In awe

Category: life

  • Day447 Halloween

    I run because I like it. A more complex answer as to why has to do with the solace and peace I found when I run. There are other reasons too.

    Originally I had another post on the topic but it was difficult to finish, and in the end I decided to scratch it and rewrote as this to be a bit cheerful.

    The TL;DR (summary), something unexpected came up – It started from an emergency at the beginning of the month and the situation is still ongoing. It took time away from my running and my work. To many people, that seems reasonable. You deal with what is most important in your life. A question is whether my pursuit of my hobby is a selfish endeavor and whether that is undesirable (I wrote about this before). My answer is you live the life you choose. You always have a choice. That is the short answer. Anyway, it might take couple blog posts still to flush it out and I might not want to spend more time on it.

    Now that is out of the way, I want to go back to the regular programing.

    Just last week I received a message from a friend that he will be running the JFK 50 this year, which is coming up in a couple weeks. At about the same time, I found out from another friend, that his two other friends (who are also my friends) are doing this 50 miler as well. So, people I know are running it and it makes me want to run it too to join them.

    I found that is happy crazy, because we kind of talked about last year and I didn’t have much faith that they were going to do it though as a friend you don’t say that. Why this news means much to me is because when I first ran my 50 miler, these people were there to support me. They don’t necessary looking for a reciprocal but I do feel I owe them something. Anyway I am trilled they are running it.

    Lastly, there are just a few more days before my 100 mile run. I am not as ready as I want to be for various reasons. There are a lot of undercurrents (such as with my mom’s health being unstable – she might die during my time away). But to me the show should go on. I still want to run it. The reason I am mentioning is to draw to the fact of the pressure I am facing; it is not simply a binary choice to go or not to go, but what is the alternative? There are a lot I want to write but I am just leaving as that. The easy solution is don’t run it — but I wonder is it that easy? My answer still to do what I think is best (in my own interest) and don’t second guess. I’m going leave the post hanging. Readers have to wait for a time to find out if I went or not.

    Halloween – how does this post relate to Halloween? nothing. Most see Halloween as a spooky fun holiday. I could write how Halloween is tied to my nephew’s birthday and how annually we celebrate it with him. Not this year. I am in the urgent care center with my mom, who is not feeling well. I think it her fifth time there this month. Not that, it is scary. It is just the fact of life. Today just happens to fall on Halloween. Stay safe and have fun!

  • Day446 4th Hello World

    Can’t believe once again, I reached the end of another year on WP. Yes, this is the fourth. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd are somewhere. Readers can search for them.

    In similar vein, it is the close of my fifth year of running and beginning of the sixth. I am not always a runner before. It used to be a big deal for me to note the season because each season I had some sort of goal I tried to reach. Now it is just, run and keep up with things. I am probably in my 12th or 13th season by now … I have lost count, assuming two seasons a year (fall and spring). summer and winter are usually too short to do anything, so I don’t count those.

    These few years have gone by so fast. The first year was fall 2016 – I ran my first 10K, and then a half marathon. I trained through winter and till spring, (season 2) when I had my first and second marathon within a month apart. My marathon was on April 1, easy to remember. My family thought I was playing a joke on them. They did however went and cheered me in Charlottesville. There wasn’t any marathon like that since. It was also one of the hardest marathons I did.

    Fall 2017, Season 3, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. I trained all summer. The result was not as I expected. I did not improve on my time. Reality set in, that this won’t be a quick thing to be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

    Correction: I think I ran NCR marathon in fall 2017 and I ran Marine Corps Marathon in Fall 2018. The story is the same. At NCR I met a lady who did like 22 marathons. And at MCM I came to understand that I couldn’t reach my goal in a year or two.

    Spring 2018, Season 4, I ran the Delaware Coastal Marathon, as the first or one of early out of state marathons. I guess the idea was forming that I wanted to do all 50 states. As I ran more races, I got to meet people who were on similar quest. I met someone who was halfway to the 50 states.

    Fall 2018, Season 5, history is a bit hazy here. I think I got accepted to the marathon maniacs club. At the time, I thought the standard was pretty tough, because one had to run 3 marathons within 90 days. Somehow I did it and qualified. I was thrilled. It led me down a path of endless marathons – yes I became a true maniac!

    A lot happening then. I might have started blogging then. And marathons were not as challenging as the next level – “Ultra Marathon!”

    No idea how I got introduced to the Ultra world. It just happened.

    Spring 2019, Season 6. The rest is history so to speak. Everything now is documented here on WP, of how I became an ultra runner. I ran so many races in 2019, I can’t recall them. We did many hikes too. Because this was the year, we would go to Patagonia. Plans were made in the spring. Ah I remembered how I came to the ultra world — I volunteered at an ultra event (Seneca Greenway 50K) that spring and then everything fell into places. Spring 2019 was very important in what led to me today — both as a distance runner and an outdoor man.

    Fall 2019, Season 7. I did one of the best ultra races – Old Glory and from then I fell in love with trail running. A week after, I ran the JFK 50 mile. That was one of the longest races – mind boggling long and epic. We finished the season by traveling to Chile and backpacked Patagonia. I think that always will be a high point of my life.

    Spring 2020, Season 8. Bad thing happened – Covid-19 came and all my plans and races crumbled. But I was able to do a race in California – Carlsbad Marathon. It was one of most scenic marathons I did.

    Fall 2020, Season 9. I was willing to up my game. Due to Covid-19, many races became “virtual” – basically you ran at your home of the distance the race required. One of the virtual events I did was to run the distance across Tennessee – about 630 miles over 4 months. That was the most miles I ever ran. I surpassed the requirement and finished with 1000 miles that summer. Also, I made two attempts to run a 100 mile in Atlanta and both ended in failure but it led to greater boldness in doing runs in all locations, any time, and any weather. There was the passion to be out on the street running day and night. I ran across my city for the first time doing 50 miles. My whole city became my playground/training arena. No place is too far to go on foot. I did a lot of miles alone, and self-supported. And that helped me in doing ultra races the following year.

    Spring 2021, Season 10. Finally I succeeded in my first 100 mile run. I traveled down to Houston, Texas, to do it. Not only did I run the 100 mile, I ran couple 50 miles, and a 70 mile. It was an ultra pop off year. races: Rocky Raccoon, Grayson Highlands, Laurel Highlands, Stone Mill 50, and Seneca Greenway 50k, oh I forgot about Iron Mountain. Each race was epic and an adventure in itself. The significance of this is I got tested on the trails. Sure I could run on roads, but what about trails? Doing those races gave the confident, yes and on trails too.

    Fall 2021, Season 11. As season comes to the close, I have another 100 mile lined up and several maybe-maybe ultras. I am committed to the Devil Dog, and very tempted to run either the Stone Mill or the JFK again. I know I got to be out of my mind to do them because I am sure the 100 mile race would drain all of me – the question is: will there strength left to do any other races afterward? We will see!

    What next year gonna be? It has not arrived yet. God willing, I will be running some more. My goal as always is to do all fifty states. And to be a better marathon runner – yes run faster and stronger. Also I am still part of a virtual race with a team of runners – and we are running around the world. This winter, we would be two-third way through (20,000 miles). Wow! we ran a lot. 2000 miles per person on average. I think I reached 3000 miles – maybe. Who is keeping count? More on this in future posts.

    Something to discuss on future posts, how has running changed me? Time is devoted to being on the road. I virtually disappeared the last year or so. The body adapted. What I thought was impossible, now seems easy. I am boasting I could do a marathon any weekend. Want to run 20-30 miles this weekend? Sure lets do it. While that is true, I want to be the person who can run 26 miles every day! This is a minimum for those who want to cross the country on foot. I have that bigger dream to cross the continent one summer on foot. Ya.

    There you have it. Thank you all for your supports. Once a year, I got to thank my fans.

  • Day443 goals self-talk

    My running season is near an end. I have a few more races in the bag before the year ends but I am not that excited about them like I am usual do with my previous races. On a scale 1-10, with 10 is the best, they are like a 4 to me. Yes they are still interesting…but I think I have run just one too many races. It is like trying to eat when you are full.

    What does this mean? I am trying to process my thoughts and emotion. Races used to be super duper good. I used to have that anticipation from six months out, then two months and the week of and the hours before a race. Now, I have to check my schedule every weekend, oh, did I sign up for that? Guess I am going away again. Usually I don’t pack until the last final moment. Don’t get me wrong that I have become jaded, maybe a little, but as you can tell from my race reports, I am still super excited of every single one of them that I had done, like the last EC marathon I ran. It is that, there is so much more “drag” now aday when I prepare for a race, maybe it is a mental drag or resistance to running a race.

    Maybe it is burnout. Couple other runners on a Facebook group page I am part of, posted similarly to what I am experiencing this week. And aha, so am I experiencing it! I am in my 4-5 years of running. I started at the end of 2016.

    For example, there was an annual 10 miler in my neighborhood the past weekend. Usually I signed up weeks or months in advance, this year I waited until the day of and in the end, I did not have the will power to get up to run it. I didn’t sign up, but I could if I really wanted to. This has never happened before to me of skipping a race, since I love racing! Granted, I rationalized that missing this one race was not as important as missing a marathon! But in the past, a race is a race no matter the distance, because I would be just as thrill as running a 30 mins race or a 30 hours race! I did miss that race because I just couldn’t pull myself together to go do it. If I have an opportunity to do a race, I would do it! Races were like a treasure to me.

    I know it is always ok to take a rest sometimes. I am more concern of my inactivity. I wanted to do it but couldn’t will myself into action. Don’t do it if I don’t want to do it as long as I am happy, right?

    Maybe I did not have enough down times or rest between a race to process all my feeling, of all the highs and the lows of running one. Not that races are no longer giving me the trills, it is maybe that I forced myself to forget about them as soon as it is over and move onto the next one immediately and when you have repeatedly doing it week after week for so many times, they all become a blur. I ran like 9-10 big races this year, with possibly the biggest one back in February. Truthfully, I have never truly recovered from it. Physically yes I recovered, but not mentally and emotionally. Not that it broke something inside me, but something indeed is not the same. Surely, I do want to run an epic race again! It is hard to explain.

    Physically, I can run race after race each weekend. We are talking of marathon level runs. But it is also the mental toll – the stress in preparing for the race and also the emotional soup afterward.

    I noted that usually after a major race, I had a crash. Emtionally drained. It is like being in a hard fought battle. This led to a period of a mini depression sometimes. As they say, every high has its low.

    Last two weeks, was like a mentally forced down time on me. I lost all motivation to run after the EC marathon. Again it was not that I don’t like running, but it was because I couldn’t bring myself to get my foot out the door, because I couldn’t get myself off the couch!

    What am I getting at? Training is never easy. It takes effort at least some effort above the normal routine. Once I stayed inactive, it is hard to get back into training. To me, training is like running/going uphill. You beat one hill another hill pops up. You have to keep doing it. But on top this dealing with the after race effect made it almost impossible to do any training.

    I had the postrun problem after the recent marathon in Wiscousin (Eu Claire – EC Marathon for short). EC Marathon did provide that extreme high-feeling-good vibe, but afterward, it was like the tide has gone out. This is not a feeling of depression but a feeling of actually being normal. I don’t think I was in a depressed state. Right? I felt I lived a normal person life for once – waking up, going to work, coming home, and ralaxing by watching ‘TV’ – not really TV per se, but similar, letting the brain rot in front of social media. Knowing too much sedatary is harmful to mental health and my training, but it was too tempting to just do nothing. Social media is designed to draw our clicks and eyeballs! Aptly Facebook was in a hot seat this week with the Senate hearing. I was like that every day after work for two whole weeks! I was in a social media trap and unable to get myself out.

    I guess by me writing out my thought process can help me get back to my training. Over all, I want to reach the end – like in a race eventually, there is an end point. There are several big goals I wanted to reach, such as maybe running a 200 miler couple years from now, and so I need to get to that level of fitness. It means running the races I am doing today.

    In my previous post, I set out my races, my “cornerstones” for next year. I already signed up a few of them for next year. It is like a track that will lead me to an end. You lay down the important ones first and everything fall around them. I think though none of them are likely critical races for reaching the so call “next level” (200 miler fitness). They are like small little ones. Eventually I will get there. It might take couple of years to get there.

    This post is kind of different from normal. It is my self-talk to get myself together. It is like house keeping for my mind. I broke down my goal/plan and remind myself constantly what they were. I likely and hopefully will run until I’m 60 years old or beyond. Yet my best physical condition is probably the next 10 years, even maybe the next 5 years. I am fighting against time too. If I could, I would go all out, that is, finish my 50 states marathon goal in one swoop. However, I am constrainted also by finance. Realistically, I can do maybe 3-4 marathons a year. Even if I double it, it still is taking a lot of time and effort.

    I came up with a plan to break down the next 10 years in 3 phases. It is nothing like rocket science. It is something simple that I think is doable for me. The plan is, using 3 years to save up, and the fourth year, I can go out big abd push for one of those major goals. Then repeat. Next year is the third year of this first cycle. So hopefully, by 2023 or 2024 I can go and settle one of my big goals. This is not just for running. Currently the biggest goal I have is to trek the Annapurna circuit, that was what I really wanted to do after coming back from Patagonia. I want to see the mountains again. Not just any mountains but the massive large ones (that they would call them massif that would take days and weeks to scale). I want to do one thing that is life-chanching and unlike anything I did before. Annapurna is one of them at least to me. I might also do my 200 miler the same year. And maybe too I will reach 50% of my 50 states marathon! Annapurna is in the front. See my bucket list for all other goals.

    I have been asking myself, what am I doing here. What am I trying to accomplish? I know I want to reach my limit and go beyond what I see as my wall. I thinking to borrow a motto from someone: Thinking what is impossible and attempting what is impossible. I didn’t come up with this. I googled, William Carey, a Christian missionary said something similar, you too can google it. I guess it all started from him.

    This requires thinking unconventionally. Sorry this blog is long enough, but my last point is, as I looked back at my goals I already did, I realized at the time they were hard, but I was too conservative in achieving them. I have been taking too many baby steps. Why not just take one giant step? I should always ask myself, even though my prudent mind says this is the time table or solution to achieving this goal, can I push it to be 120% more? Say if I think it will take me 5 years to run all 50 states, is there a way to do it in 4 instead? I am critical of myself of being too safe with my goals. My point is we focus too much on what is feasible and dare not to venture into area where our mind says not possible.

    Though I wrote all these things, but I can too quickly forget them…it all too easy, once I turn away, my mind focuses on something else. Sad. I want to remind myself to push on. This for me to read again and again to overcome whatever is dragging me down and derailing my plan.

  • Day439 Interlude

    My head is swimming with races. I hope I have not bored my readers with so many race reports. Yes, this is not normal, but racing is back in full swing.

    Many of the races that were planned for 2020 finally are taking shape this year or I already did them. As I mentioned a lot already – I ran the Laurel Highlands Ultra. It was a race I was afraid of initially because it was so long. Ya, but I ran also a 100 miler in February that was even longer than that and that seemed like years ago already. Finally, there was the Grayson Highlands Race, a 50 miler that I felt I was not ready for, but finished it.

    Somehow I squeezed in so many other races too, the Catoctin Half 50K and the Iron Mountain 40 mile – it was only 40 miles and I felt it was not worthy to be mentioned here. I missed out Camp Anderson this year. Finally I ran the Rock N the Knob last weekend (a race report to follow soon; written but not yet published), and surely it ain’t Camp Anderson. Oh same for the Senecca Race – it seemed so long ago. I did it. I couldn’t even recall all the races I did – like the Moon on the Falls or Lake Ridge two weekends ago.

    Up ahead I have Eu Claire Marathon in Wiscousin followed by a 50K and will close the year with a 100 miler at the New River Gorge. There is also the Devil Dog 100k to really cap it off, but we will talk about it once that gets closer.

    My friend has been talking about it – whether he will be there at the New River Rim Ultra. He was originally going to pace his friend but his friend is injured and likely would not able to run it. My friend is too fast to for me – and so I am reluctant to ask him to pace me instead of pacing hsi other friend. As pacer you need to find the right temperance and pace – I fear I might be thrown off pace by this friend. Also I have been to the course, it was not technical enough to require pacing.

    Breath. I have been thinking what is next for next year, and that my friends, I will reveal them next month as it has been a tradition of mine.

    Conclusion – it has been an unbelievable year. I got in my goal races and there are just a couple more and we will be done for the year! I am healthy so far. Pray I will be that way till the very end.

  • Day434 New River

    I wanted to use a cop out title Brain Dump 3 / Memory Alpha. Sorry, this is another filler post – skip it if you like.

    Why so many filler posts? I am lazy and have been also busy doing the same thing every day, that is to finish up the Race Back Across Tennessee (GVRAT) the rat race. I have less than 2 weeks to go. It ends at the end of the month. They kind of sap all my mental energy.

    I have less than 150 miles left. So every day I was cranking out about 13/14 miles. Back then – like even a year ago, this is an unthinkable number – no even a month ago I didn’t run that much. I really pushed myself this time.

    Hey, last year, when I looked at people who finished the GRVAT, I was thinking, how some of them were able to pull humongous miles daily. Here I am. I am not like the people at top yet, but I am nearer. I am currently ranked 119 out of like 3000-4000 people who are taking part in this virtual race. Of course, this year there were fewer runners registered. Last year, there were 12000 or more. Might have been as high as 15000 or even 20000 people.

    So every day, I am out on the road, doing my miles. This week was the first time of me running in the rain (this year). Almost every night was raining but one night was especially in the rain. I was lucky the other few nights either I ran after the rain, or rain was light or skipped our area or the rain was about to start but I finished my run. It was not a heavy downpour, but was enough to get a feel how it is like to do it. They say, you got to train in any weather especially the nasty ones. It was not that bad once I was wet. I actually liked it because it was cooler finally! I have been running in the heat ‘extreme heat’ they say or ‘killer heat wave’ as reported in the news. The rain was a relief. I actually ran fast during training that day, which is rare. Usually, I just dragged my feet and took my sweet time in my run.

    So these last 30-40 days, I have developed some habits of running after work almost daily because I can’t affort any days off. And on the weekend, I usually ‘travel’ for my runs. A pretty good habit but also means I have no life.

    This weekend, I am at the New River National Park. I will have a half marathon there in couple hours and also in November I will be doing a 100 miler here.

    This was a surprised half marathon race. I just happened to come across it during the week and I checked it out. The 100 miler has been on the back of my mind nagging me that I need to do some onsite trainings. So the half marathon came at the right time to kick off my lazy training for the 100 miler. Not like I have been slacking on my running but I felt I need to run secifically for the 100-mile race. One thing was to visit the site. So here I am.

    New River NP has been gaining some recognition in recent years and people are ‘flocking’ here to see this new national park. I think President Obama designated it. It has been a best kept secret of West Virginia before then, but now the secret is out.

    This is my first time visiting the New River. Actually, I’m staying at a hotel instead of camping out (as I should be doing both to save money and to be ‘closer’ to nature). Ya, I have been a bit lazy with the camping thing recently. I used be enthusiastic about camping at every (outdoor) places I go. But camping is a lot of work. I rather now to pay someone to have a roof over my head.

    Anyway, finally I got to train on the actual trail for my 100-mile race. I am nervous about the race for same reasons I have been worrying about other races this year. It will be out of my comfort zone in term of terrain, distance, and possibly challenge. I fear failure too. I did fail to finish the 100 mile distances twice last year. No longer do I have the confident to take on any races. Trail races are much harder and demanding. I ran with real trail people and saw how I stack against them. Not good.

    So here I am at the New River, hoping to explore some trails, do some running, and enjoying the outdoors of this new national park.

    Oh by the way, the drive there was long. I arrived at 2 AM last night – It was kind of my fault to leave late. Actually I am not in the Park yet, since I am staying in a ‘cheaper’ hotel that is half hour away. Got to go prep for my half marathon soon. Maybe will write about it next week.

  • Day433 brain dump2

    I had some ideas earlier this morning how I should write. Unfortunately, I can’t recall them.

    I enjoyed my runs. I have been doing some big runs/walks to finish the Virtual Race (Back) Across Tennessee. There are about 250 miles left, and I’m kind of on target to finish (ETA 9/5). I have to finish by 8/31 for it to be counted. So I try to run about 90-100 miles each week. So far, I am on target though it will be hard.

    Long story short is I spent a lot time on the road running the last few weeks and I was usually doing some late night runs. Safety stand point is not good but I enjoy the cooler runs and kind of like being alone.

    Was it tiring? Yes but I am better at it than last year. Not complaining much. The weather was generally more cooler this summer than last year. This week we had couple days of near 100F – hot. Even at midnight, it still felt extremely hot (hovering near 90F). Yes so hot I couldn’t run but only walked. It was only lasted couple days. Generally it was cooler. I got my miles in regardless. No rain so far on my run.

    The first week when I started to ramp up my miles, my feet were swollen after putting in 110 miles. I couldn’t wear my normal shoes. Just want to put it out there. Not complaining. Slowly, my feet adapted to the high mileage. There are nuggets of truth somewhere.

    Why I am doing this? Hard to explain. Those who are not in it can’t relate. We who are running the GVRAT are like fanatics. We love the race. We love going back out every day and get the miles in. Many did finish already and we are excited for each other. A few like me are still struggling.

    What is next? Summer is drawing to a close. Time flies. I am happy even though I was not racing much this month. I did a 5K – the Birthday Bash (Potomac River Running – Shoes store’s birthday). But my long runs have mostly filled up my racing craving! I wrote some about running to the Airport one night, or being chase by a storm on another, or this week – I had a close encounter with death to run right after a storm (by going through a fallen tree with a downed wire underneath). Sorry no space to write about that.

    Oh what’s next? I will be doing the midnight (moonlight) marathon in West Virginia in two weeks. I am hyped! Also hoping to finish the GVRAT by then! After that on Labor Day weekend, I will be running the Iron Mountain Trail Run (40 mile race). I have been waiting to run this race for 3 years. It is happening. With all the training and anticipation, oh I am giddy. Did I mention I signed up for the Devil Dog Ultra – I think I did. Wow, it means much.

    What does this mean? I look toward races like going to a retreat. It is a religious experience for me. I am shaken in a religious sense. I get goose bumps and electric feeling running down my back whenever I go for these long runs. I wish I can really explain or show how that is. Yes, probably I am a fanatic/maniac. I’m just somebody who enjoys running a lot.

    Presently, I am on a trip – a training run for the Iron Mountain Trail. I wish I can share all the high points! Yes, I feel I am on top of the mountain. Literally I was on one. Emotionally too.

    I don’t know how to close this entry without writing more. I looked into my Rim to River 100 Race. And I looked into the Annapurna Trek. All within this week. Basically I did the research that I said I should be doing. I am at a point in life – I wanted to do something big – like how am I different this year compare to before – and I am in a holding pattern at the same time. I need to push myself to the ‘next’ level. I can’t be comfortable at where I am. These trips are kind of like that pushing me higher.

    I have been trying to readjust my blog for transitioning to this new ‘phase’ such as posting only once a week. I changed blog name. I had a new tag (almost is my vision statement). I had a new mission statement. I kind of know what I want to be. Soon I will renumber my blog (starting from Day1 again but Vol 2) – still debating on to do it or not. Obviously I like numbering. I am very anal, but I also seek a new start.

    So I have been day dreaming on what it will take to hike the Annapurna (in Nepal). Who is with me?

  • Day429

    Contentless entry. Writing this more to myself because its another week. I want to keep up with a weekly posting so the blog wouldn’t bit rot. So want to do some computer coding at this moment! give me a math problem so I can pound it out on the keyboard. Wait I don’t even have a computer any more.

    I am on a down week – no trip planned and no anything big planned. A cool lowkey weekend though I want to redo the run I suppose to do last week, which is the true 50K run instead of just 25K at Catoctin. Poll: who think I will go and do it?

    My next race won’t be until August. I should be training for it but … it seems still so far away and I feel I can just wing it.

    It is ok to have an unscripted weekend. I need the time off. Nothing on the agenda.

    I started playing games now. Stardew Valley and Final Fantasy 4. They are old…but I am picking it up now. Nearly 20 hours into it. Yes, more time on it almost compare to working.

    I’m back to being a ‘degen’ – a buzz word now on twitch. I sleep whenever, usually at very odd hours. I am active when when most people go to bed (10pm or later). Maybe it is an excuse for training for night runs. I love night runs.

    Trying to find motivation again to run…where is the flame when I need it. I read from somewhere, motivation comes after we start doing something. The best way to get motivated for a run is to go and run.

    As for closing this entry, I did something positive by thinking a bit of how to train for my November 100 miler. I listed out the things I needed at the aid stations. It was a good start.

    Been thinking on life goals again. I think I have my vision/mission statement, and I have a few intermediate goals. Should I share them? I need to do something big and urgently – I want to go somewhere…like to Annapurna. That’s for now

  • Day426 go go go

    I have nothing to post, but going to post something any way because possibly this will be my last posting before a trip to the Smokies.

    As always what they say, man proposes and God disposes, one of the camp sites where I had a reservation got canceled due to bear activities. Scary. I might seem like an outdoor man but I’m not. How many times have I gone camping? Less than what I can count with my fingers.

    Any way, I called the park this morning and I was able to find an alternate site that is 8 miles away from the canceled one. Not bad. It will be a shelter on the AT. At first, I tried to avoid AT shelters because people snore and there are rats/mice at night. uhh, I know, right? 8-10 people in a dingy three sided house in hot weather. And I haven’t showered for a week? I don’t like sleeping next to anyone, you know what I mean?

    Well they say it is part of the AT experience (Appalachian Trail, in case anyone is wondering).

    I will be the guy hiking to the shelter after dark and make a lot of noise cooking my meal, while everyone’s else try to sleep. I figure, hopefully I get to camp by 9 pm that day.

    —

    This weekend is supposed to be a down time — cool chill vibe weekend. It still is. What’s next?

    Laurel Highlands race was supposed to be the highlight of the year. It took two to three years to get me there. Finally I did it. I hiked/ran the whole thing – in a day (under 22 hours). Wooo. I had in mind 2/3 years ago, you finish one big race and you hang up your cap and that’s it for 2-3 years.

    In the end, it felt just like any weekend. I am neither happy nor sad. Just, I was a bit tired afterward – ya couldn’t move the next morning – but couldn’t really sleep in either — my body wouldn’t let me. Maybe I drank too much Coke/cola during the race, I was up by 6 then even though I had the hotel till noon. After writing up the blog (day425) I decided to grab breakfast then headed back home. It was a long drive and after two hours, I had to pull over to get some close eye because I couldn’t keep them open any more. I did sleep until noon-ish and then continue my drive home. Got home, got things cleaned up and has been pretty much laying low.

    I am totally recovered by now. I have been back to running. Nothing broken. Still can run pretty well. I haven’t tested myself on any longer run than 4 mi. Still, I think I could do it.

    This Saturday, I will be attempting a 20 miler fun run. Sunday, I am doing a 4 mi race with the Potomac River (a shoes store here). I haven’t done anything like that since COVID19 happened. This is my first attempt back into a ‘real’ fast run.

    On the schedule, I have a couple races in July – Catoctin, and Camp Anderson. In August, I have the Moonlight Falls and Iron Mnt. In September, I have Eau Claire Marathon. Something something in October and then River Gorge 100 in November.

    My schedule is pretty stacked. Yet I am not stressed out about them after finishing the Laurel Ultra. It is all perception on how we see time. Happy Holiday everyone, enjoy your weekend…found out we have a new federal holiday today.