In awe

Category: running

  • Shamrock Marathon [day540]

    Quite a lot happened this week. I might have been more quiet than usual because I am going through some existentialist crisis. I still love running a whole lot. If I am given a choice, I would choose running. I would love to demonstrate my running feats. One up of things I did so to speak. I like to do hard races.

    Lately though, I have been asking, is that all to it. And what is next for my next race. I have reached a plateau last May when I ran the MMT when I met my match. I could still improve certainly but they are no longer leaps and bounce like I used to do. I could still try for a 200 mile race but I see that as an evolution rather than a revolutionary change. I could also change my perspective, running for running’s sake. I do enjoy pure running, outside of racing. Anyway, I know whatever is bothering me will pass.

    This weekend I had a chance to do a hard training plus the next day showed up at a marathon a hundred of miles away and ran it. This is what I like to live for and what I consider a good weekend.

    I work during the week and during the weekend to run hard. It stretches me to the max, both physically and mentally.

    Just on performance, I have reached a level that was not possible a few years ago. Not sure I wrote about the time when I qualified for the Marathon Maniacs club, where they required to run 3 marathons within 60 days. I ran two marathons back to back that year (Saturday and Sunday), and I thought that was hardest thing I did. (if I have time, I will dig up that post, since it parallels to this weekend)

    I wondered while writing this, if I have a choice, would I rather have last year’s body or this year body? I think, it depends. Last year at this time, I was pretty beat up. I could hardly walk due to back pain. In the fall though, I was unstoppable. 2021 body is better than 2022 or 2023 in term of stat. I would like to have that body with my present experience. I would like that very much. It is kind of a mystery why my performance goes downhill. I guess it is hard to maintain that peak level.

    But over time, I do see changes. Like now every weekend can be like that, being capable of doing big runs and recovering quickly. For those who can run a hundred miles in one go, coming back to run a marathon no longer is that daunting. I think, it is almost a joke to us. It is like me running a 5k. Yet running a marathon is for many people their life time achievement. It was for me once.

    So this weekend, I went out and did a 35 mile training run on the Massanutten trail. This training run was considered the hardest of the three MMT 100 mile race trainings we did. First it was long, 35 miles, second it was hard, with a lot of climbing (6000 ft I think), and it was done in winter. Though spring is about around the corner, but we ran on a cold day. It was considered warm and nice, winter so to speak, but still it was a cold morning and the whole day was cold, with temperature around the 40s F (5-8 C?).

    Last year I could not finish the whole training run and cut it short by 8 miles. I was determined to finish it this year. I made it to the cut off with 30 minutes to spare. And I was not to the last to finish. Two 72/73 years old men did beat me, but they were incredibly strong. Jeff, the guy I wrote before also, finished before me. Those guys are monsters. I did not even have a chance to catch a glimpse of him.

    The first section on Kerns took me 4 hours. The second section over Bird Knob, took me also 4 hours. And the last 10 miles took me 3 hours. Total time spent was 11 hours for the day. So in thoery for the 100 mile race, if you multiply by 3, it would give me a 33 hours finishing and that is a good finishing time.

    Doing this run was a different perspective running with fresh legs. I remember that during the 100 mile race, I was half dead, at mile 65. This 35 mile section of the race caused me to miss the race cutoff last year. This time I would train harder, so I won’t miss it again at this year’s race coming up in May.

    —-

    After the training, with about four hours of sleep, I ran the Virginia Beach’s Shamrock Marathon. I tell you, this is hard. A normal me would not do something like this.

    Without much a break, I drove down to Virginia Beach after my training run, arrived there past midnight. I had to make several stops at the rest areas because I was falling asleep behind the wheel. I always get that low energy after a good training run. Having to drive myself was dangerous.

    There are a lot of things can be said about this marathon. I couldn’t do it full justice without writing a separate report.

    The weather was colder than Saturday. I think we were in the high 30s with blustery winds. I think because we ran near the ocean without much covering, we were exposed and the winds were stronger.

    That morning, I did not want to get up. If I could I would have slept in till 8 or 9. I snoozed my alarm a few times until 5 am and I knew I had to get up and get to the race otherwise there might not any parking spaces left. I wanted a free parking at Virginia Beach Middle School. The race did not start until 7:30 but they advised us to get there before 6:30. I arrived at about 6 am. I could sleep in a car for a bit before walking to the start. And we had about a mile or two of walking from our car to the start. Luckily the finish line was closer and so we did not have to walk that far back afterward. The start was at 45th street but the finish was near 25th street.

    My feet were tired. I knew it. It was always hard to do a back to back run. Lately, I have been slacking on my Sunday’s runs and skipping many back to back long runs.

    I signed up for this marathon exactly for that reason to put in a long run knowing I am a slacker. A race would force me to run even if I don’t feel like it.

    I was assigned corral 7, but after checking the crowd there, I didn’t feel I was fit in. I might have put 4:30 as my finishing time and they put me in with the faster people. Normally, I could run that but today, I was doubtful. I felt intimidated to run with them today. I know my place. I don’t feel I could run a 4:30 marathon today. I moved myself to the last corral and I felt much better there.

    The race started and I went out. A lot of people in my corral sprinted out. I could not kept up with them even though this was supposed to be a slower corral. Maybe many people had the same idea as me of moving back. I did catch sight of a few having corral 7 on their bibs but started in corral 10. But also there were a lot slower people. I felt right at home. I know it would take a few miles to get myself into pace.

    Because I am in the slower corral, there were no pacers. I think the last pacer was 2:45 for the half marathoners and they lined up in corral 9. 2:45 would probably translated to 5:30 marathon finishing time. I set my goal to follow them. However, because they started early, they were gone.

    In a race, I call this spagettifying. Fast people get faster and leave you behind. The slower people would drop back. In a perfectly sorted race, you see people’s pace stretches out, like spagetti.

    Today though, all different paces seem to be mixed together. There were certainly slower people up front. I remembered walking up to corral 4 and saw some people, I think shouldn’t be there. Maybe they did not know their pace and put a randomly finishing time so got assigned to an earlier corral. So in a race, I would catch up to the slower people that lined up in earlier corrals. Things did not get spagettified until much later.

    Miles flew by. I was not fast but I was moving. By halfway, I was in a pretty good shape. I passed people and people passed me. It was all jumbled. I liked how I can recognize many had gone out too fast and couple miles later I caught back up with them. Eventually though, I got into my right pace group of 12-13 min per mile pace.

    The course was a loop out and back. squished loop. We ran north then turned around and we ran south and then turned around. We finished in the middle of the boardwalk at the Poseidon’s statue.

    There were a lot of half marathoners. It was like a 100 to one in my corral. Everywhere I looked was a sea of green bibs (the half marathoners). It was hard to find someone around my pace and running the marathon. By the time I was halfway, the front runners already finished.

    The reason I mentioned this is in some races after the half marathoners finished, the race feels very lonely because you are by yourself alone on a long course. Shamrock Marathon did not feel like that. I felt constantly people all around me.

    By mile 19, we turned around one last time. People started to lose steam. People started walking and I started passing them in earnest. Funny I did not bonk or hit what they called the “wall”. I felt fresh by now and could really run. I had the energy to sustain my push all the way to the finish and finished at 5:09. I believe I ran a negative split or at least an even split. It was not a fast marathon for me when I normally ran below 4:30. However, I was happy. I thought the whole time I might finish over 6 hours. I was really aiming for 6 hours.

    I stayed around for two more hours until the 7 hour people came in. I recognized many of them because I was around them at the beginning in their corral.

    I had a few conversations during the race. I had a good day. Some memorable moments were at halfway we saw the faster people finishing. I believe I saw the first female coming in as I was still going out. There were tons of people who could run sub 3 hours or around there. It was just incredible.

    I did have my doubts in the first few miles about if I could even finish because my legs felt like lead at the time. I thought it would be a struggle.

    Also the last mile seemed incredibly long. Everyone picked up their pace. I felt my own pace was slowing down.

    The winds were constantly blowing. Sometimes we had tail winds and it felt so good to be pushed. But head winds were bad. On finishing stretch, we faced head winds and many chose to walk. I don’t blame them.

    Finishing swag was great. We had many things. Snacks, drinks, wafers, cookies and a nice premium blankie. No wonder we paid so much for this race, however, with the high inflation going on, it didn’t seem too bad.

    There was a finisher tent where they served beer and real food (I think) but I did not enter because I did not like to walk on sand and did not want sand to be in my car. I think they gave us 4 glasses of beer, which is a lot. Normally, we usually get one free beer only. In some races, two (Cowtown). I missed out on the beer. Many half marathoners stayed behind for the food and beer and live music, which is good. I have been to many races where by the 7th hour, the race finishing line felt like a ghost town. Not here. Many people stayed around even on a cold and windy day like today.

    We also ran through two military bases and I felt that was interesting. Normally, I haven’t been in a military base. They had their guards carrying rifles. Their police officers were everywhere. They didn’t want us to sneaking around on the base. We stayed on the main roads.

    How do I close? I wish I sort out my heart issue. It is a funny feeling I can’t explain. I love running and I wish I have a reason to run and be happy. I know eventually, things will work out. Feeling like this comes and goes. I call them post marathon blue. They usually happen after I ran a big race.

    Also this run was like a dress rehersal for next week run at Outer Banks, a hundred mile run. I hope next week would be warmer. But the wind, now I know I need to dress for the constant blowing. Cap, neck gaiter, lip balm, gloves, etc. I need to plan for my drop bags. At least three, mile 25, 50 and 75. Next week will be a real challenge for me.

    Oldest standing lighthouse in the nation. We were probably at around mile 5 or 6. I did not keep track of my miles very well

  • snow! [Day539]

    Maybe it was the last snow this winter. Nothing sticked but was still exciting. It snowed in the middle of the night.

    Some snow dusting at Sky Meadow where I hiked the following day / it really has nothing to do with the race, just a pic for the blog. Cold day

    I was afraid the next day our 50K run would be canceled. Last year, in similar condition, the race was canceled for fear our runners would ruin the trail.

    Every year since the pandemic I have been running this 50k trail race, the Seneca Creek Greenway. I probably could find old reports and maybe I should. I love to reread the old race write-ups and see how they differed from this year.

    It was an ‘easy’ 50k, similar to Holiday Lake I ran couple weeks ago. We have some hills maybe like couple hundred feet ups and downs. Most of them are small hills. It was fun to run on them.

    Yet it is quite tiring too. This year I started slow. I took my time through the Seneca State Park, to Riffleford, for about first couple miles. I remembered the first time I ran this, I went out full blast and gave everything before even getting to the Riffleford road crossing.

    Once we were on the Greenway Tr, I stayed with my pack of about 4-5. After couple miles, the pack kind of disolved. The fast people ran ahead and the slower people dropped back one by one, I was left with with just a runner in front and he was walking.

    Interesting, this runner was not slow. He walked from time to time but just by the look, I knew he was a fast runner. He was just humoring us by walking. Actually I have no idea why he even walked. For the next hour, I was following sometimes far back, other times within arm length.

    We passed a mill. And finally the guy took off. I had a hard time trailing him. The trail by now cleared up. I still trailed him all the way to mile 7 or 8 at Rt 28 aid station. We crossed over to the otherside of the road to enter onto Seneca Bluff trail.

    It was uneventful all the way to mile 15 ish where we headed back north using the Greenway trail again. We crossed a creek about halfway. I remembered in former races, this was a choke point where everyone would stop and we would cross it one by one. This year, there was no one around. The creek was kind of flooded. I couldn’t hop across rocks there but waded through the stream.

    By mile 15, I came across Sergio, whom I stayed with him maybe for a mile or so. Sergio said he has a bad knee. He ran this race before but today he was not feeling well. He hadn’t been eating or drinking much. Not long after he was saying that, his hamstring cramped up and he felt over on the trail.

    I helped him up and hoped that by walking it off he would be fine. A runner came by and offered him salt tablets. Together, we walked to the aid station. Once there, I knew he should be fine. We separated. I knew if Sergio chooses to continue, it would be a long day for him.

    We were about 3 hours in. I expected the second half would be a bit longer. I was hoping I could finish earlier than former races. Though I felt like more a straggler this year. Former years, I usually see a lot of people walking in the second half. This year, I rarely saw anyone.

    I caught up a few people who had gone out a bit too fast. The second half, my pace degraded a bit and several runners passed me. That is the natural of racing. Even at the last mile, I thought I was in a comfortable position, then someone passed me running quite strong and it was impossible for me to keep up.

    Anyway, I finished at 7:39:00. It was much longer than I thought. Sergio said he recorded 33 miles on his watch. The trail is maybe a bit long but it is the same distance every year. We know it is trail racing neither our watch is accurate nor the ‘official distance’ is accurate. Trail racing always is measured with an estimated-ish distance.

    • comparisons:
    • 2020: 6:30:36 (report)
    • 2021: 7:14:17 (report)
    • last week, Cowtown 50k, road, 6:03.
    • two weeks ago, Holiday Lake 50K, 7:07

    I was much slower this year. time of 7h and 40 mins, so it seems about 30 mins to an hour slower than former years, depending which year or race to compare to. And wow I ran 6:30 the first year. Not sure why I am so much slower. I think probably doing three 50K back to back, kind of took away time for me to recover.

    Anyway, time was not too important to me. I want to run faster of course, but not meeting a prior year’s time was fine to me. My goal this year was to have some the time on the trail. Because it would build me up for a bigger race that will take place in May (the MMT 100).

    Weather-wise, the day was cold around 40F but with strong winds making the wind chill at time feels like 30F. I wore double layer and a windbreaker over. Gloves and cap were a must to keep fingers and ears from freezing. The race opened for 9:30 hours. I stayed there pretty much until closing.

    Food was adaquate. They had warm food for us. I drank a cup of warm coffee and that was the best thing that warmed me up. There were plenty of volunteers. I think the race was well supported, which is a reason for me to go back year after year.

    My memorable moment after getting all the food I needed, was when I went back to my car to put on warmer clothes so I could stay out to watch runners finishing. A family there was waiting for Sergio. I did not know Sergio’s name at the time. I started talking to the family and they said, that is probably Sergio. I was curious to see if indeed they were waiting for the runner I met on the trail. Sergio came in a bit after 9 hours. He did the full 50K. After having the cramp in his leg, he had to walk. I knew it would be a slow race for him. He said it was very tempting to quit halfway but he found a fellow companion and they walked all the way and did the full 50k.

    The heroic thing for Sergio about this race is near the finish at mile 27.5, you could make a decision to cut ‘short’ the race by finish as a marathon or you could add 5 more miles to get the 50K finish. Sergio could have finished a bit earlier (maybe couple hours earlier) as a marathon (and many people did). We were tracking Sergio on the phone and saw he took the other path and we knew he was aiming for 50K. So we waited. It was worth it to get 50K distance.

    As for me, it was a decent race. I havr another race next week (and I will report on that when I did it). The week after will be my 100 miler (OBX, or Blackbeard’s Revenge). And so forth. This week, I did some planning for my Toronto trip (and I am excited). I will write more when the time comes. There are races stacked up until end of May.

    Seneca Park’s Clopper Lake maybe only two miles from the finish. We had to run around this lake. It is bigger than what is shown.

  • Day538 10-Mile Race

    I love racing.

    How many times have I done this one, I have no idea. At least twice.

    Back in 2017 and 2018, I ran every race that is available held by the local running store (Potomac Running).

    As I took on bigger races, I mean longer distances, like 50 mile and 100 mile races, I don’t have time for the local ones. I still run them whenever I can. I sign them up on the spur moment.

    Reston 10 Miler is a familiar course to me. I ran many 5Ks and 10Ks there year after years. The 10 mile course mostly was stitched together from 5K and a 10K. I recognize every turns and every hills.

    Timewise, I was not impressive with my finishing time. It was not any record shattering. I was not slow. I haven’t had the heart to dig up past races to compare. I finished at 1:40. It is a 10 min pace so I should be glad, especially after running a 50K last weekend.

    Yet I remember my fastest 10 miler was under 1:20. I used to be able to run at a 8 min pace. That was impressive.

    Everything’s relative. I have to live with the body I have today, not the one I had a year ago or 10 years ago.

    Sometimes I feel like I am in an arm race with myself. I improve my time, yet I get heavier. So I trained harder to be stronger. I do improve. Then I get a faster time again and then I get heavier. The cycle starts again. The last two years, I know I improved. Yet this time, my body has overtaken me. I gained too much weight over the pandemic. Not sure if it is something related to that or just I am just getting older.

    A 60 year old man beat me innlbthis race. I recognized him from prior races. Note, because I live in Northern Virginia, people don’t make casual comments, unlike when I do races farther way. People avoid eye contact here in the big city. I have seen this guy many times in other races, but he acted he doesn’t know me and I same. Not complaining, just saying. I have been in the area for at least 20 years and that how we work. (Remember both Jeffs I met at the other races, how nice people are in the country side).

    True everyone is racing against their own. But if a 60 year old man could out run a 40 year old, it means something.

    On one hand, it is not hopeless for me. I could work harder to be able to run like that when I am 60.

    The flip side is the dude is impressive.

    As I stepped on to the course today, I was thinking what was I trying to get out of this. It is cool to set records and such. It is cool to run fast. I ran pretty fast, faster than any of my usual training runs. I usually go 15 mins or slower per mile and today I pulled a 10 min mile for whole 10 mile. I enjoyed the weather. I enjoyed the morning run. Only a race could get me up at 6 am in the morning. Normally, if left to my own device, I do not get out the house until like 3 or 4 pm in the afternoon. I am a lazy runner.

    One thought I reminded myself was yes running a 50K last weekend was impressive. Today running a 10 miler was no less an accomplishment. I told myself many times, if I could run just one more race, I would be in heaven.

    In this view, I should only run 5Ks or 10Ks, to save money and time because it gives the same utility, from an economic standpoint. Nah, I believe, if I have the ability to run longer distances, I should do it. This is the reason I am grateful and happy that I do have the means and the ability to do something extraordinary.

    If I close out the blog here, it would be good. I have just a bit more to say. Things or an idea seems to be at the tip of my tongue but I just couldn’t bring forth. I have been searching something all weekend. It has been a recurring theme since I finished the last big race (MMT) of last year. It is related to motivation and of why I do things. I wrote a post on new year’s day about my resolutions and all.

    I think, things have gotten a bit easier lately, after I ran the 100 mile. I still have tons of goals to do and some are out of this world hard, but overall, a lot of my goals, I thought was impossible are a bit easier. I mentioned about the 50 states marathon goal. If I really want to, I think I could do it in a year. Many of my goals are like that. If I really want to do it, I have now the means to do them. So they seem a bit boring. And I keep asking myself, what’s next. What is the next badass thing to do? The answer is not that I don’t know, but I am afraid to look.

    This blog post like any others will be closed with a hanging. To be continue. I wish life would be simplier. I could wake up and say I would do this and that and do them. That is it for now.

  • Day536 Cowtown Marathon / 50K

    I flew into Dallas/Fort Worth last week. I was primarily there to run the Cowtown Marathon. This trip was in planning over a year. I had my eyes to cross out Texas as one of the 50 states marathon. I have been to Texas in 2021, doing the Rocky Raccoon 100. I do not believe it would replace a marathon, so I decided to go back to run a proper marathon.

    Texas is one of the states (like California or Florida) where you have many choices to choose. I considered Austin Marathon, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston Marathon. Cowtown won out for me. I wanted to go to an interesting place, and Fort Worth was pretty cool.

    I arrived late Friday night. Did not do much but checked in at the hotel and had a good night rest. Fort Worth was as cold as Virginia when I landed. All I wanted was to snuggle under a blanket.

    On Saturday, I attended the convention. They had two 5k events and a 10k event that morning. Traffic was bad. Google Map kept directing me to turn into closed streets. I think I circled the area for an hour before finding a place to park. There were no signage that the university parking lots were available for convention goers. In the end, I parked on one of the side streets. Not complaining. The race was staged at an university, where parking was plenty but all were restricted. Better signage might help.

    I got to say, I have done some big marathons, like Duluth and Marine Corps. The organization for this one was amazing. We had corrals and each one was fenced off. I think there were 20,000 people. The race kicked off at 7:00 am Sunday.

    I was there like at 4:30 am, to take a free parking spot. I don’t know how the rest of the people get parking. There were paid parking decks. I didn’t want to pay for parking. By 6:00, our lot was full. I slept in the car until it was near start time. I followed the people out to the main plaza.

    Most people went toward the covention hall. It is a big place. They had a morning worship. This was the first marathon I attended where a worship service was held. Texans love their Faith.

    Temperature for the morning was fine around 50 F (maybe like 10-12C). It was a perfect temperature for running. I would like to have a light jacket on, but I went with a t-shirt and shorts. I was a bit cold though I could stand it. Huddling in the convention hall was good, till they told us to get to our corrals.

    I was assigned to Corral 6 but after getting there and checking around, I felt I should be in one higher (Corral 7), for the slower people. My pacers were in Corral 7 too.

    We joked around saying we are like cows being herd together. Indeed, this was Cowtown and they do herd livestocks through their city.

    The race got underway. We were mixed in with the half marathoners and the full marathoners. There were only about 200 runners running the ultra (50k). I originally wanted to sign up for the full marathon, but finding out they offered an ultra, I couldn’t resist of not running it as an ultra runner.

    The half marathoners were a pretty slow crowd in our corral, running at 2:40 finishing time or slower. The marathon pace was about average at 5:05 finishing, and we, doing the ultra, were aiming for a 6 hour finishing, which was a little bit under 12 min pace. It was well done, at least at my pace, we were not too packed together, unlike at the Marine Corps Marathon. The pace was just right. I did not pass too many people and not too many passed me. Of course, we doing the ultra had to run a bit faster because we had more distance to cover.

    The first 5k was uneventful. I felt fresh and it was easy. It was on a downhill. We would be coming back on this. What I feared at the time was mile 9 because from previous day, I met a runner who warned me of the steep climb at mile 9.

    Soon we arrived at mile 9, where we entered into downtown. The climb was on an overpass/bridge. To me and our ultra group, it was nothing. I chewed it. There were my many other people walking up. I think we offended some people for being maybe a bit too loud. A lady gave me a disgusted look and said, not everyone can run at your pace.

    OK. We upset some people. But pretty soon, I think at mile 11 the half marathoners went off toward their finishing stretch. We, with the marathoners continued on. We quickly noticed we no longer had the whole road to run on. Aid stations, while still plentiful became farther apart. And there are less crowd cheering. This was where the real running began.

    A fellow runner started peeling off. I slowed down and ran with him for a bit. It was his first time doing a 50K. His goal was to just finish. He asked if it was my first time. I told him it was probably my 4th or 5th at a 50k. My longest training run was last weekend when I ran 32 miles. I ran even longer distances and told him my 100 miles. But I said, this is different, being a road race is many times faster and so, it is harder. When my friend began to go slower still, I left him, and told him I will see him at the finish.

    Many were running a 50k the first time. And our pace was unsustainable to them. After each aid station, there were fewer of us and fewer runners left that were able to keep pace with the pacers. Even I eventually couldn’t keep up by around mile 20.

    I got to say, near mile twenty, a private home offered a good aid stop, with fruits, chips, candies, and everything you might find in an ultra. Our official ultra aid station where they offered real food besides water and gels, was not available until at mile 27 (serving freshly grilled burgers), of course by then, we were half dead.

    The Marathoners separated from us after mile 24. We had an out-and-back section before joining back in at the same location.

    I have done a 50K with the Marine Corps Marathon. I believe Fort Worth did it better by putting the 50K split near the end of the marathon course instead of the beginning. This way, when the 50K runners merge back onto the course, we do not feel overwhelmed or crowded by the marathoners. When I ran the Marine Corps 50K, the split and merge back was at the beginning of the marathon course, and by the time we merged back, we were put in the rear (1 hour behind) the general marathon crowds it felt like running into a wall against the slower crowd. And we had to fight our way up front. It was very hectic to squeeze through the crowd because the average pace for 50K runers was generally faster than the marathoners at the merge point (it was very tricky for the race organization to plan the pace of two groups of runners merging in). Fort Worth did it better. While, we were faster, but there was only a mile to run before the finish, and most marathoners already done, so there were not many runners we encountered after the merge in.

    I reached mile 26 in 5 hours (we were with the 5:05 marathon pacer throughout the run.) We had about a 2 mile of out and back, turning around at mile 27. I stopped for a cheeseburger. The service was excellent, except as mentioned I was bonking hard by then. I could only take a bite or so before continueing on my run. If I did not care about time, I would have stopped to eat my fill. We had four miles left. I love the intention of giving us good food, however, being a race, we couldn’t stay for long to enjoy.

    Mile 29 was the hardest for me. I was glad to join back with the marathoners after the out and back section. These now were the 6 hour marathoners. They went at a much slower pace, which was perfect for me. I needed their encouragement to get the moving again. There were a group of 4-5 older runners. They were doing run-walk as I joined back into the course. Their first run-walk got me to mile 30.

    By then I got my groove back and I was able to run away from them. This was an unhill portion. I was not sure if the course is long, in my mind I planned for running a 32 mile 50k (expecting a longer course). I kept on hammering at my pace and caught up to a fellow ultra runner. We pushed each other onward, not letting either of us to slow to a walk. I told him the finish line is just up ahead. He asked where. I kind of lied to him, and said see, we reached the spectators section. They had lined the street with metal fences, so that the crowd would not interfere with runners. But now the spectators were gone, there were a few people left, but it was no longer a crowd. I think the crowd had cleared out couple hours ago, probwbly at the 4 hour finishes. The runner next to me surged on ahead. He had the kick. We still had quarter mile to go. I reminded him, quarter mile is still a long way off. But we were close.

    We made a turn and now truly the finishing arch was in sight. We ran. I had no strength left to sprint it in as I usually do. I kept my steady pace and was able to cross the finishing line with a time of 6:03:36.

    A fellow runner, whom I met around mile 10 said he would utilized the full course time available of 7:29:59. He came in at 7:28 (race clock, technically he still had 30-ish minutes more with bib time, since our group started 30 mins after gun time). Good for him. I waited until he crossed the finish line before heading home.

    Race overall was great. I had a good pace group. The two pacers at first were a bit annoying, but they became extremely helpful to me. They were incredible, having run the Austin Marathon a week before and will run the San Antonio Marathon the following weekend. They are doing 3 marathons back to back.

    The woman who paced 5:05 group, she fell 3-4 times, face first on the concrete, but she got back up each time and continued on. There was a loud sound of her smacking on the pavement. She scraped her knees pretty bad. She gave us quite a scare. Our group went and helped her. Some ran on ahead to get first aid. Some medical teams were running on the course as well, so aid were never too far away. I believe she did finish her race.

    I did not fall during the race. I did trip over a curb after finishing. It was embarrasing. I with my ultra trail running skill was able to keep my balance, but both of my calf musles freezed up and started cramping due to the sudden movement. Also various muscles too started contracting, going haywired. The only safe position was to drop to the ground.

    Three guys ran toward me to help. One was a random stranger, he started helping me do calf stretch while I was still on the ground and it helped tremendously. He pushed my foot in and that stretched the calf while I was on my back. The two others who came to my aid were my pacers. They used their cold drinks to cool the muscles. One then got out his Bio Freeze gel and rub it on the back of my legs. First time I have bio freeze in real life. I read about them before and saw them used in sports, like soccer or football. Another offered me couple of salt tablets. That helped. I needed some salt to reduce the cramping. This reminded me to buy some and keep them for my next long races.

    I would say, by now marathons have gotten easier. I enjoy the traveling. Unfortunately while in Fort Worth, I didn’t try their angus steaks. I sought out my soul food, pho. I ate plenty there. There were so many Vietnamese restaurants.

    Did I do anything else? I was feeling lazy on Saturday, so after the convention, I went back to my hotel. I slept early around 8 ish, which was pretty early. Sunday was the race. There were very little time to sight-see. The race kind of took us to all the important places. Unlike previous trips, I did not try to run on my own while I was there to explore some of local trails.

    starting corrals before they were filled with runners. Most people were still in the convention hall
    The course map. I did not do much map study before the race. A runner got lost (ended in the spectator section) and blamed the race of not having enough signs. I did not have that problem
    The Stock Exchange – I finally made the connection why there’s a bull statue outside the stock exchange. This was probably the only city in the US still have live animals. Must be a sight to see when cows are auctioned off.

    Oh finally stuff about the race, these are not what I seek in a good marathon race, but some people value these a lot. Swag: There were plenty. You could buy all kinds of merchandise at the convention. We received a race t-shirt, plus a finisher shirt. The medal was ok. Aid stations were plentiful, at about one per mile. Finishing food was ok (biscuits, fruit cups, ice cream, and two pints of beer). I like the beer and ice cream. The acid from the preservatives in the fruit cups kind of hurt my tongue so I couldn’t eat them.

    The rest of the day was spent getting to the airport. My flight was in the evening. I was pleased with the race. There were a lot of friendly people. Even at the parking lot, people was asking how my race went, etc. People were more chill and friendly in Texas. If I count this 50k as a marathon, it would be my 12th state of 50 states marathon quest.

  • Day535 TWOT run (full report)

    I happened to check last year, Day463. This time it is almost the same. I had my training etc, but it was so satisfied. I wrote a short version hopefully captured what I wanted to say. Here is a much longer version of what I mean having a good life, that is, to be out on the trail and run.

    Happiness is brief and hard to grasp. Often time, stuff at work and life drove me to insanity. Respite comes when I am out at the trail all by myself. Sometimes, I don’t even know why I am out there. But being out there seems to calm me and solves all my present problems. True, it is an avoidance mechanism, but one that works.

    Last week, I was at the Wild Oak Trail. I mentioned it a few times before and wrote about it maybe couple posts back when I went out to the trail few weekends ago, but in the end called it quit after going 7 miles in.

    This week, I went back out. It was the TWOT official race day. The 200 mile race started on Wednesday. The 100 mile started on Friday and the 25 mile version took place on Saturday. As mentioned before, I got to know both the RD (Race Director) and a 200 mile runner. It was like meeting my idol or a heavenly being. Never in my life, I thought I would meet someone like that. Not only do I get to know them, but the exciting part is they know me now. I was wondering, oh, is that how they said we should make connections back when I was in college.

    Anyway, I like this race for a weird reason when I had my first backpacking trip back in 2017. That time, we encountered runners running loops around us. I believe they were practicing for the Grindstone. Yours truly will also be running the Grindstone this year, and hence the reason why I was at the Wild Oak this weekend.

    My friend and I finished the loop too in a single day with a 40-lb bag on back the whole way, because we made a dumb decision of not stopping before nightfall. We ended up doing the whole thing without camping at all. However, we met a runner who looped us couple times that day.

    On surface this seemed like easy because we were able to do it in a day. However, it was not so. This was the hardest hike I did in 2017 and even subsequent years, the loop has not gotten any easier. Sure, they flattened and straightened the trail at a few places, but over all, it is still 8000 ft of climbing in 26-ish miles in one loop. Runners do multiple loops to have their fill.

    At the time I was not a trail runner. I didn’t start running seriously on trails until 2019, when I did the JFK 50, and that was not even a true trail run. It was not until 2021, when I did Laurel Highlands, I could say I dabbled into trail running. 2022 was the year of MMT, and that I have fallen completely into this mountain running thing. You can say, I went hardcore.

    When I learned people actually race on this trail, I wanted to do it too. Full disclosure, I haven’t able to truly run on it yet (actually it’s ability-challenged, not an opportunity problem). I applied last year to run in it, but I did not get in. I did not mind, because I did not get into many other races too. It was no big deal.

    Couple weeks ago during a MMT Training run, I met the TWOT race director and also one of the guys (Tony) who was running in the 200 mile race of this year. It hyped up my interest once again.

    This weekend, I went out. I did not want to interfere with the actual race, so I only planned to show up afterward, thinking they already should be over.

    I messed up with my math and arriving at 7:30 pm, which was only 35 hours into the 100 race. Their last person finisher did not arrive until past midnight (40-ish hours) and that is a very good time. It might have taken me more than 48 hours to do them if that even possible.

    I saw a blazing camp fire. I walked to it, but for some unexplained reason, I did not recognize the RD, and was thinking he was Tony, and was there just relaxing after the run.

    It was then two runners came in finishing their 100 mile run. RD told me two more runners were still out on the course, plus another one doing a fun run. It was then I realized I goofed up. RD handed out awards. I said my goodbye.

    RD was seriously thought I was going to run that night, because why not, everyone who showed up there is capable of doing it. I had no intention though to run it even as a “fun” run that night. Since, I think it is rude to bandit his race. The race was supposed to have no aids, no crew, no spectator, no pacer, no bailing, no rescue, etc. It was a hardcore, you by yourself and the trail. I did not want to spoil the atmosphere by running and meeting other runners. They deserve their bragging rights of being along in the dead of night while everyone is sleeping.

    So I hiked up the opposite direction to the first peak on Grindstone Mountain, orginally I was aiming for Little Bald, 7 miles away, since there is a nice open place to camp. After a mile hike, I came across a camp site on Grindstone. I totally forgot this spot. It was perfect. By then it was around 9 pm. If I had continued on, I would not have reached Little Bald after midnight and by the time I could sleep, it might be 1 AM or later. And planning-wise would have ruin my next day event, had I continue to Little Bald..

    It was a good choice to stop early because temperature was dropping. The night was beautiful. The stars were bright. I set up my tent. It took me a few tries because it had been a while since I went camping. I already ate, so I did not need to cook. I hung up the bear bag, not that I needed to, but rules are rules (not like bears would be arpund in the winter). By the time I finished everything, it was past 10 pm. I crawled into my sleeping bag. Then I remembered I had to use the restroom. I didn’t want to get back up. I cursed at myself of not doing it earlier before getting into the tent. I tried to sleep. I know I have good bladder control and in the past I had slept through the night without needing to go.

    After couple hours, it became worse, like I was about to explode. I had to get up even though it was freezing. It was not any colder, but still getting up was not fun. I put on my clothes, layered up, added a jacket, gloves, wooly hat, socks and shoes. Actually, I couldn’t make it to the socks and shoes. l had to rush out the tent barefoot and tried to find the nearest tree and almost didn’t make it because I felt it was leaking out while I was still in the tent. Cursed at myself. Hobbled to the nearest tree but couldn’t reach it and quickly pulled down my pants, doing it off the cliff, finished my business and crawled back in for a good night sleep. Again normally, I could hold till morning, just not this time.

    Next day, was pretty much a normal day. It was a beautiful day. It dawned early. I woke up around 7 am at first light. I actully slept in a bit, but knew I had a long day, I got up. Cooked breakfast. Packed the tent. Ate. Ate while packing up. Here I am mad at myself for forgetting my spoon here and did not packed it out. I knew when I left I should do a person-equipment check and police the place, but I did not.

    I had an excuse because during packing, I had a strong need to use the bathroom, and this time, it was number 2. I quickly got out my cleaning kit (toilet paper and stuff), digging tool, and rushed off to the side of the mountain. Luckily the ground was easy to dig. But I couldn’t get it deep enough. I think 4-5 inches is the requirement, a cathole. After like two inches, I hit rock. It just had to do, I was about to burst again and there was no time to find a new spot with deeper soil. Pulled my pants down and did what I had to do. I was alone on the mountain with a good view of the valley below. After I done, I covered it with dirt and put a rock on top. The rock was probably over doing it, to prevent people or animal of stepping on it. Of course, I still packed out my used toilet paper.

    I am proud of myself. This is the second trip that I actually digged a hole. Note, I thought I was so smart to stop at a rest area before arriving at TWOT and used the facility first. Little did I know, that I needed to go again so soon. When you need to go, you need to go.

    By the time I got down from the moutain, everyone (runners from the previous night) had gone home. I saw they cleaned up well. The fire ring was gone. They took care of the ashes. They poured a bucket of ice over where the fire ring used to be. The ice were still there when I arrived. RD said he left at first light, so I think maybe 7 or 8 o’clock. It was now 9 AM. I put away my camping things. I put on my running hydration pack. I still planned to run on the trail, since that was the whole purpose of me being there. Camping was just incidental. I had drank all the water while on the mountain that night so I needed to refill my hydration bag with water I had in the car.

    I wanted to run on the mountain, to do a loop of the Wild Oak Trail. I wanted get some early training for the Grindstone 100. This time, I was three hours ahead than I was there two weeks ago. I was hoping I could do the loop in 10 hours and finish it by 7 pm that night. In hindsight, I was mad at myself that I didn’t start the run even earlier like at 7 am instead of 9 am.

    I started climbing up on Grindstone again, this time without the 30 lb pack. For some reason, I like doing this trail in counterclockwise direction. It was so easy now in the morning. At night, I stepped on every puddle there because I couldn’t avoid them, but in the daylight I could see them clearly and it was easy to step on the rocks.

    It took me almost the same as last time to reach Little Bald. It was noon by then. I was 7 miles in and already used 3 hours. I hoped to reach Camp Todd by 1 pm. Note there were a lot of blow downs. It took a bit time to navigate past them.

    When I got to Camp Todd, the River was too wild to cross. I could cross it, but it would be hell. And why risk being swept by it? I wanted to keep my feet dry too. RD said if I go to the right I don’t have to wade across the river. So I went back up on the trail and saw where the trail the split and followed that for about half a mile and indeed, I avoided the river crossing, except I was now half a mile out. It put me on the road. I ran down the road was not too bad. By the way, I met a cyclist and a runner on this section. Later, I met two more hikers. These were all the people I met that day.

    From Camp Todd, I hiked up to Big Bald continue on a counterclockwise direction. It was not the hardest climb but it took a lot effort. One of the thing I regretted was I did not fill up my water at the river crossing. Now couple miles in I felt I wouldn’t have enough water to finish the loop and I was not even halfway in. Meaning later on, like the last four hours, I would be very thirsty. From memory, there wouldn’t be any water until the very end.

    Luckily after I got passed Hiner’s Spring, there was a trickling of water flowing on the trail. I squatted down, literally crawling on the ground to filter water. It was slow going but I made sure I had a full bag before setting off, plus I filled up my tiny 8 oz gatorade bottle I had. This was a miracle of water flowing from a rock.

    I think I got to Big Bald by 3 ish. It was a bit late. Big Bald is like the halfway point. I would have liked to get here by 1-ish. However, I felt the trail should get easier on the second half. I remembered from memory there should be some flat sections soon where running is possible. I believed I could still finish by 6 pm that night with only 13 miles left. I, in the past, was a strong runner on flat easy section. Today though, I was still nursing an injured foot — it’s gotten a lot better, but on occasion, it still hurts, so I couldn’t go at my usual speed.

    Running down from Big Bald was fun. It was where the shin scrapper section is. It was steep. I loved it. Of course going up on this was not fun. The guys cleaned the area well before the race. I think I was on the Dividing Ridge. This part was known to be wild and had thick overgrowth filled with torns. Yet, I did not get tangled up with bushes. It was mostly downhill. I got to the second road crossing. To me, it was kind of boring.

    After crossing the road, the climb was not tough initially because they put in a lot of “dumb” switchbacks. It used to be straight up. Now it was gentle up hills for hours. I think it was around 6 pm I got to the top of Hankey Mountain. To my surprise, the last quarter mile up before the Doswell Trail was the hardest. The view was incredible.

    I knew I was behind schedule. There I started downhill but there was still a bit of climbing left though not hard. The sun was setting. I was wishing that I could get to the fire road before nightfall.

    The trail on the this section was runnable. I think we had 4-5 miles. It took me forever, but I knew I was on the Lookout Mountain at the time. The sun was already set but I still could see without having my head lamp turned on. It got cold. I put on my jacket and gloves.

    Silly me at this stage, I was hoping to get off by 8 pm. In my rush, I got “lost”. In my mind, I believe the next turn should be on the left. I was running down the fire road and it had been a while but still no turn in sight. The road splits, one goes up and one goes down. In my mind, I knew the turn was on the left after a short climb. And at the time I saw the blaze to the right but it looked purple of my light. I immeditately discounted it, thinking it couldn’t be right. For some reason, I refused to stop to checking the map, because I was so certain the next turn is on my left.

    I went down to the left. Sun had set by now and complete darkness had set in. I turned on my headlamp. My spider sense started taking over, saying this road doesn’t look right. It is too wide and I started hearing rushing water, meaning I was near the base. At that time, I came to my sense to pull out the map. I know in the wild, you have to humble to trust your 9th or whatever sense you got. Sh*t, I was no longer on the road where I thought I was on. I figured where I made the wrong turn and how far down I went, maybe half a mile or so.

    At the time I had a choice. I could continue down on the road. I saw it would reach a camp at North River. From there I could use the roads and get back to my car. Or I could backtrack, climb back on the mountain, make the correct turn, and continue on the Wild Oak Trail.

    I weighed the pros and cons. Down on the road was new to me. I could get run over by cars, since people drive fast here and likely they wouldn’t see. Plus I could get lost again on the road. The distance between taking the road and trail is about the same. Road might seem a bit longer. I estimate might be 9 miles on the road, but with trail, I probably only have less than 5 miles left. I felt I would be safer taking the trail. Also the whole purpose coming out was to run on the mountain and not walk on the road. So I turned around and started back up the mountain. I had decided to keep to the trails. No matter how long it would take, I would go back up on the mountain. Besides, that is the runner motto, if you get of trail, you have to return back to where you got off without getting a ride on a bear or a yetti, or having a spaceship teleporting you back.

    I was actually happy when I got back to the top of the ridge. Stars came out the second night. I heard wild animal calls, not sure if those were cats or dogs, or raccoons, but it got me moving fast and at the same time excited.

    I saw the town below lit up. This always give me encouragement, knowing I will be down there soon. It was just five miles away. It might be Harrisonburg. At the time I thought was Harrisonburg but now it couldn’t be.

    Night from Lookout Mountain

    A runner called this section the Rock Garden, an apt name. We kick rocks because it was the most rocky part. It was mostly downhill. I hopped around. A few times I almost slipped but I recovered. I was proud of my balance. Yes, the whole purpose out here is for my feet to know how to do it even without light. My lamp was dimly lit. I couldn’t see much.

    Eight o’clock passed. Definitely, I should be down by 9 pm, I encouraged myself. The trail went on unendingly. My water and snacks were out by now. Eventually, I got to a bunch of switch backs. I knew by now, I was definitely descending. I messaged my mom and friends, letting them know I would be fine and would be off the mountain soon.

    The descent probably took me another hour. I had to step on a few puddles near the end. I cursed myself for not seeing the water before feeling it. Oh well, I was so close to the finish, a little wet feet wouldn’t matter. My throat was dried and hoarse since I hadn’t spoken the whole day. I had some blisters at least on my left foot. I almost tripped several times. Yet I was so close. I heard the river once more and came to suspension bridge. Basically at most quarter mile left. No way it would be a mile to my car.

    I reached my car around 9:30. The first order of business was to change my shoes and put on dry socks and put on some clothes and a jacket I had in the car. By the time, I left the lot was closer to 10 pm. I was trying to get to the nearest McDonalds, however, they closed at 10 pm (though google was saying closing time was 11 pm). Anyway, it was a long way home. I did find a McDonalds at the next town over, and wolfed down a double quarter pounder in like two bites and was still hungry. Anyway, I was happy. McDonalds was my happy meal to celebrate a successful trip. Next order of business was to get back home.

    What I accomplish on this whole trip: I camped out. I lost my long handle titanium spork on the mountain, the one I had for over last 5 years. It was specifically designed for reaching into Mountain House deydrated food packages. Oh well.

    I had my run done. It was the hardest “25” miles run I ever did, ended like 27-28 miles from the extra milrs I put in. Rock-n-the-Knob and Catoctin 50k were not as hard compare to this one. This was more like a 32 miles or more. And it took me over 12 hours. This was a run and not a hike. My exact time was unknown. My friend Caroline told me later that she did this loop in 8 hours in her younger days (of her fastest loop) and she even did two loops once. I couldn’t imagine anyone doing more than one loop, much less 8 loops for a 200 mile run on this trail. It was hard even for a single loop.

    Of course because my friend said she did it in 8 hours, I have to get my time down to 8 hours, to be badass.

    That’s Little Bald. Kind of showing my appreciation of climbing 7 miles to get up there. Now I got down and was able to look back across to the ridge
    No clue where this is. I think about halfway up Chestnut Ridge. It could be Lookout Mountain on the other side (middle ridge), where I would be coming back on

    As for other events, I ran the Holiday Lake 50k. A lot can be said about that race. And before that I ran a 5K last weekend, “for the love of it.” I could write about that too. Out of the three events, I enjoyed my time at the Wild Oak Trail the most. Also, I like the driving.

    What it means to be alone. What it means to be great. I don’t think I am that high up there. I met people who exceed me by heads and shoulders. There was a lot of thinking. In the end it was jist pure joy doing what I like to do.

  • Day534 overflowed

    What an interesting week! Where should I start? I wish I had broken this into four or five entries. There were just so much.

    The proposal: TWOT

    The number one thing I was asked if I want to run in October the Wild Oak Trail. I wrote about this in the last two posts. I went out to Wild Oak couple weeks ago to do a test run. At that time, I arrived late in the day and I rolled my ankle at the first mile and the run was pretty much over.

    This run and a race was what I wanted to do last year ago, but I did not get in. I have been eyeing it all the time. It is hard.

    As mentioned, I got to know the race director in the last training run for the MMT (Massanutten). This weekend, the race director asked me multiple times, if I want to run it this October, he will save me a spot.

    If anyone else, they would immediately reply to the guy, Yes save me a spot! I wanna run it.

    To me it is like winning a million dollar prize too. Yet now I am asking myself can I do it? So this weekend I went out there on my own and tried to run it. I finished 25 miles in 12 hours. You know, people who run this normally do it around 8-10 hours. And they have to keep that pace for four loops (for 100 miles). Note, it is not actually 25 miles but somewhere between 26-27 miles, so four loops, would be over 100 miles.

    Enough said. I will sleep on it.

    II. TWOT. The run – I arrived Saturday night while TWOT 100 race was going on. TWOT is the Wild Oak Trail Race. I had thought the race would be over by then, thinking normally a 100 mile race usually over by the second day in the afternoon. A normally 100 mile race, people finish around 24 hours.

    The RD saw me, and he recognized me from his training run the week before, and asked if I want to run that night. People showing up at the Wild Oak are all hardcore, they could run any time. He was expecting me to say sure, it was only 8 pm, let run on the mountain and see you next morning, a loop, might take 10-12 hours.

    I was not that bold. I did however started the next day at 9 am. I did not finish until 9 pm. Everyone already left by Sunday. I knew. I did not expect anyone to be there since I wanted to do it on my own. There was a special feeling when I felt it was only me on the mountain.

    It was an awesome adventure. The scenery was popping. At night, stars came out. Wild animals howled. There were sounds I never heard before, probably coyotes mating or bobcats. What surprised me was I thought I could have done it in 10 hours, but pretty early on, I realized it was not going to be fast. It took me 3 hours to go the first 7 miles. The trail was about 4 times that, so ended up with 12 hours. I did get lost a bit, but also I was glad to have enough sense to realized I was lost and was able to find my way back.

    New sign – not where I got lost. I got lost on a section I was too sure was the right way, but wasn’t
    Camp site
    Just so beautiful
    frozen pond. In the summer, it is a bog and very yucky

    III. The Race: Holiday Lake 50K – As I said, there was so much going on. I had a 50K and I went down to Appomattox, VA, last month to run around the lake. This weekend was the real thing. Friday night after work, I drove directly there. I arrived late and missed the dinner and opening ceremony and the Race Director’s briefing. All I left to do was go to bed. I slept in my truck. It was not too bad. It was toasty, and I had my windows down to regulate the temperature (25F, cold). I had my 32 F sleeping bag, so it was good enough.

    The next day, the race started at 6:30. We had 200+ runners. The 25K runners ran counter clockwise around the lake and we 50k people ran clockwise on the first loop, and counterclockwise the 2nd loop. What happened was we would cross path halfway and were able to see everyone.

    I met the Race Director Kevin and his wife Ann from Iron Mountain, a race that means a lot to me. They both were in this race. I was one of the few they knew by name. I will do IMTR again this year, and hopefully will finish it. RD Kevin was so strong when I saw him on the trail. He ran the MMT 5 times, a guy I totally respect. Also Kristen and Chris, who I ran with on the training run, were there. I ran an hour faster than my training run on my first loop, but Kristen and Chris were faster still. They blew me out of the water. Note, in the past, I was faster than them but they improved. I finished in 7:07 and I am happy with my time, though I was the last few who came in. Everyone was so fast!

    A word about this race. They provided dinner the night before, breakfast the morning of and lunch after we finished. They were all buffet and good food. Also during the race, the Aid Stations’ food was so good. Next time if I do this race again, make sure to eat my fill!

    IV. For the Love of it 5K – You might ask one more race? This was run on Feb 14 weekend. Yes I ran it. I ran Run your Heart Out 10K and this For the Love of it 5K, almost every year. If you do one and you have to do the other. I arrived pretty much at the right time, 30 minutes before the race. It was a cold morning. We had a snow shower right about when the race was to start. I stayed in my car, thinking what clothes to wear. Should I put on a rain jacket? Should I wear a fleece? Neither. I put on a shirt I just got from the race swag, and lined up. There were many people. Off I went. I don’t remember my time now, but I was able to do it under 30 mins (I think I got 28). I was racing with a 12 year old boy, I won by a hair. It is bib time, so he might still bested me. I know sooner or later, he and others will be faster than me.

    This reminded me I met Jeff at the Holiday Lake race. This is a different Jeff than one I met the previous weekend at the MMT training. He is maybe 60 year old and he passed me when we had about 6 miles left. I tried to keep him in sight but soon he was out of sight. My goal was to finish near 7 hours. When I came in I saw Jeff already had a plate of food in his hand. So I asked him, if he finished under 7. He said, he just missed it by a minute. We sat down and talked about races. He mentioned he did Massanutten twice, twenty years ago. Must be an amazing runner when he was my age. I asked if he still wants to do MMT, but he said those days are over for him. He had run many 100 miles races.

    Note to self. I met #72 too. She and her friend will be at BRR (Bull Run Run 50). She volunteered last year. I was too. This year she is running it. And she was at the MMT volunteering, Camp Rossevelt. She was saying she ran Holiday Lake last year while 5 month pregnant and was the last to come in. This year, she was much faster, for sure. She will be at the MMT too, running it this time. We are likely be on course buddy since her pace and mine are about the same.

    Conclusion: There’s none. I had such a full weekend. I got back on Monday, Presidents’ Day. I slept for 12 hours. I was sick afterward. But my heart was overflowed with joy of all the races and runs I did and so many new friends I made. Looking ahead, I will be traveling this coming weekend. I will write about it once done. I’m excited. I like to keep it kind of a secret, though my race schedule is not a secret.

  • Day533 MMT Trn2

    The second training run for MMT went better than the first (Trn1). There are two more left before the race in May. This training run was a lot easier than the first one and I met quite a lot of people.

    MMT is one of the three signature races I will be running in 2023. By signature, I mean A-goal races. I have many races lined up, but 100 mile are my jam now. MMT, specially, I have a thing for it because I did not finish it last year and a reason I need to do better this time. 100 mile for me, has a 50-50 chance of finishing, so it is more exciting compares to other races I do.

    Preparing for training run #2 was as hectic as the first. You would think, I am doing this almost every week, you would think I got the system down. My original plan was to leave work on time (and maybe even a bit early) and then head to the trail for camping since we would have to be there by 5 in the morning. I was hoping to camp out, so I would have more time to sleep.

    As much as I wanted to start out early, I was kept late at work (and it seemed to be a pattern lately). Not blaming. I had a last minute urgent assignment as I was preparing to leave. I bursted a few veins. I wanted to say I’m off but it was urgent. I was just miffed, and the endless frustration of being ruined by outside factors.

    I left with a choice of facing it or pushing back. I took a deep breath and handled the work. I did not get out of work until couple hours later and camping out was out of the question by then. It could still be done, but I didn’t want to wander about in the dark when I was likely to be cold, tired, hungry, and mentally tilted. My evening plan was ruined and it was not a great start to the weekend.

    I stayed home Friday night instead and stayed up late and got about couple hours of sleep, before setting out. I had the alarm set for 3 am. I already was dressed before going to bed, so didn’t need chamging after getting up, but still it was hard to get up and get into the car and drive. I spent about 30 mins to clear the drowsiness. It was good my body responded well and I was fully alert by the time I set out. Lately, I have been having interrupted sleep, so catching a 2 hour sleep was pretty normal. I didn’t have any side effect from the lack of sleep during the day.

    The parking lot at Camp Roosevelt (we used the horse parking lot) trailhead was tiny, so I had to get there early to get a spot because we tried to get 50 cars in there. This is the same lot for the Kennedy Peak hike. Note, Camp Roosevelt is closed in the winter.

    This training was a point to point 30-mile run unlike last year. Coordinating rides is kind of a pain but we got a system. We parked at the finish and the “faster” runners would bus us (carpool) to the start. The idea is we the slower runners would run at our own pace and get back to our cars without pressure of having to find a ride back to the start. Basically the shy people as long as they get a ride to the start, shouldn’t worry about having a ride afterward.

    Whereas the faster runners, would run faster and likely be able to find someone to give them a ride back to their cars once done. They shouldn’t have to wait for long. The slower runners would not need to wait at all. This system usually works out fine. Anyway, since I am one of slower runners, I need to get to the lot early to get my parking space so don’t have to drive to the start location, otherwise, I could be left without a ride.

    The day was exceptional mild for winter. We had a warm Friday. It carried into Saturday, though a winter storm was forecasted for Sunday. We were lucky to have the run happened before the storm hit. The temperature was warm like the previous the night. Early hours the temperature was a bit nippy. The coldest time was around 7 am in the morning. Throughout the day the temperature was well above 40 F, around mid forties, which was just the right temperature for some hard running. We had great sunshine.

    I dressed in my usual running clothes. Two layers, a short sleeves over a long sleeves tech shirt. I had a long pants on but most people wore shorts. I had gloves and neck buff, though probably not needed, but it was better overdressed than underdressed for a wilderness run. I carried a puffy jacket too, plus a rain jacket. The jackets were just for emergency. It was definitely whole lot better than last weekend or the first training run when I was freezing.

    We signed in. Handed over our snacks and water. This training run had a communal potluck style snack for aid stations. We each bring something and everyone share the food for the aid stations. We had two aid stations. First one was at the 8.5 mile and the second one was at the 19 or 20 mile. There were 48 runners. Plus a few volunteers too. Some of them ran a portion of the trail.

    I found myself a ride to the start with Tony, who was driving a van that was converted to a sleeping van (like a mobile home). I have seen them at some events where those runners drove their vans to races and sleep in them. This was a fancy van, almost like an RV. He has a cot, a bucket toilet, an icebox cooler, some totes, and race clothes and water packs hanging along the wall. I thought it was so cool to be inside of one in-person. About 10 of us fit inside. We had only 3 seats with seatbelts, not including the driver. The rest had to sit on the floor or on various objects. This was probably not safe or legal, but hey, we did what we need to do. I probably shouldn’t post about this 😉

    I and couple others got the cot. Someone (Heather) sat on a toilet bucket. Dan sat on the cooler. It was quite an interesting rides. We had two conversations going on. People up front had theirs and we in the back had ours. Heather was quite talkative. She believed she saw me somewhere before, likely at an aid stations she thinks. They were talking about the revenge MMT they ran in the fall and it was much harder than the real MMT were about to go on. We had a jolly ride at 5 am in the morning.

    At the time I didn’t know Tony, the driver of the van, but we met again while on the trail. He and I was able to share about 5 – 6 miles alone with him. We slogged up the mountain while no one talked. But Tony and I were ones who outran our group on the way down. He and I had a decent conversation. Tony will be doing a 200 mile at the TWOT this coming Wednesday (today). I wrote about the TWOT last week — I mislabeled it as the TROT, but it should be TWOT, stands for The Wild Oak Trail.

    I finally met in-person someone who is attempting a 200 mile. It is one of my goals too to break into the 200 mile world. One hundred mile race is hard, but I want to know how it is like doing a 200 mile. To me, it is impossible. You would ask what did I say to the man, maybe getting some tips? I enjoyed the one on one time with him while running from Shaw Gap and to Veach Gap. He was without ego. We chatted random stuff, mostly on the MMT and my experience last year. I was very happy.

    Tony turned around at the first aid station. He only wanted about 19 mile that day. Also Tony will be doing the MMT, so I will see Tony again on race day.

    The training helped me familarize with the course again. I had been on it last year but most of the turns were hazy in my mind since. For example, at Shaw Gap, we go through the saddle. Logically I felt turning left should be what we should take, but going through it was actually the correct way to get off the mountain. This part was completely not stored in my memory last year. I think because it was uneventful and I did not remember running on the road from Shaw Gap to Veach Gap. We passed by Sherman Trail, mentioning it because I’ve read about it on some other training run plans, but did not know it was there.

    Ascending on Veach was not as difficult as I had thought. I was joined by a father and son team. Jeff is a local Eddingburg’s resident. He is a good guy and a straight shooter. I felt embarrass when he addressed me as Sir in every sentence, like the military way, and he could be my father. He has a southern/country side accent and southern charm. Maybe that what country people do. Do I call him Sir back? Later I learned everyone loves Jeff. We shared the trail until we got Indian Run. Descending from Indian Run to the road, we met Bob G. Bob was the last finisher of last year MMT. He is in his 80s, yet still a strong trail runner. Bob is a colorful person in our running group and he is seen in all races. Everyone knows Bob as well. This guy is a legend.

    Two stories here. First Jeff and another older gentleman, we met at Indian Run. These folks are at least over 65. Yet they can run. I was overtaken by them. Indian Run is a steep downhill for us coming off from the MMT at the ridge, probably the steepest on the whole MMT course. One mistep would cause the runner to tumbling down the mountain and forever disappear into the ravine. Yet, Jeff and others started flying down the hill. I love to see when runners get excited. Note, they were pretty slow earlier, slow enough for me to be ahead of them. Luckily I stepped aside to let them lead to avoid embarrassing myself. They earned my respect of how good they were going down hills. They were indeed pro runners. I could not keep up after couple steps, and they disappeared after a turn. I know they were alright, but at the same time how vastly inferior I am in term of skills. They were fearless. Note, I generally run down hills too but this was too steep and rocky for me.

    We met Bob at the end of the Indian Trail and Bob engaged in a long recount about Jeff on last year MMT. Apparently Jeff and Bob were leapfroging one another during the MMT race. Jeff mentioned how Bob cursed like never before when he fell and broke a rib. Note, Bob went on to finish the race. Bob was praising Jeff of his resilency of not quitting even though he was down 5 times (Bob said Jeff was dead 5 times and each time resurrected). Bob joked how Jeff left him each time after he recovered, but Bob would catch back up. Their stories were captivating to the rest of us. Everyone stopped to listen. It reminded me at the Devil Dog, when Jimmy, a runner I was with, greeted Bob by saying: Shut up Bob! Bob likes it. Of course, Jimmy doesn’t mean it. Note Bob was a former general, and it was just weird with the disrespect. But Bob too doesn’t carry an ego. Bob also praised Jimmy today, though he wasn’t present, about him being a good pacer. Jimmy will be pacing a friend at the MMT this year. I was like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, tongue-tied, before Jeff and Bob.

    My MMT story was too humbling. I dropped out at mile 95 while these two older gentlemen, frail, but finishing the race and even one of them did it with a broken rib. They were at another level. I told Jeff if he sees me at the MMT and I was not doing well, please slap me or something to get me moving. I want to be with these older people.

    After getting down from Indian Run, Charlie and a bunch of other runners caught up to me and Jeff. Because Jeff was walking for his son/grandson’s sake, so I joined up with Charlie. The young man seems to have an injury before the run. Both his ankles were taped up. I didn’t ask. Yet the young man also flew down the mountain earlier, so I wasn’t too concern, but Jeff was checking on him every mile or so, like how his foot.

    You know on the first training run, there were three runners I was with for the whole run, yet I felt being mostly ignored by them. Guess what, they were back in this training run as expected. I believe I will be partner with them in the race because our paces were nearly identical.

    I didn’t recognize them though and didn’t make the connection until later, but they were Charlie and his friends. As I mentioned in previous post, I didn’t blame them or anything. It is just the nature of the run or maybe something weird that day I didn’t hit it off with people. It was just bad vibe and a bad day. The vibe on this run was much better. All was forgotten and forgiven. Of course, they know me before I recognize them.

    This training run though, the trio were spread out. Charlie was running by himself, leading. The road portion was boring. Charlie was one of the few who ran in a decent pace. He and I outran everyone else of the people he was with and there were about 10 of us at the time. I needed a companion to get me through the road portion. Charlie had a nice pace going and I joined in. We together made it to the second aid station, at Habron Gap (some called it Hasbro, we couldn’t decide if it is a long A as in Hay, or short a sound, as in Hat, we asked the local Jeff, but he didn’t know either, he said he heard it both ways). Since this was only a training run, we stayed there for a while until the rest of the people caught up.

    Habron has the hardest climb of the entire MMT course. In my memory it was the toughest ascend. Today, the climb did not seem too bad. We had fresh legs relatively speaking, only 20 miles in instead of 50. It was quite gentle with switch backs, we got up to the top in an hour or so. In theory, it is runnable. I had many rougher climbs than this one. Personally, I think Duncan, Jawbone, Scothorn or Bird Knob is much harder. Yes, all the later climbs (wait for the 3rd Training run).

    When we got to the top, we had to make a sharp left. More story happened here later. Habron trail seemed to go straight over to the saddle. However, the trail and blazes would end soon on the other side. Some runners (3) went straight and down on the other side, included one of Charlie’s friend Stu. We almost went down the other side too until Charlie stopped us and we saw the orange blaze on trail to the left of it. Note both trails were to the left. MMT has a sharper left.

    The rest of the run was kind of easy. It was about 2.7 miles to Stevens trail and then 4.8 miles to the road where our cars were. The descend on Steven’s was gentle but long. Charlie took off and disappeared. Coasty, who is Charlie’s friend, and I took our time descending. Coasty caught up to us at the Habron’s aid station. Stu was probably not too far back, but we didn’t see him and unfortunately he got lost.

    I finished at 2:30 pm (8.5 hours since I started) for a total of 30.5 miles. It was not bad. We should be at 64-65 mile in the MMT race. In the race, this is the location when the race started to get hard for me last year. Honestly (ngl, not gonna lie), I almost cramped up running down Stevens trail on this training run.

    Today though, the run was easy because we only had 30 miles. Afterward, we sat around the camp fire. A few of us were telling stories. Dan, the MMT RD also was there too. Boy, he had a lot of stories. Charline came in. Tracy came in. Tracy was one who ran the MMT a few times but is still chasing the buckle and like me, she failed at mile 95 all three times. Tracy and John were supposed to be the last runners today but they somehow leapfrogged the three others, who got lost. So, we were waiting for the last three runners to come in. One of the three was Stu, Charlie’s friend. Many people said they saw Stu while running. And we all concluded they must have gotten off course.

    Indeed, they took the wrong trail down after Habron and they somehow managed to not find the trail to backtrack onto, since the trail disappeared. So decided to bushwhack for an hour to the top of the mountain to the ridgeline because there likely is the MMT trail. If they could get on the MMT, they could find their way to the finish. They were lucky that their guess was correct. Some got scratched up by thorns and threstles but at least they were able to get back. We joked that they ran the Barkley (the hardest marathon on earth).

    PSA: Even on a training run, bring the essentials, map, compass, jacket, warm clothing, light, somenfood and water, because you don’t know if you would get lost and how long you might get stuck in the “wild”.

    We were worried the runners would not able to find their ways off the mountain and night was approaching, plus a winter storm was forecasted, so it was not looking good to get lost out there. We were contemplating when to send out a search party. It would be us runners of re-running the trail again, even though the chance of encounter them could be low since they were not on the trail. However, none of us was willing at the time to go back out (we were really tired) unless necessary. We know in the past, runners had to find their own way out and the best chance for us was to wait. Besides, we were certain all three lost runners were together and seasoned, so their chance of “survival” was quite high. In the end, everyone was safe and sound.

    The RD for the training run is the same RD for the TWOT and TWOT is my dream race. You bet I wanted to kiss up to the RD. I had a good day seeing the RD in operation up closed and what to do in an emergency situation. Also, the RD is one of my personal heros for his accomplishment at the TWOT. Plus Tony too was around too. Just unbelievable I could spend the day with these people.

    Conclusion: I had one of best runs. It was certainly a good weekend I got to do something like this. I got to spent time with some cool people.

    Forest Road portion after getting off Indian Run. We were heading to Habron
    Nice clean trail, at the top of Veach I think or could be after Habron

    On the ascend after Veach Gap. The time was around 8-9 am.

  • Day531 Grindstone Training

    Would my readers want to hear about my first 10K race of 2023 or hear me training for a 100 mile race? TR;DR a long post about my weekend.

    I ran a 10K on Sunday called For the Love of It. It has been a race I have done every year since 2017 (or at least I thought so, until I checked the records).

    I almost did not sign up this year. You know, I just did not have the feel for it. Maybe it is a sign of burn-out. I know though 10K is good for me. I need some high cardio intense training. 5k/10k fits the bill.

    Friday morning, my friend messaged me that the Sunday spa time would be postponed. A few of us have been wanting to go to Spa World after one of our training runs. It all started when we got a runner in our running group to sign up for her first half marathon. She wanted to do Hot Pot and Spa either after a training or race. Since this place is far outside the city, we haven’t been to it yet. This Sunday, the schedule worked for everyone, but the lady (MC: main character) came down with an illness, so the event was canceled.

    I was scrambling to replace my weekend activities with something else. For Saturday, I wanted to go out on the Mountain to see one of the trails I will be doing a 100 mile race this September. For Sunday, 10K run seemed right. I had not run a 10K for awhile and I got an email reminding me to sign up.

    I will talk about the Sunday race first then go back to the Saturday hike.

    The 10k race: I woke up early. Got to the High School where the race would be held. Got my stuff — bib, swags, clothes. There was an hour wait before the start. I stayed in my car to catch some sleep. I haven’t been sleeping well lately — something changed, in that I got very sleepy early in the evening, around 9-ish and I would do a fake sleep (sleeping say on a chair or something) until 1 or 2 AM in the morning, then I would wake up and go to my room for a real sleep. However, usually I would be wide wake by 3 AM, and I would be up till morning. Anyway, I had a very interrupted sleep schedule since new year.

    This year, there were not as many runners running as before. I remember in the past the school parking lot would be full. It was the reason I went to the race site early to get parking, but this year, it seemed not necessary because the lot was only half full even when the race was about to start. Getting my bib only took couple minutes.

    We had about 200 runners. Faster people stayed in the front. I stood in the rear. The weather was nice. It was a chilly morning around 32 F with slight breezes (maybe about 5 mph). I felt cold and had two long sleeves on, plus a down jacket. Looking around and didn’t see anyone wearing a jacket, I took mine off. I had shorts on, so I was cold. Temperature wise, it was perfect weather for running, but I was sick mid week and had not built back up my resistance toward cold. Maybe the Saturday hike being out whole day in the cold also affected me. So I felt cold. I was glad to get started.

    We started on time. People took off. I started with a slow jog. I felt heavy. I think my pace was between 12-15 min per mile, which was just my normal ultra pace. In thr past, I was usually much faster when running 5k/10k. I was with a bunch of slower people. Many were big and kind of out of breath. I was wondering if this is the pace I would go for the whole race.

    Somehow I confused the distance between a 10k and a 5k. I thought we had only to do 3 miles. I have been training for 5k on the treadmill recently. I ran a few 5k on the treadmill during the week. My body had memorized the pace/distance. My mind did not comprehend that I would be running 6 miles until after mile 1.

    My body responded like I was on the treadmill. After 1 miles, my pace increased, as I normally do. I have been doing progressively increasing my pace over time on the treadmill. I could see my body started giving me a little more juice as the race progressed.

    By mile two, I felt I finally was back to my usual 10k pace. I lengthened and quickened strides. I reached Mile 3, and halfway.

    I was sweating. At first I contemplated stopping and to take off one layer. I decided not to. It was a good decision because occasionally we got a breeze and I felt cold. Two layers was the right call today. Yet I was also sweating.

    Slowly I was over taking people, especially on every uphill. My mountain training gave me an advantage when comes to hills. Hills here did not put me out of breath. I could charge straight up them.

    Mile 4 and 5 came by. We came back to the school where we started. Mile 5 was just beyond the school. We had only a mile left and the course took us around the block. I put the kick in to keep up my tempo. This allowed me to catch some remaining people in front of me. There were 5-6 of them.

    We finished on the high school track. I tried to dig in until crossing the finish line. I came through under 57 minutes (officially 56:56 min).

    I was glad because, my goal today was at least try to get it under an hour. I did it. It was not a fast time comparing to the past. I had much lower times before. I take what I got today though.

    About my ankle. I was limping before the start of the race. I was limping afterward. First mile, my ankle did bother me, but as I continued to run, my pain was gone. I could really dig in to do my best. Ankle stopped hurting. I was happy, at least I could run harder.

    2017 | 50:46

    2018 | 54:05

    2019 | 49:46

    2020 | 53:10

    2021 | NA – away for Rocky Raccoon 100

    2022 | NA – overslept I think, I had the shirt

    2023: 56:56

    There you go. My time is a bit worse than before. Yes, it is my goal this year as other years to get faster.

    Part II: Now about my training run on Saturday.

    This week I decided to visit the course for the Grindstone 100, at least part of it.

    The idea was to run the Wild Oak Trail. I first hiked Wild Oak maybe back in 2018. It was my first backpacking trip and most vivid memory. Camping is still something I love very much even though I haven’t done many in recent years.

    The trail is 28 miles long. At the time in 2017, I did not know people run on it. It was also at the time my hardest trip. It always had been in my mind if I ever wanted a hard training, this would be the place to do so. At the time, I had not been exposed to MMT and the like.

    Over the years, I went back there a few times. During one camping trip in the fall, probably in 2019, we encountered runners that weekend running a 100 miler (4 loops) on the trail. We were amazed. So in 2020, I ran on it on my own one weekend. I think I did two loops and was proud about that and somehow gave me the confident to signup for a real 100 mile. It was then I was introduced to the race TWOT 100. Note, last year I tried to sign up, but was not granted an admission. Doing the TROT 100 is one of my dreams. Today, I am not writing about TROT 100, but Grindstone 100, which also uses part of the Wild Oak Trail.

    Now having done the MMT, going back to Wild Oak is kind of easy. My perspective had shifted once again after this weekend. Wild Oak has a lot of elevation changes but they are way gentler than MMT. The trail at least is way smoother. Most of it is runnable. MMT on otherhand is much more technical and I have not been able to truly run on the MMT trails.

    I started the day later than what I wanted because I could not sleep very well. I was supposed to leave for the trail around 3-4 AM. I did not leave the house until 9 am, maybe 5 hours later than my original planned departure time. I got to the trailhead around 11:30 and did not start the hike/run until near noon.

    I still wanted to do the full 28 mile loop. I expected probably would take me 8-9 hours, meaning I would be running in the dark for a significant amount of time. Sunset at 5:30. I messaged my mom I wouldn’t be back until midnight. I did not expect to finish until past 10 pm.

    The day was cold. Even at noon, it was below freezing. When the wind blew, I felt it. I had on my normal running clothing, of two layers, a t-shirt and a long sleeve. A long pants with thermo underwear. The wind cut through them. I had to put on a fleece jacket but I still felt the cold. I brought a windbreaker along but did not put that on because I wanted my shirt to breath.

    Temperature should stay constant around 30s, even at night for that day, which was good that I did not have to worry about temperature drop when night approaches. Up on the mountain, it might drop down to 25 ish. The wind was gentle about 5-10 mph. It was a perfect day in winter to do this hike.

    In the first mile, I got my feet wet. I was surprised of the water on the trail didn’t freeze. The night before the temperature was down to 14-15F in the city. It might have been close to the low teens or single digit on the trail. I had expected the trail to be frozen.

    As I climbed higher, there was snow on the trail. I encountered a runner returned from his run. He was probably did an out and back. I saw dog prints and another set of footprints as I got higher. There was fresh snow. It was good knowing I was the third person on this trail since it snowed. I think we had snow on Thursday.

    Maybe about almost two miles in, I rolled my ankle. It was just a slight roll but then it started hurting and I could not put weight on it without being uncomfortable. The pain was not sharp, just like being hit in the funny bone type of pain that made my foot goes weak. I limped along. I felt I just had bad luck. It reinjured an old wound that I tried to heal for the past month.

    I felt discouraged. First, I was slow to wake up and got to the trail late and problems compounded with a rolled ankle. Now I felt it would be very hard to finish the loop. It felt the trip was wasted.

    At the time, I decided to press on and to defer the decision to turn back at the 6 mile mark, the Little Bald. I still hoped to finish the full loop but I was worried if the pain didn’t go away, it would be a slow hike and I might roll it again. I also sensed I might have to give up on this trip and call it a day early. The decision weighted on my mind as I hiked upward.

    The trail is popular but not that popular of me going to encounter another hiker being late in the day and if I get hurt on the trail, it might be a while before someone could rescue me. I had to believe that however severe my problem is, I would have to get myself out on my own. I was asking myself, could I extract myself from this mountain. It meant I had to be sensible to turn back while I still could.

    Snow got a bit deeper further up. My foot did not improve. Normally, I could walk it off. I got to Little Bald after three hours or so and only had hiked about 6.5 miles. I still wanted to continue on, so I started down on the other side to Camp Todd. I was hoping if my foot got worse, I could hike on the road to get back to the parking. It would still be a 9 mile hike back but on the road.

    I saw the set of footprints I was following disappeared, meaning the runner/hiker had turned around. It prompted me to reevaluate my decision if I still wanted to still do this. I would likely be limping all the way and there were 22 miles left. I had only gone 6 miles in 3 hours. I might not get back to my car before midnight.

    I then decided to turn around instead of continue down to Camp Todd. It was a good thing too because at the time, I did not realize I left my map back at the car. If I had gone on, I would not be able to find my way back even if I were to reach a road. There was no cell signal in the area. I had general direction memorized, but without a map was a disaster in a making, especially after dark.

    Returning to my car was mostly on downhill, 6 mile of descending. Running down hill hurt my foot more than going up. The thing with the pain was not every step would hurt. It only hurts on random steps. I could not narrow which position made it hurt more. It made going downhill hard. When the pain came, it caused me to be unsteady as if my leg would buckle. It made it a bit scary going down the hill. I started to run down to quickly get it over with. Risk it I said.

    After a mile or so on harder impact on my weaker foot, the pain went away. This was what I normally expect of walking off an ankle roll. I continued to make my way down.

    On the last mile, it was like 4:30 pm, sun was setting but was still bright enough, I encountered two older people. They were hiking up. We chatted. They asked if I had gone all the way around 28 miles. I said no and explained my weak foot. If not for that I was attempting to do the full loop. They were asking if I was okay. I said I should be fine in making my way back down. I asked if they were planning to camp up on the mountain, they said no. We chatted some more on races when they noticed my River Gorge shirt. They seemed to be seasoned trail travelers. They seemed to be aware that there are races conducted on the Wild Oak Trail as well. I mentioned that next week/or the week after would be the TROT 100 there, and even a 200 mile race. TROT 100 is on Feb 17 I think (2/15-2/19).

    We said our goodbyes and I continued down. I was thinking, sun would be setting soon, and it was weird that they were hiking up. I guess they maybe hoping to see the sunset on the mountain top. I hoped they would be ok. Temperature would drop soon. I wanted to be back in my car.

    There was a cyclist loading up his bike when I arrived back at the lot. I started the car and then put on layers. I was cold. I was also hungry. I hoped to get something to ear when I got to town. The nearest city woud be Harrisonburg. By the way, I stopped by there for dinner.

    I finished the day with 13.2 miles and it took me 5 hours. It probably would have taken me more than 10 hours to go all the way around. I would be finishing around 10-11 pm and possibly midnight. My foot was okay but I felt it would be very sore if I put 28 miles on it that day. Plus I still would have the 10K to do on Sunday. I was glad I made the right call to turn around.

    My next opportunity to get back out to the Wild Oak Trail might be in March or later. I know I need to go there a few times to be familarize with the course. My race, the Grindstone race will be on the last week of September. I still have time, but I wanted to do well. Some think MMT is harder. I think so too, but I could not and must not look down on Grindstone.

    Conclusion: I had a great weekend. I did not do as much as I wanted in term of training. Normally I tried to get 50 ish mile on a weekend. Lately, my miles were not there. I was glad I had a little bit of adventure. I went to Grindstone, saw some snow, got some hiking in, and ran a race. I am still relatively healthy, with just a bad ankle. Next week, I would have my second training run for the MMT and that what I like to write about.

    Camp site at Little Bald, my turn around point. A hiker/runner continued toward Reddish Knob, where turn around point for Grindstone. I have never been there and hope to run to there some day before my race
    Beautiful Vista all around as I hiked up. I had not done many winter hikes and the benefit is great views while hiking because no leaves blocking them
    Such smooth trail and note leaves are gone for the nice distance views to be seen. It is something not available during the summer
    10K run on Sunday. I just finished. Note, it was cold and everyone ducked back into the high school’s cafeteria after they finished

  • Day530 Holiday Lake TR (2)

    Training Run – Holiday Lake

    When I said I will be going to Holiday Lake for a training run, my friends and family reacted in disbelief. They think it was too easy for me.

    Do I really need to train for a 50K? Not really but I thought the place has good trails and elevation to help me with either the BRR or the MMT. Best of all new trail I have never been on before. Indeed it has some good elevation for training. I have been bored lately and needed a new place to excite me. Holiday Lake gave me a feeling of adventure.

    There seems to be a pattern with my training. Three weeks back, I was training for a 100 miler (MMT). Last week I was training for a 50 miller (BRR), and this week, I trained for a 50k. I guess next week would be a half marathon or shorter.

    Holiday Lake is about 200 miles south from my home. It takes about three hours to get there. As always I’d go anywhere for a race or a run. It got to be big enough to get my attention to put in this much work. Holiday Lake 50K has been ones I wanted to do since I know about ultras.

    Actually I was out at Signal Knob one afternoon probably in 2018-2019, doing a hike on the Meneka Peak with couple friends and afterward, I wanted to run around it again. During the run, I met a guy, he was also doing loops there but in the opposite direction. As for me, I was probably training for the JFK 50 at the time, my first real ultra. He was much better runner than I was. As we talked in the parking lot, I asked him any races he would recommend me because I was new to ultra trail running. He gave off a list of races and one of them was Holiday Lake. Of course, later I looked up his name, he was one of the first place winners of one of the races he recommended (Highland Sky). He might got first too at Holiday Lake too, but I don’t remember. Those were during his younger days. I didn’t recognize a celebrity when I came face to face with one. All he said to me was the RD knows him if I mention that he told me to sign up. (I tried to sign up for Highland Sky too, but got on the waitlist this year).

    Now, four or five years later, I finally get to run it. This weekend though was just a training run. The real race is next month. I missed its first training run the previous weekend, because it was in conflict with BRR1. This weekend was their 2nd training run. It was perfect for me.

    I had been reluctant to sign up in the past because it is a winter race in February. I always avoided winter races in the past because I did not like running in the cold. Eventually I got over it. You just bundle up more.

    This weekend was like the past two weekends. Early waking time. This time I slept earlier. Woke up at 3 AM. Started the drive at 4 AM. Arrived and met many people at the 4H Club Center at Holiday Lake.

    The race director introduced himself. Everyone said hi Brandon. Everyone was quite friendly, totally unlike BRR or MMT training run — MMT and BRR have friendly people too, but I felt once you leave the capital area, people are much nicer. I had similar experiences when I was in West Virginia, Atlanta, or Pennsylvania and Texas. Anyway, pasture is greener on the other side.

    We had a bunch of college students maybe they came from Lynchburg. I have been hanging out with older people in my trail community where the average age is around 45-47, and today the average dropped by a lot because most were teens and twentys. I felt a bit younger and it brought back memories when I was first year in college, my running club leader brought a few of us out to a lake to run. It might have beem Holiday Lake or similar. I did not remember it until today. Due to we got lost during the run, but I will save that for maybe another post.

    The training was on the exact course as the race. We would do a loop around the lake. It is a 16 ish mile loop. Two loops would make a 50k.

    We grouped up at the parking lot at 7:30. After a short speech, we walked to the start. There we took group photos, then the RD gave the G-word, we went off.

    The first quarter mile was up the road out the camp. We then turned right onto Lakeshore Trail, doing clockwise direction on this run. I think they did the reverse direction last time. On race day, we will do one in clockwise and another counter clockwise direction. Some think this is a fair way thst you get to climb or run down both sides of a hill.

    The day was beautiful. We had one of warmest winter days and I was in shorts and tee shirt. The morning was cold but it warmed up to near 50F, about 15C, perfect running temperature.

    I enjoyed the trail tremendously. It validated me for driving 3 hours and waking up at 3 in the morning. It was not too technical. It was very runable. There were a lot of roots and uneven surfaces. Some rocks, hills here and there. There were a few tough climbs. It dispelled my fear that the course would be entirely flat. I almost canceled the trip when I checked strava the night before and got the impression that it had only couple hundred of feet of elevation (I might have read the course 10K profile instead of the 50k). The reason I did not cancel is I was not ready to replace it with something else. I did not have time to study the map for another run, say The Wild Oak Trail, which a lot of runners were out there that day and I only learned of it afterward on Facebook. Anyway, no regrets for choosing Holiday Lake over Wild Oak. My run ended up with 1200 feet of elevation gain (for one loop), which is every good. Not hilly but enough to help me with my training. It was less hilly than the BRR training, maybe about half as much.

    By 4 miles, I was with Kristine and Chris and Ruby. Ruby was leading from maybe 100-200 feet away. Kristine and Chris have been in front of me the whole time. I was only a few steps behind.

    We were all new on this course. Everyone else, the more experienced folks already passed us ahead. Actually we passed some college kids at beach/picnic area. Ruby was one of the college kids, but she was new to the trail. I and rest of us assumed she knew the direction and did not pay attention at where we were going. As you know, we got off course. Chris is a city runner so he was not so keen on turns and such (I only noticed later). I ran with Kristine before, and she has a better sense of directions but I guess not by much. I had no excuses though. She was following Chris and I was following Kristine. I am supposed good at paying attention to turns by now. I remembered passing a turn and my spider sense told me, we should be turning here, but I kept my head down and followed Kristine and Chris. We went for maybe quarter mile to half a mile until the trail crossed a knee deep creek and no bridge was available. It was then, we were thinking no way we would want to get wet, crossing a creek. We did not see any streamers to indicate we should be crossing it and it seemed to be not the way to go. Bells were ringing in our heads that we were off track. While the group was debating to go across or not, I decided to turn around to find the last streamer we saw.

    The group then followed me. Pretty soon we found the turn we had missed. Ruby was starting to run out of steam and got left behind. I waited for her and adviced her and also anyone here as a PSA (public service announcement), when one is running on a new trail and the direction is iffy, stick to a partner. She was telling me not to wait for her.

    Note, don’t feel as a runner in a strange place that you are a burden to other runners that they had to wait for you. I remember while doing the MMT training run, the guys left me on the mountain, and it was not very nice.

    It was the reason, I stayed with Kristine and Chris even though I could run faster than they do. Three pairs of eyes are better than one.

    The rest of the run was uneventful. Ruby went for a mile more and turned around at 5 mile mark. Later some college kids also turned around. They were part of Ruby’s group. I told them that Ruby turned around early.

    The course uses trails, double track (forest road/atv trails), horse trails, and country roads. We were running in a pine tree forest. I think it was peaceful.

    There were a few places we were unsure of because we did not want to get lost again, but usually when we started to have doubts, we would come across a streamer that the race director put up, reassuring us we were on the right trail. Note, I also had a map on my phone, but the scale was too big to tell me anything useful (strava map).

    I did the first loop in 3 and half hours and the second loop in 4 and half, a total of 8 hours. The race cut off time is 8 hours. This was a training run, so I did not push myself hard. I am sure on race day, I would be going faster, especially on the flat portion. I won’t DNF. Also I got lost a bit on my second loop because I was going in a reverse direction. Somehow I missed a streamer back around the picnic area and I did not remember which way we did during the first loop. I later was able to find my way back. That might have taken half hour off the clock. I think I could do it under 7 hours.

    Now in hindsight, the course was actually quite easy. The full course is consisted of two trails, the Lakeshore trail (blazed blue rectangles) and the CT – Carter Taylor, blazed with red rectangles. Lakeshore trail goes around the lake and is 6.5 miles. Carter Taylor is also a loop, and maybe is 10 miles. So the race is doing these two loops, gives 16.5 miles. They are like a figure 8 with one loop on top of another.

    I ended the run feeling pretty well. If I had a companion, I would have gone out for maybe a 3rd loop too. I believe I was the only one who ran two loops that day. They thought I was crazy, but it was just a normal training day.

    Beautiful trail and pine forest
    A warm day, we were almost at the end
    I like a wide open trail
    walking to the start, a bit chilly in the morning
    young pine forest, I think they were replanting pine trees

  • Day529 BRR Training 1

    Bull Run Run Training 1.

    BRR training started a week after the MMT training run. I did both sets of training last year and doing them again this year. The only difference this time is I will be running in the BRR (actual race) this year. Last year, I only did the training runs but not the race itself. It’s long story, which I am about to tell.

    What is BRR? It stands for Bull Run Run. The race has been rebranded as BROT, which stands for Bull Run & Occoquan Trail Run, but I prefer BRR better for short, because that is the name I first encountered with this race and it rolls off the tongue. Yes, it is related to the American Civil War also, the Battle of Bull Run. I don’t know much of its history even though I visited the Manassa battle field and its museum. Funny thing was during the training run, an older runner was listening to a podcast about the Bull Run Battle. He forgot to bring his ear piece, so he had it on speaker. The few of us crowded around him to listen along with him.

    Note, I use the abbreviation of BRR to refer to the race (in April) and the training runs interchangeably, but rarely will I refer to the trail itself, even though that is the name of the trail. I know, hope it won’t be too confusing to my readers. In the same way, I’ll refer to MMT as the race and its training runs, even though it is the name of that trail.

    History, my history: Since forever, might be 2017 or 2018, in my early years of running, I had wanted to do this race. Every single year, I missed the registration because either they only opened for club members or by invitation only or they were quickly filled out and I missed out.

    There is some weird procedure to get onto the wait list. You are given a random number when you registered, and then the pick is based on a particular day of the stock market closing index price mentioned ahead of time. Depending if the index goes up or down, it would determine the sort ordering, for getting people off the list. They say it is clearly explained on their sign up website and is fair since the stock market is supposed to be random.

    I just find the sign up procedure weird. And math, I love math, but for a lot of people, it could be a turn off. It is like you have to solve some high level math problem to sign up a race. They also use some Latin words on their races too (yes, it runs by a bunch of brainy older people — lawyers). I took Latin as my foreign language elective, so I love Latin. But if I am a younger zoomer/millenial, I might not sign up. I’m not knocking at them. I was introduced into the racing world using the modern way of run-signup and ultra-signup websites, so was expecting something more slick. BRR sign up site is just unusual. Anyway, I finally got on the sign up list this year, without much problem. It was like my fifth or sixth try.

    So I will be religiously doing all the training runs. The truth is the race no longer scares me as it once did and I don’t need to train for it. I could do a 50 miler on any weekend without breaking a sweat (maybe a little), as I proved last season. However, I found from last year that BRR training run was very good for my MMT and I think a lot runners who will be running the MMT would do the BRR as preparation. So here I am.

    We had a good day. The temperature was between 35-45 F, way warmer than a week earlier. It felt it was more like fall weather. They were saying last year temperature was 6 or 16 degrees. Making today a nice day for a winter run. I had expected the run to run west, where my house is, only later after finishing, I found on their Facebook page that they made a last minute change, to have the run toward east because of the trail work being done on the west side. But anyway, it did not matter. A training run is a training run. Running eastward actually was more beneficial for me due there being more hills.

    I originally planned to wake up maybe at 3:30 am but overslept until 5:30, because I stayed up too late the night before. Anyway, I got home late due to lunar eve-eve new year’s celebration. I made very little preparation unlike the week before when I prepared for the MMT training run. This was a local run, and in the city, so no need to fret about packing emergency aid, food, and everything. Water was the only thing I needed. And no need to set an alarm, so as it turned out, I overslept.

    So I got up around 5:30 and I was thinking to myself, if could I still make it. I did not think I could make it on time after a bit of calculations. The original plan was to run from my house to the trailhead maybe at most 5 miles away and from there run to Hemlock Overlook, which was also about another 5 miles, where the rest of the group would meet. At the time, I did not know the distance was 5 miles, but I was planning a 4 hour run to the real starting line. We were to meet at 8 am, so it meant a 4 am start from my house. It would have given me a lot of mileage that day, again, at the time I didn’t know how far, but I was planning for a 30-40 mile day.

    Because I was running late, I decided to drive to the trailhead instead. The actual meet location was too early for me to be there and I wanted to have some early miles done. As I was driving, I made up my mind to go a trailhead nearer to my home, Rt 28 parking lot, but it was not the lot where everyone to meet. It saved me from running 4 or 5 miles from my house, but still would give me plenty miles for the day. I arrived there before sunrise. I was the first person in the lot. I got everything ready and as first light dawned (around 7 am), I hit the trail. It is a county park, so technically we were not allowed to be on the trail when it is dark. That was the reason I waited for some light, so I didn’t have to use a headlamp and also I would not be violating any local ordiances. I doubt anyone would call the cops on me, but you never know.

    I tried this run last year too but I was slower last year and missed the group start. This year I started 15 minutes earlier and I must have run faster. I met my goal of getting to Hemlock by 8 o’clock.

    The first couple miles, I was running at a slower pace, of 15 min mile. It was very slow. I had not warm up yet and the terrain was uneven. It was a bit cold but I knew also it should be warming up by noon time.

    I arrived at Hemlock as the group just started off. I could see them from maybe 100 yards away. I was not too late. I caught up with the group as they were circling around the parking lot. There were maybe 75-100 of us, which was quite a big group for a training run. Some came late too as usual since this was in the city. There were whole lot of excitement.

    I was more familiar with the trail this year than last year. I made many posts about this trail before. Those were the days when I first explored it on my own, I think around 2020 and 2021. It was such a joy then as it is now. Now running on it again, and finally the first time with the big group, I felt great. I had previous good memories as I ran. BRR training was where I met Iris, who later helped crew me at my Devil Dog. People like Iris are dear to me. That was just last year, but it felt so long ago. This year, Iris wasn’t there. A race director once told me, that volunteers are his dearest people, so it is the same for me. Anyone helped me in a race, they are my “brothers and sisters, and mother and father.”

    BRR and MMT are almost same for me in my mind. I’d lump both of them together. They were both organized by the same group of people, my local trail running group. It is quite famous here in the tri-state (DC, Maryland, and Virginia, well DC isn’t a state, but you know, we treated it like one). It’s name though is probably well known to our surrounding states as well, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. MMT is probably more well known around the nation in the trail community, since it had been around for a long time and it is a 100 miler.

    But as for the BRR, it is much more modest. It is a local race. And it is only a 50 mile compares to the 100 miler sibbling. This training run had only about 1500 ft of elevation change. The course is a series of rolling hills, so not that bad actually, at least for me who went to last week training for the MMT training run, where we did 5000 ft of climbing in a single day. Still I believe, BRR helps my training.

    I fell into my pace after couple miles. I met up with a friend from DC (Jana), and we ran together to the Bull Run’s Marina. I was surprised to see her here. She recently has done a lot trail runs, such as Naked Nick. She said though 50K is her max. I tried to convince her to try running a 50 miler, but she said she doesn’t do night time running. I said, it is only maybe an hour of darkness, and if she moves fast, she would finish before dark. I hope some day to get her to join me on longer runs.

    At the marina, we took a break at the aid station for this run. It was an out and back, so we would be back here again. It was well stocked with everything we needed, fruits, candies, sodas. And this training run was all free to us. It was festive because we had a big group there. We took a couple group photos. I recognized many familiar faces. However, I am not friend with them, like I am with Iris, Ram and Caroline. They were not on first name basis, but rather it was hey runner. Some people turned around here early to go back to Hemlock, since this is individual decision of how much or how long they wanted to be out there. For a few of us who needed more miles, we continued toward Fountainhead Park, which was about 6.5 miles away.

    Jana also went for a few miles more so that she would finish the day with 12 miles. I wanted to go until I was tired. 12 miles were too little for me. Though since I had 5 miles earlier, if I turned around then I would have 22 miles for the day, Jana told me. I did not believe her at the time, but her math did check out.

    It was too early for me to be turning around though. After saying goodbye to Jana, I continued toward Fountainhead. I got to mile 14, and turned around at the road, wolf run or something, maybe a mile or two before reaching Fountainhead. During the real BRR, this would be an aid station. By then many already turned around, and I believed I was the last one. I caught sight of Tracy and Tina — I believed I ran with Tina (from Baltimore) last year on this run, but she didn’t remember me. She arrived late last year and everyone had left, so it was me and her and she didn’t know the way and I led that time. Anyway, she was on time this year. She partnered up with Tracy. I didn’t know Tracy at the time.

    I tried to rush back so that the group if they were waiting for me would not have to wait for too long. I don’t need people to wait for me, but I am known within this group as one who likely to get lost and also one of the slowest. I was then stopped by a couple Asian hikers, because I looked Asian, they started up a conversation. They wanted to know about my parents and if I attended church, since chinese here in the area all kind of know one another. All they just need you know who your parents are and who your pastor is before long they could identify you. I stopped and started talking to them. Last I’ve been to a chinese church was almost 20 years ago. Things changed.

    Then a couple more runners came by and I believed they were part of our running group. I quickly caught up to them and joined in their run. Indeed, they were part of our training run. I was glad I was not the last person on the trail. Sorry to the asian hikers. They did not know I was in a group run. I left them behind. Actually, I stopped for way too long (maybe 15-20 minutes) and I was cooling off to the point I was starting to shake. Again, we are in two different worlds between runners and hikers. Hikers felt they have all day to talk. We runners are more bounded by time and have to get going.

    I found out the two runners started late and kind of doing their own thing but they were stronger runners than me. Josh came to the run from Virginia Beach and he did the BRR 50 miler race last year. His friend, Spencer, was the area native. They wanted to have 20 miles that day. I told them I already had 19 miles in and hoping maybe for 10 more by the time I finished. I could only stayed with them for about 2 miles and had to slow down. Their pace was too strong for me. I think Josh could run the race in 8-9 hours. Spencer is a bit weaker, but not by much. They both were in excellent built and young, maybe 5-10 years younger than me.

    We got back to the Bull Run’s Marina. Quatro the aid station captain and this training run RD, was still there. We were guessing he would have left by then. The time was around 11:30. I was glad because at least I could get water and some cookies for my return trip. From the Marina back to Hemlock is about 4 miles. I was bonking hard during this stetch. I took the red trail up to Hemlock instead of following blue circling around the base, and climbling up on the otherside. My short cut saved me maybe a mile. Of course, during the race, this would be a DNF. Today though wasn’t a race.

    Quatro was already back from the Marina. I expected that. He said couple other runners were still out besides Josh and Spencer. Shortly, we saw them came in (Tracy and Tina). I stayed for a few more minutes until Josh and Spencer also came in.

    I still had five more miles from Hemlock to my car. Slowly but surely I made it back to my car. I did come across of the group that was repairing the trail.

    For training goes, it was a run. A good run. Last week I worked on more technical stuff. This week was mostly working on the consistency in my run. I needed both types of training. The trail was runnable and so it was a good training on relatively flat ground with some hills tossed in. I had some solid “fast” miles while I was with Jana. Jana was about my pace, but I had to run to keep up with her. I believe I could out run her, but on this training run, she was stronger.

    I still have to work on to be a stronger trail runner. I crapped out too early. I need to have stronger endurance. I need to run faster uphill and also downhill. I know I would do fine for the BRR race because I am a strong hiker. However, I want to be able to run the full 50 miles instead of just hiking it. Also it would help me on the MMT in May. BRR training is complementary to the MMT training.

    BRR will give us a generous 13 hours to finish. I think I could do it in 12 hours. I hope maybe get it down to 11. Any below 11 hours would be a pipe dream. Since the training run was not a race, I finished around 2 pm. 7 hours after I started. I put in 27-28 miles. I did not have my gps watch on me, so couldn’t tell the actual distance I ran. There will be a few more training runs, one in Feb and one in March. Overall, I had a great time, a much more enjoyable than when I was at the MMT first training run. A couple guys recognized me from the week before.