In awe

Category: running

  • Day344 A second attempt – about to start

    I am a few hours away from starting the run. As of right now I just woke up and still am very comfortable on my bed in the hotel near the airport. By the way, after having been of other city airport hotels, this is one of the best! It is comfortable and inexpensive and you don’t hear the take offs and landing or airplane flying over. How do they do it? I found out they originally were a Motel 6, but they renovated it and upgraded all around. It is on the level of Comfort Suites. It is part of the Quality Inn chain, but the quality I am getting is way higher than all the Quality Inns I stayed at. I just love the hotel and want to sleep in. I paid for four nights, but tonight I won’t be there!

    Ideally I should have started the run yesterday because it was cooler and the chance of encountering rain storms during the run was lower (30% chance only), but today and tomorrow, my chance of running into a storm is around 50%. They are leftovers from Cat 4 Laura that made landfall in the Texas/Lousiana region couple nights ago.

    However, I was not ready yesterday. I had not reviewed the map then and had not decided on the starting time. Since the starting time would determine the ending time, it needed to be chosen carefully.

    Last time, I started in the evening at 6 pm and was aiming to finish at 4 am two days later. I thought of doing so again and maybe moving up the starting time by a few hours.

    I woke up late and had company’s work to do. It was my day off but I didn’t finish those stuff on the day before my trip (computer issue kept me from doing them – it decided to run an update when I tried to do my work before my flight! My frustration level was through the roof). So I spent the morning doing my work. I was not done until 2 pm. I then went for lunch. I knew the run was not happening because I had not packed yet! I got everything laid out, but still did not have my runner pack in a final ready to go condition. 100 mile requires careful consideration of what to take a long.

    Then I decided to go to Walmart to get a watch (you know the cheap one that have a stop watch feature?) but as I got there, I forgot all about getting a watch but instead got a lot of stuff for dinner and food for the run and food to eat after the run! I brought $30 worth of junk food. I probably wouldn’t finish them all – 7 cans of spagetti, lot of fruit cups, oreo cookies, packs of juicy fruit candies, instant cup noodles, package tunas and more. The watch would let me calculate the interval (time of a shorter distance, say 10 or 20 miles) during the run because I don’t want to mess with my main watch since that will track the overall 100 mile distance. Not having a spare watch is not a problem. I could still do it in my head and with paper and pen, it just a lot burdensome.

    When I got back to the hotel, I separated the food that I will take along into 6 ziplock bags. The goal is to eat a bag for every 6 hours (6 bags for 36 hours). I counted up each bag to have around 850 calories. I have six of these. This is much better than my last attempt. Last time, the whole run I only carried about one bag calories of food and ended up only eating about 10% and the rest of my calories came from sugarly drinks and I felt it affected my performance. First not enough, so I was dying halfway. I remembered my heart was racing crazy from the energy drink yet I didn’t have the power to run, and I was drained. I was so scared that I didn’t want another Powerade. It was not fun when your heart was about to explode and the lung was collapsing. Breathing hurt that time. I hope to avoid that mistake.

    Because I will be carrying so much food (6 meals), I am bringing my big bookbag. They won’t all fit in the smaller pack. It is a daypack from my hiking trip. It is heavy. Very heavy. I don’t like running with such a heavy pack! But I need the food, unless I have someone to carry them for me. This is why I wish I have local support crew (aid stations). Otherwise, I could leave all the food/drinks with my crew and they just have to show up at a given interval and give me the food. Last time I was hoping the stores along the way would be my aid station. However, drinks were easy to come by but not food! They had candies but no real food. Real food were out of the way and I didn’t want to take a detour.

    I think the food I am bringing along will be enough. It still is less than what my body will consume though. Every 6 hours my body will be burning 2000 calories and I am giving back only at most 1000. I plan to buy muscle milk and yogurt along the way, they will add couple hundred of calories. No more sodas this time around. They have to be high caloric drinks. I know I will still shutdown after halfway, but at least I hope it will give me enough to press on.

    I checked the map afterward packing. I am not too worry. I wish still I had memorized the turns. We do what we have to do.

    As for start time. I’m moving it up real early to 9/9:30 AM with the aim of finishing at 7:30 pm on Sat night.

    That was the main reason I couldn’t set off yesterday. I was already behind the start time once I figured I wanted a morning start instead of an afternoon/evening start.

    Having an extra day, physically was a good thing. My poison ivy infection is getting better. My left leg is almost completely healed of the ivy reaction. My right leg started to get worse on my flight to Atlanta and yesterday the bumps (30+) started weeping/oozing, that is good, it means they will be healing soon. It was what I was concerned about that the blisters from the ivy will break during my run and the friction from repetitive foot moment will agitate the wounds and they would get infected. Now they broke while I am still at the hotel. I washed and cleaned them with the poison ivy specialty soap. I should be ready for the run. I believe they will dry out during the run.

    Only last concern is my cardio aerobic performance. It degraded a lot compare to last time. Those who have been following my blog know I was struggling with my runs. My feeling is I can only do 13 miles at most and probably drag it out to 26. I don’t know if I will even reach 50, much less get to 100. That is a realistic assessment. I know it is bad luck to envision failure even before starting.

    I do want to get to the 100. It is a long shot. Even when I was in my peak, that was very hard (in the realm of impossible) thing. Now I am four times worse. Only way to find out is go out and try. I am very nervous.

    food: My main secret to get through the run

  • Day343 Atlanta here I come

    Ready or not here I come!

    I am not ready, but I am going. About 7 weeks ago (July 1/2), I was in Atlanta to run the Great Southern Endurance Run (GSER). I was only able to do it halfway and vowed I will be back to finish it.

    Here goes, this weekend I will be there to redo the run. However, I feel totally under-prepared.

    I am not as frantic as the last trip there. I don’t know why. I am even less prepared than the last time. I reread my blog of my trip last time…and I said I will do better in term of preparation, like taking the week off before the trip…change my sleep time to adjust for overnight running, pack the stuff I need for the runs (last time was last minute packing and I forgot certain things like lipbalm, sunblock lotion), get a better map and turnsheet, laminate the turnsheet, and many other things.

    I have done none of that. I am just showing up to wing it! I told my friend I probably give up at the 13th mile this time around.

    Any way, I will be flying out soon in couple hours. My run will probably be tomorrow. I could start at any time (it is a virtual race), but once it is started, I have to stay to finish. I am picking for the best day to start…Thursday or Friday? I am also thinking for a day time start instead of a night time.

    I want to lean toward a Friday start. I will check the weather tomorrow and then decide.

    It is sad to see an empty airport here at Dulles International! Just like last time. I bet though Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International will be crowded.

    Worries? I have a lot. Mainly it is the D*** poison ivy. I am much better. The blisters have stopped oozing. I am using a type of soap that basically said take 2 days to heal. I am on the 2nd day. They still itch but much less (90% less). The itch drove me crazy before the medication. But still, yesterday, a whole bunch of blisters/boils popped up on my other foot. I applied the medication. They have not started oozing yet. It might take two more days for this foot to heal. However, I will be in the middle of the run by then…so the blisters might get infected during the run. Right now they are about to pop, so I am very nervous to run with a bunch of those. It is very uncomfortable. I would take a picture, but it will gross you out! That is my worry.

    I had a history of bad allergic reaction to poison ivy. This time the overcounter medication seems to be able to suppress it. However, I hope it won’t break out while I am in Atlanta…ya, the last couple times I had poison ivy, I had to go see my family doctor for antibiotic to stop it. I won’t able to do that while in Atlanta.

    Coronavirus: Virginia number is half of that of Atlanta (Georgia). It has come down a bit but the number is like last time when I went to Atlanta (on July 1). Riskwise should be the same as last time.

    How do I feel? Not stressed. I felt I have to do it, like an obligation. So I will face all kind of ‘adversities’ and get worked up, and interfere with many other people (coworkers) to have this trip done. The truth is its not. This is a pleasure trip.

    On a happy note…for me at least, is when I get back I will start the next wild thing. We will run across the world! (virtually). I am really looking forward to that. For a week (3 weeks actually) I thought no one would want to run with me, but I found 9 random people yesterday (well not me, they found me) and we are doing it! We are running as a team, and we need 10 people because that was a requirement. They are from all over the places, some from Texas, Florida, England, etc. I couldn’t keep track of all their names.

  • Day342 wait for no one

    Time waits for no one. The weekend came and gone. I’m glad for it to have happened even though it was not something I planned and in fact I view most of family time as time away from training and that to me is bad! I was almost not there most of the time and that was kind of sad.

    I’m seemed as an ungrateful brat. It has been years since I took a trip with my family that of which is not running related.

    A lesson to be learned is to be still and enjoy the time to be with one’s own family!

    The time with your love ones are definitely precious and would not come again a second time.

    The trip was as perfect as it can get in term of time and location. I was just winding down a long series of training (GVRAT and GSER). As far as not being in convenience this is it. Location was not too far and not too near either.

    It was not the most beautiful place to go to but I would give 7/10 in term of pretty. All natural places are wonderful. I love having the campsite right by the lake and we could swim at any time. The water was warm and the lake is fresh (not swampy nor filled with mosquitoes). The sunset was nice. I caught the golden hour…one night and trees became golden, and the lake reflected the trees. Boom, we were immediately transposed to paradise.

    I think with any place, as long as the heart is at rest, you can see some amazing things. Sorry I didn’t take any photos.

    One night I watched the stars. It is beyond what words can describe of the stars out in the country side. We saw Jupiter. It was a good day to wind down.

    I have been running as much as I can during the day time (trying to still reach for GVRAT 1270 miles finish, so over the weekend I had to do 100 miles to reach thay goal. So all my waking hours was set for running.

    I ran a lot during the trip but nowhere near 100 miles, Total was around 50 miles. Also Friday and today I did not run much. More on that later. Basically I was only around during Breakfasts, Lunch, and Dinner. After the first day of putting in 33 miles I had blisters on my toes. One of them became infected. I am still limping from it. My mileage on subsequent days felt dramatically.

    The place was not the runner friendly place because the camp was tiny. All the roads in the camp only added up 0.4 miles. There were no trails.

    I ran out from the camp to civilization (Hwy 58) on the first day. That was about 3.5 miles. I spent the afternoon exploring all the parks and roads in area and that came up to about 30 miles. All roads are like single lane in the city undivided (meaning with no median or line) and also no pull off shoulder. If I run, I have to be on road. Yes it was very dangerous with cars flying by at 45 or more and it is about a foot from you! First day I was not scared but subsequent days it got to me.

    The second day was Sunday. We had a virtual Sunday Church worship (watched a video online). Then I spent the rest of the morning with the kids and to swim. After lunch I explored the forest there.

    This was an Corps of Enginneers Wildlife Management Area. I can see no one really go in there.

    The afternoon was hot and humid. I walked the first six miles, unable to get myself to run. My foot was hurting from pounding the pavement, and a bad blister festering on a toe (I didn’t know at the time). The body refused to move… Only after six miles it was able to run. Once it started moving, I enjoyed that tremendously. It was cooler by then. Evening was setting and I was rushing to get back for dinner. I did only 13 miles on the second day.

    The third day. I woke up with itchy feet. I actually couldn’t sleep much the night of. We had better weather too. The first night was stormy and water leaked into the tent (my fault of not setting it up properly).

    The second night I slept like a baby. The third night was hot and humid. I had my tent cover off, but still too hot to sleep. It was the itchiness that kept me awake.

    In the morning I checked my foot. Yup I got poison ivy somewhere during the weekend, probably in the Wildlife Management Area. I did crawl into some dense bushes and I saw some three-leave plants. Or there were times I stepped off the road into the shoulder and might have stepped into some poison ivy plants. Any way, the rest of the trip was very uncomfortable.

    The sun, humidity, itchiness, some mosquito bites, bad blisters, and poison ivy made my day.

    The whole trip was kind of weird in a way. There is definitely a lesson to be learned, like what if I didn’t run but have stayed in the camp and enjoyed like the rest? Then there would be no poison ivy?

    My mom said what if I just stayed at home wouldn’t I have my 100 miles then? Who know, it could have been worse.

    Time (or opportunity) comes and will be gone forever. While I went to the camp half-heartedly, there were some bright moments during the trip. My brother-in-law mentioned the trip to his team at work while on the way to camp but his whole team from work showed up too (uninvited) but it was quite fun. They liked him a lot (I guessed being almost six months only meeting online) and finally able to get together in person. Yes the 6-feet social distance is out the window. Spontanousness is what make a moment memorable. We made a lot of memories (we/they made a faux-pas, because they ‘partied’ allnight way after the 10 pm curfew hour, to the whole camp annoyance). There were no loud music though, just a guy refused to sleep due to the storm and just talking throughout the night. He set off his car alarm by accident too in the middle of the night. I had some good beer and food from them. The camp was supposed to be family friendly (meaning no alcohols)! It was a trip I won’t forget. The park probably won’t let us back though.

  • Day341 reality

    I have to accept the reality that to run back across Tennessee (virtually) within two weeks is out of reach for me in my condition.

    I had the ambitious goal of doing 250 miles this week and another 250 miles the next. I have ‘slowly’ trying to bring my miles up from 5 miles to 30 miles. My body still prefers running 5 miles. Beyond the 5 miles it bonkers. So I splitted my run into two. 5 miles during lunch and 15 miles in the evening. Doing 5 miles are great. 15 miles not so great.

    After 4 nights of running 15 miles, yesterday, the body relented. I walked most of the 15 miles.

    It reminded me back at the time I was in Atlanta when I was trying to run a hundred miles. It came to a point where the body can’t run any more and running is no longer fun. I felt I was 10 miles away from my home and couldn’t get back.

    I had blisters on my feet. I don’t mind the pain or the discomfort. It is just all my muscles are so tight. I don’t think I could squeeze any more out of it.

    Also I am suspecting my cardio has taken a hit. Last year I had Lyme disease and I know how that feel. I felt something similar. My performance is really poor. At least I am not yet fainting. Last year when I overexerted I fainted. I am also questioning whether I might contracted the corona virus. It is a respitory disease. My breathing is fine, just couldn’t run. Maybe it is really over exertion.

    Anyway for the GRVAT. I am at mile 901 and I need to get to mile 1270 to be considered ‘finished’. I have about 10 days left to do it. I could try to get mile 1000, there is an award for that. 10 miles each day is doable. 370 miles is too much to ask of.

    Weekend is here. Originally, I planned to put in 100 miles, 50 on Saturday and 50 on Sunday. Now scratch that plan. The body just couldn’t handle it.

    This weekend I will go down to Virginia Border to Buffalo State Park for a family camping trip. I don’t have children of my own, but I will join my brother-in-law and he will bring his wife and kids. My mom will be there too.

    Personally this kind of camping is not my kind of thing. I don’t like sitting around at a camp with nothing to do. There are the kids. I rather be hiking all day (or run) and only get to camp when we can’t go on further. Survival kind of camping is what I like.

    My mom will like it. It is her kind of camping. We don’t do it often enough. As I was growing up, money was tight and going camping was not our family thing. I really didn’t get on the camping stuff until a few years ago when I started running and discovered this whole world.

    My mom and brother-in-law though took the kids out for camping a few times every years. As for me, I think this is the first time joining them.

    Any way, it will be like a party. Indeed, my niece I think is turning 5 today, so we will celebrate her birthday at the camp. My mom’s birthday too is over this weekend. Obligatory I have to show up 🙂

    I know the kids will enjoy the trip. They are leaving for the camp today. I have work and so will join them tomorrow. Still debating if I should drive down after work…I’m afraid I might fall asleep behind the wheel.

  • Day340 desires

    Sometimes I don’t know what to write because after 339 entries, what I want to say might likely have been said before. It seems I am repeating the same thing.

    I had an amazing run. I never ever had a bad run. It is so much cooler now. I started to split my run because trying to do 20 miles in one short is still too much for me to handle. Splitting it into a 5 mile run at lunch plus a longer run at night was not too bad.

    Yes, I have to give up my lunch hour for the run. My schedule got rearranged a bit. Then though I have twice the joy.

    Noon run was a bit hotter at around 86 degree. But the time was short. One hour and I am done. Originally I wanted only to go for 3 miles so I would have a bit time left for lunch, but I got into the rhythm, and ran more than I should.

    Night run was much cooler. The temperature was around 70 degree. It was peaceful. I enjoyed being out in the neighborhood. I so love fall running.

    An interesting observation is if running is so good, why I don’t do it more enough. I wish I could run 24/7. But realize that running was not my full time. I was thinking what drive me out to run three to four hours each day.

    My answer is I get to think on spirituality. Usually one or two verses from the bible came to mind. I like to think on messages my pastor shared at the last meeting.

    Last night was on desire.

    You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.
    Psalms 63:1 NIV

    I won’t call my running my god/idol. There is though a deep longing. Because of the longing I go for a run. After the run, I seem to be satisfied.

    Physiologically, it is endorphine and other chemicals mixing in my brain. However, I like to believe there is a deeper connection to nature and even something deeper, i.e., supernatural.

    This is kind of run I like. Yes, I like doing the mindless training too and running just so I can run faster. Last night I was able to cut my half marathon time by 10 minutes (2:40), that was cool. However, I like that quiet time, my mind could flow to and “meditate” on the metaphysical and deeper things.

  • Day339 fifth day

    I think I am getting a hang of it now after five days of running. Might be sixth? Who is counting? I started some time last week. I know I want that finish of 500 miles by end of August. I know how many miles to run each day and I am very much behind. So I started running.

    In the beginning, I was only able to put out about 5 miles and then upped a bit to 8 and then 11. Friday I didn’t run. Saturday and Sunday I added a bit more 13, then 14 and today 15.

    I do wish to push out 20-30 miles a day in order to reach that 500 miles. Right now I have 450 miles left. Which mean 250 miles this week and 250 next week.

    Today while running, I had a plan. Run 150 miles during week and 100 miles during the weekend. Each day I try to do 15 miles during the evening run. 5 miles during the morning run. See I can do it. 20×5 = 100.

    I’m still short 75 miles. I will see how I fit that in. I might have to take Monday, August 31 off to fit that in. It will be very hard.

    My body has hurt less than before. I run a bit better now. I could do 6 miles without stopping and I got my half marathon time (13.1 miles) down from 3 hours to 2:50. There is still much to go. Hopefully I can get back to running 13 or even 20 miles without stopping.

  • Day338 some boring stuff

    Two more weeks until the end of August.

    Why is that important? It will be the end of the GVRAT – the Tennessee virtual race. I finished the 1000k challenge back in June and have been dallying around trying to get to the 2000k. For the last two months I put in around 100 miles only and I am about 500 miles away from the finish line… probably not going to make it in two weeks. Well there is an incentive to reach a 1000 mile mark, which is just about 200 miles away for me (205). I think I could do that. A hundred this coming week and another 100 the following. Easy right?

    2. GSER – The Atlanta Virtual race. I booked my plane ticket to go back to do this by the end of summer. Am I ready for round two? I don’t think I am, but will see. I have been struggling to run 13 miles much less to do a 100 miles in one shot. Will see. I know I don’t have to do it. RD has extended it to end of September when the weather is cooler to run. I am going to do it at end of August any way.

    3. Fall will be here soon, meaning the start of Fall training. Even though many of Fall races have been canceled or gone virtual, there are couple ones that will be taking place. It means training time! I am excited. Several races are in the work, and will share once they come.

    Relating to this I have been moving my races around. Got the news that DC Rock n Roll won’t be happening, so I plan to transfer my entry to Savannah Rock n Roll 2021. Looking toward to get my marathon in Georgia.

    Laurel Highland Ultra – the race that has consumed me this year will be happening, but I put in my deferral to next year. The race will be held but will have a lot of restrictions (basically old school ultra – with very little support and you have to carry all the stuff on you; there are drop bags, however it is best to lug everything), so I don’t think I am up to the challenge to do it. RD allowed me to defer till next year. Hell yeah, I’m running it next year. I had my schedule next year exactly like this year! All the same races.

    4. CRAW – And and I will be doing a new virtual race called the CRAW – circumpolar run around the world. This time will be done as a team/group run. 50,000 km total or something. The number of miles are beyond what I can count around 30,000 miles, but someone did the math, it is about 8 miles per day per person. We have until December 31, 2021 to finish. We can have up to 10 people per team. It will be done over 12 stages. Each stage as if a new race. I am still forming my team, wich is hard to do because not many people is willing to commit a year time. I don’t want to be stuck in a slow team… but I don’t also want too much pressure from my teammates to have to run gazzillion miles every day. I plan to try for one stage at a time. The first stage hopefully done by Nov. Race starts on Sept 1.

    5. Realistically, my body hurts. Everything hurts. Bad ankle from previous injury. I am going to suck it up. That is pretty much the end of summer. What did I do during the summer? I watched lot of videos and run virtual races.

  • Day337

    I have to mark this day. I had my first run since who know when. 5.5 miles. It was a combination or walk/run. Mostly walk. My body or aerobic level has eroded a lot. Usually I could do 10 miles without stopping. Wait I used to run for 3 hours straight without having to stop. Now I felt like a big elephant running down the street. Every couple steps I would have to stop to catch my breath. Maybe an elephant could run faster than me. Any way, it was a good run. It was 80 but felt like 90 degree. Nope, I didn’t see any meteor shower. Three times I almost was run over by a bike because I was looking up at the sky instead of where I was running. Yes, how could I run without looking at where I was running. The guy on the bike freaked out too 🙂 No I wear really bright color clothing and I had plenty of light on me. I need to put some reflector tape on me next time.

    The past few days I kept having stomach issue. Not sure what was going on. I am usually strong as an ox and I don’t fall ill. I can eat anything and not get sick. Perfect body for camping. But I have been having stomach issue lately. My bellyache came as I started running. I finished it any way. It went away after getting back and I after relieved myself. It might be my body is making excuses. However, I do have stay away from spices.

    Those Korean food has too much hot spices. I tried to stay away. The waiter guy at the restaurant warned me as I was buying it for my lunch. I ordered something that was described as Korean spagetti with spicy sauce. The waiter tried to confirm my order and said we don’t have spagetti here. I said I don’t mind substitute. No he actually did not want me order that dish. I showed the guy the menu – it was the first item. He said that really is not spagetti. I said I know. The menu is in Korean but they had Engish translation and it translated as spagetti. Then he said to me it is very spicy. He asked if I can take the heat. I said (and lied) I like spicy food. Are you sure you want it? Yes. I have been trying to eat spicy stuff since my former girlfriend likes them. The dish was not that spicy (it was Gochujang) but much sweeter than I expected, but I don’t usually eat spicy food, and my stomach contracted and burned until I went to the bathroom. I was a good dish though. I thought I couldn’t make it home. My stomach felt like it was going blow up. That’s me. Every time I eat spicy food, they burn as they go in and through the whole GI tract and on their way out. I do love Korean food.

  • Day330 clubs

    One benefit of associating with a running club is you get a chance to run with them. And it is a place of exchanging ideas and learning of new races.

    I started out running by myself a few years ago. While there is the internet, but a lot that I read or find out usually a bit different from actual.

    In the beginning I was looking for races to run in Virginia. While races are out there, you just need to find them. A lot local races were not reviewed and their event dates usually known only to the “insiders”. There were a lot of surprises.

    So I haphazardly signed up for races. Some were within my expectation and some were a bit different. I liked all my races though. At the beginning I did not even know what I like. I searched for DC races, and somehow I totally missed DC Rock n Roll but found the Potomac River Marathon. They were vastly different from each other. One was 30,000-40,000 runners the other was about 100. I did not know much. I did signed up for both. I was glad I did not have a strong preferences otherwise I would have missed out. For example, when I signed up for the Potomac Marathon, what I was looking for at the time was a big atmosphere race that a Rock-n-Roll gives, which the Potomac Marathon was not. However, now a day, I prefer low key, backyard informal race more like the Potomac Marathon.

    In one of the events I signed up I got connected to an informal meetup running group. I have been running with them ever since.

    Those were the early days of trial and error of meeting people and doing races. I am still doing it for most part.

    Why I am writing all these, is it is easier to do things with a group. I have been running more and more and now dabbling into the ultra and trail running. I want to meet similar people and train together with them.

    Over the weekend, I got a sense of how that feel like. It was a community of ultra runners. The people there were training together for their ultras.

    We don’t have groups like that here in my area. Maybe they do exist but I have not bumped into them yet.

    The race director there formed their group of trail running because they don’t have one. That was a big inspiration for me. I am not going to form one myself though.

    But the energy and inspiration I got from them was blood pumping. What I meant was like my friend – he ran all night at the camp while he was there! Even at 3 AM in the morning, he was still running. That was to me inspiration and motivation.

    I am looking for a small group of 10-20 people like that… locally if possible. PA or WV is not too far away either, so I don’t mind a bit of travel to meet up to do runs.

    Future plans: from the past weekend, I learned of a few races from their group and I want to run those, such as, Eastern States, Black Forest, Hyner Ridge! They called them their triple crown. They are hard races!

    You need serious support group to do those races. It always has been my plan to connect with people and recruit them to be my pacers/support.

  • Day329 running weekend

    After three weeks of staying inside and being inactive, I went to Tyrone, PA and had a weekend of just to run. It was one of my first running camp ever. Unofficial running camp. The RD said most people only run for one day, but my friend and I stayed the whole weekend (I arrived on Saturday night).

    I have been very low key after getting back from Atlanta. First was the self quarantine, but after that was done, I was just low in energy and motivation. I found excuses not to run every day either due to the heat, or not enough time, or rain. Can you believe we had thunderstorm every evening last week? And every day was 100 degree?

    I went to Camp Anderson this Saturday and Sunday. It was a virtual run. They called it run your own race RYOR (like bring your own beverage). The race was organized by the Allegeny Running Club. This was their second year hosting. Unfortunately due to COVID the event has to be virtual.

    We all picked a day to go there and run. Most would pick a weekend. I think there were 30 plus people signed up. With this past weekend being the last weekend of July, a lot more people showed up. We had a night of free camping too.

    It was a tight knit community. My friend is from Morgantown, WV and he was there was there after work on Friday. He brought couple of his people up from West Virginia. He was posting on his facebook page about doing loops at 3 AM. I like running friends like that – just going and run in the middle of the night or at any hours. I was so excited. That is the crazed passion I have and Aaron was one of the first people I met who shares the same craziness like me.

    Our race does not require us to start at a particular time. It was an endurance race. We could do a 3 hour, 6 hour or 12 hour run. It just required us to run the time in a single event. Majority chose to do the 12 hour. My friend did the 12. He started at 11 PM on Friday and ran to 11 AM the next day. He was the only one doing it in the middle of the night. The rest went to sleep. Night time running was hard and I found that out when I arrived on Saturday evening and had my own night time running.

    I arrived late because I was dragging my foot the whole saturday morning. I finally got into my car by noon and it took about 4 hours to get to Pennsylvania but I ran into heavy traffic on my way out of town. I was falling asleep behind the wheel. After couple pit stops for coffee, I arrived at the camp. I started my run at 6 pm, planning to run till midnight.

    Aaron was still there. He joined me on my first loop around the camp because I said I didn’t have the course map. He said, he would guide me for my first loop. That was amazing endurance for him haven’t been sleep for more than a day and has done 12 hour run the previous night and was still out there to do a loop with me. I am telling you it was not easy. The course was not easy either.

    The course is over all was not the most difficult one I have done. It was about two miles long, which is not bad…shortest ultra course ever. The first mile is just running around the field. I know. When I first signed up, my thought was this is like in elementary school where we had to run around the field to do our mile. How can that be fun? Now years later, we consider that is enjoyable given there are 10-15 people cheering you each time you pass by.

    The second mile is climbing a ridge. It is not the highest ridge I ever climbed. It is just couple hundred feet. The first few times, you can run it but as the night progressed, running became walking/crawling. The elevation wears your muscle out. I am all sore after two days of doing this.

    By the 7th loop, I said to myself I don’t think I can do any more. The heat got to me. I was running much faster than I thought. I pushed on doing the 8th loop. When I reached the top of the climb I felt light headed. And after taking several steps, I felt naseated and I started throwing up. Everything came pouring out. That was the end of the night for me. I felt better actually now but I felt it was wise to call it a night. I only finished 4 hours.

    I stayed for the night. The next morning I felt better. More people came. We started early. I tried again to run my 6 hours. I did it this second time with no problem. After four laps, I was basically crawling. My goal was only to do eight. I was much weaken because I did not eat the night before. I know too not having run for three weeks, my cardio strength has declined. I did pull 10 laps by the 6th hour and finished before the heat of the day kicked in. My last lap did not count because I came in after the 6th hour but I am happy nonetheless. It was hard with the heat and climb.

    Mileage wise it was not a lot. 20 miles in 6 hours? Normally that is a time for a marathon or a 50k. I take the 20 mile this time.

    I stayed for the rest of the day to watched people struggled their remaining 12 hours. The final field was only four people. One was struggling quite badly at the final two hours. The day was hot. I passed by a bank on my way home, the temperature showing there was 99 degree, and at that time it was past 6 pm. The temperature must be over 100 during the afternoon. I think one runner was suffering from heat exhausion (like I did the night before).

    It was a wonderful weekend for me. Camping, running, meeting new people. I felt it was one amazing weekend.