year race to do a comparison.

    Couple days ago I was thinking what all my races could teach me or improve me as a person. I threw my hands up. They don’t teach anything. Maybe I could beat them into something of a life lesson. Because I spent so much time thinking about races, I see my life too as a racing event. But I don’t like to think like that.

    Life is a race. We all running to somewhere trying achieve something. My bucket list items are like the Aid Stations on the course. Do I want to stop and get help or do I bypassing them? I hope I stop long enough to smell the roses.

    I feel my 9-5 job is like running too. I work without seeing the end of it. My weekend is my break or my aid station.

    I have been learning how to balance work and recreation. The time I spend at work, I don’t remember much. But the time I spend away from work is something I like to write about. All these posts here are what I do on the weekend.

    I don’t know if that makes any sense. Sometimes I run without reasons but when I read my blog, I then remember oh that is why I am doing it. I think when I write my blog, I try to give meaning to my races. It is part of story telling, but in truth, a run is just another run. I could do them mindlessly.

    Kind of an addentum: Other things that happened but I won’t write a post on, at least for now – I spent a weekend cleaning my room. Yes, I should do this every weekend. My roommate has moved out, and I kind of spending the time to rearranging the house and stuff. There are some long stories like we discovered a bee nest outside. I haven’t taken care to destroy the nest yet (I hate doing it because it didn’t bother me and bees are good insects, but my neighbor didn’t want the nest around).

    Yes, meh, I don’t like doing chores. Getting my room to be what I want it to be is a big deal to me. I felt I like ran a marathon.

    Second, the artists I supported on twitch have gone on a hiatus. This did affect my fall training in a good way. I guess I had more time to train. Why I brought it up is it has been a significant time and money sink. I was thinking to get some art for the house. This is open ended. I got some already but haven’t put them up.

    Third, my car has a recall where the gas tank could fall off. Yes I should have taken care of that during the last few months, but had not. These are the stuffs that were on my mind, yep, nothing related to running, but real life stuff.

    I guess I have to conclude the post somehow. Yes, these are real life stuffs I don’t want to deal with. Real life is messy. I like running and did a lot of them. Running is fun and simple. It was fun for the past season. There were a lot going on. We got through the fall season. The first post (on day 502) I had, I thought it was going be a brief interlude but many things since happened. Here we are.

  • Day516 Thanksgiving

    At Mile 19 Aid Station, the Frederick Steeple Chasers

    Happy thanksgiving! I know Canadians had it last month and other countries probably have it on a different date or some don’t have it at all.

    This day always slips by me so fast and that I am not quite ready to answer. The question is of course, what are we thankful for this year. It might be different for you.

    So much have happened! I have done a few looking back year end entries already such as my blog aniversary not long ago (link if I remember or not too lazy).

    Truly, it should be a day to pause and be grateful to our Creator — first of, a reason for being alive. Also it should be a time look at the meaning or purpose for our life. Further, we should be appreciative of life and the bountiful harvest of the year. I do acknowledge our pluralistic society. One can show appreciation toward life in other ways.

    While running the JFK the past weekend, it occured to me, I was able to run it and I should not take it for granted. It was so simple. I was able to enjoy my run and that was a blessing.

    The purpose of the race was not to see how fast we could do a 50 mile – I think the first place finished it in 5 and half hours. It took me almost twice as long. Time is important, but simply to be able to run it was an honor. I know a friend who ran this 8 times but this time did not finish under the time constraint, still it was an achievement for her to finish it regardless if it is under 13 hours or not.

    The reason I was able to run it was a testament of being healthy. I wish I could run even faster, but they were saying how many people out there can run a 50 mile in one go! I did two 50 mile races on a back to back weekend. And I hope to do more this weekend and the next! I’ve reached a level a few years ago I would only dream of. I know I won’t be here at this peak for long.

    Yes I am being thankful for good Health. Also during the run and it was such a long run. It brought to mind, like I wish I could get to heaven where everything is well and not more problems and such. Then I quickly came to realize that it is impossible. We can’t rush the divine time table. Like with my race, I know I would eventually get to the end. All I got to do is run my race.

    Of course, we should be thankful for being able to breath, and do the things we enjoy. Things we can only do when we are alive!

    Also, I had few friends who came out to support me! The first year, they were spectators and this year they ran along side of me. It was such a joy when they could come along and got the full taste of the ultra running experience!

    There were a few other people I know on the course. Caroline, Trevor, Billy, Gretchen and so forth.

    I was not trying to be mr. popular, but having people recognized me gives that validation, that I exist and I mean something to them. Caroline is a great friend who always reaches out to me and sharing with me her life story! There were a few others from the MMT community who are also very personal and endearing!

    Similarly during the race, when I saw a runner in a funk, I told them, I see them and I am running with them through their lows.

    I know someone who one said to me “I appreciate you!” and it just made my day. I can’t make a worldwide impact at once, but I if I can make a person cheer up, that will be enough! I told the runner, I see you! I don’t care if the runner then suddenly catch a second wind from my encouragements and then beat me to the finish. I have been in the lows too.

    The year was not without troubles. I had setbacks, setbacks in my relationship with others, with my career, with my finance, and with my running. Especially with my running! I DNF’d three times (Devil Dog, MMT, and Iron Mountain). They left a hole in my heart. Oh, I am being dramatic! But it is true, sorrow does leave it marks. I compared myself to others. Why did that person is able to do it and I couldn’t? I can tell myself I will get stronger next time, but what if I can and won’t? Oh big woof, and too bad, some people tell me to get over it. I am thankful for the harsh critics too.

    I guess, I have to be thankful for setbacks too. It humbled me. I am not always strong. I couldn’t always win. When I do and when I finish the race, it made it all so satisfying.

    Because it means qualitative growth! I sometimes ask myself, have I improved at all? I could speak of running! I am getting slower and slower each year and it is heartbreaking to ask have I improved? JFK50 shown how my experience in my ultra running helps me finish the race. I was lucky to get a PR, but what more satisfying was realizing the experiences I gained from my previous failures.

    There will be many more reasons to be thankful of and I will ponder them as I spend time with my family over the holiday. Yes, some will ask, why I am always talking about running even with the thanksgiving! it is because…well let leave it at that.

    Enjoy your thanksgiving!

  • Day510 Happy Friday

    Another week! The year is drawing to a close. There are a few more weeks yet. I have one more race, well two, no a few more.

    I plan to do two races this weekend. Nothing big, but will (maybe) report on it next week — don’t want to jink it yet and also I don’t have the right feel for it (I see them as one event)…though likely I will do them. I paid for them, so gotta run them. I am not in a burnout mood like last year. I just finally felt I could breathe after a stressful time back in October.

    The two real races left for the year is Stone Mill next weekend. I have been training week after week. I’m not worry. This race is one I am expecting to be fun, at least to me.

    Then there is the Devil Dog that I have been avoiding in my blog. One day I will face it. It is coming by fast (less than a month out). I haven’t trained specifically for it. No plans. Nothing. Yet the Devil Dog is scary. Let leave it alone for now.

    This weekend as of last year 2021, I was about to do my 100 mile run Rim to River in West Virginia. It was that race that brought me back alive. Now it seems ages ago.

    Gotta go now. Unlike last year, this weekend will be low key. I am ‘tapering’ as I get ready for Stone Mill.

  • Day509 TR4 – Halloween

    What a weekend! In a bad way. I worked over this weekend so i’m kind of dead (a zombie) now. There’s no partying for me tonight. Certainly absolutely there was no party over the weekend. I’m boring. My mom wanted to kipnap me to celebrate my birthday, but I escaped. Oh there was the MCM, Marine Corps Marathon, but I deferred it, so no, I won’t say anything about that, except lucky runners had such a beautiful race. MCM probably will be my tradition birthday run some day. Yes, next year.

    I also did my training run over weekend. It was the last run before the race. What race? The Stone Mill 50.

    This race originally was not too special. I did my first 50 miler at end of 2019. My first attempt of Stone Mill was in 2020, during the pararoma. My grandma passed away while I was running it. Last year, I did not plan to sign up but I believed after attending one of the training runs, I got hooked and did a quick sign up before the race, ah I remember, the friday of, they didn’t even have my bib ready (or at least the volunteer couldn’t find it)! Last year on this day my mom was in the urgent care (Kaiser) after suffering a stroke (she has completely recovered now). So this race now has a bit of personal history, both sadness and celebration!

    This year I am happened to recruit two of my friends to run this. It will be two weeks from now, so knock on wood nothing will happen to us. My friend David probably gave up (deferred) his NY Marathon entry to run this. I am touched. I truly believe he can do both (like on back to back weekends). This guy could finish a 50 mile under 10 (while I am trying to beat 12 hours). He seemed modest in his approach but if I were him, I run both.

    The other guy Alex also super athletic. He said he won the age group award in a race. He probably could run it under 10 hours too.

    I don’t really need to do a training run myself but I know if I don’t go to them, I am too lazy to train on my own.

    So it is the end of the month and our company needs to close its book, which means a lot of work for all as we try to get everything done and recorded for this month.

    I was stressed out. But on Saturday, I showed up bright and early at the trailhead with several other people. This week run was long but the number of people coming out was fewer than previous weeks since there were two 50K races happening this weekend in our area. Most of the guys (and gals) normally came out were in those races. I, in fact, contemplated running one of them (PB&J 50k and the Patapsco 50k).

    The weather was beautiful. We went from around 35F to 65F during the day. I really wanted to be back out the next day to do it again.

    I put in 20 miles plus 5 mile hiking around Cloper Lake (I renamed it as Seneca Lake). The run itself, I was not putting too much effort into it. I was kind of the last guy in the pack. Mostly because my mind was occupied by work.

    I so happened to roll my ankle, because my mind was else where. First the left, then the right, and then the left again. Finally, while hiking, I really put too much force and I rolled it the third time on my left and boy was that painful.

    First time, didn’t hurt. Second time, hurt a little. Third, it was ouchie ouchie limping pain. I walked it off. Now they are better, but still there is a bit of soreness.

    Sunday, I did not go back out. It was a beautiful day. Here are some pictures.

    On the Seneca Ridge/Greenway Trail and at the Seneca State Park, where I will run a 50 mile race in November

    We hope we will have such nice weather on race day. Enough with all the training runs. Happy Halloween!

  • Day507 Hello World

    Happy blog anniversary! This is my fourth year on the platform. I started around 2018 (first Hello).

    I looked back the previous hello world entries, and last year was kind of thick (I said a lot in that entry).

    Hello World is my way of starting a new blogging year of finding or determining what I will write in this new season.

    No surprises, I will be doing the same as I have been doing — that is I plan to run a lot and write about them. I already planned out for the next year. I haven’t signed up for races yet but I am likely going to do those races. (mentioned in day496)

    This next year will be like the past few years. I will make moderate improvements in challenging myself to be at the next level. There is one secret – I plan to go oversea…no not exactly over the ocean – just to Canada. We will see if I could pull it off. (race schedule)

    meta – I changed the layout of the site because I was tired of finding fixes for the twentytwentytwo theme that has been messing up the site. I concluded that the things I needed to do would require me to get a business level plan from WP to have access to the CSS layering in order to disable the default title/tagline/images.

    keeping my entry brief this year – signing off.