In awe

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  • Day377 scribbles

    Nothing got to do with most of you unless you will be running the seneca run with me next weekend and at my starting wave. There are 20 people in my wave, so it is possible you are one of them. Sad that I am seeded to start at the last three waves. I spoke with a lady who will be starting at the the top three (each wave is 5 mins apart). She commented that I start at the traditional time whereas she will be start at an hour early. She meant I could sleep in. I said I rather have that extra hour because I think I will need all 14 hours assuming the course closes at 7 pm. I looked at last year finishes and there were a bunch finishing over 13 hours. This year we are only given 13 hours due to permit requirements. I am afraid that I will be part of the Did-not-finish group.

    Any way, I have looked at the cutoffs at various Aid stations over the week and kind of stumped by the time because the math seems too hard. I used to be good with numbers but now I just don’t want to think about them.

    I waited to this morning and sat down with a pen and paper and calculated various paces required to reach each station. Now I can say I got it. At least the calculation part.

    Here goes:

    The race is about 50 miles. 50.6 I found somewhere posted it as. Usually a race is longer than the posted miles especially with trail racing/running. You go up and down and gps tracker is not good as tracking the vertical miles. Think of a triangle and you are running up the slope, the gps watch track only the base (straight line) instead the slope. The slope (hypotenuse in trig) is slightly longer. I think most of our climbs is 1% grade so won’t be much different, still it is a bit longer. Plus trail meander left and right and you gain extra miles that often time the course only is measured as a straight line and not the zig-zags. I expect maybe the race might end up being 52-53 miles. I won’t know until I run it. Luckily none of previous reports said anything about the course being long. So that is good. Sometimes trail runners don’t complained about long course as marathon runners often do. So I read them with a grain of salt. However, I think because the course is in urban area and the race director likely measured the course like a road marathon, I think we get very close to 50 miles. I kind of see that with all the .1 mile to such and such aid station.

    It’s 50 miles and we have 13 hours. The math to make things easier are calculated by mins. It means I have 780 mins. My start time is 5:50. I have until 6:50 pm to finish. My required pace is 15:25 mm:ss. This depends if the course is measured exactly. If the course is 52 miles, then my required pace is exactly 15 mins mile. I will try to run at that pace. I kind know most long dist races have 4 mi and hour pace.

    1. The first aid station cutoff at Pennyfield is 12:30, which is at mile 24. This time is very liberal. However, if I run at the course minimun pace, I need to reach and be out of there by 12:00 noon to be safe. Of course the earlier the better.

    2. The next cutoff is at Stone Mill at 1:25 pm, which is at mile 27. I calculate I need to reach this and be out of it by 12:45 pm.

    3. The third cutoff is at Route 28 by 3:10 pm, which is at mile 33.6. I will need to be out of there by 2:25 pm.

    4. The fourth cutoff is at Riffleford Rd by 5:10, which is at mile 41.6. I will need to be out of that aid station by 4:30 pm.

    Sun now sets at 5 pm so it is good any way to reach the last cut off before sunset. Scary to have sweepers right behind you. ( I volunteered at one of their previous races, man, couple runners did not respect the cut off time! I was part of the sweeper team. A runner came into the station 45-50 mins late. RD didn’t DQ him. Of course the runner wanted to continue. My head sweeper did not want to pull the last guy off the course. I was both motivated by runner not willing to give up yet frustrated at the same time. The guy was holding all voluneers hostage to keep the course open for him)

    As you may have noticed, the Aid Station cutoff times are far too generous. It is about 30-40 mins later than the required pace to reach them. Unless the runner has a final burst in the end (some do – negative split pacing), it is deceptive to use the Aid Station cut off as my minimal pace. However, for those who can’t keep the minimal pace, it is good that they will stay open 30-40 late to scoop up the late runners!

    I use to be able to calculate this stuff in my head while in the middle of the run. But for longer runs, it gets too hard to keep all the numbers in my head and so I have write them down now.

    …I need now to create a pace band to wear on my wrist on race day.

  • Day376 small run

    I had one of the best runs last night. It was just 10k. Just nice distance. I ran too many long miles and those were slugfest. I like short and fast runs.

    It felt fast to me though the time showed otherwise. I felt I ran the fastest ever. Zoom Zoom. Due to corona virus, there have not been any 5K or 10K in the area. I use 5K and 10K as a stress test, that is, to run my heart out. For some reason, I could not run fast if I feel it is a ‘training’ run.

    Normally last couple weeks, I did not have the motivation to do night runs. Either I was hungry, tired, sleepy, cold, or just wanted to watch youtube videos. I was slacking. The fear of lack of training for my race could not move me out of the door.

    Yet last night, I faced with all the same situation. I was cold after leaving work. I was wearing three or 4 layers and was still cold. I had not eaten dinner. The sun has set (we turned our clock back so now it gets dark after ,5:30). Funny story, I think the construction people in the area forgot about the early darkness, they were still doing road work in the dark! I thought that was funny! Oops.

    Any way, we had the coldest night so far. I made up my night to suit up and stepped out. I did a loop around my house. Did not feel like I was doing it. Feet did not want to run. However, my body started to warm up. So I stopped at my house and delayered. I dropped my two jackets. Took off my long sleeves and only have a tee on. I wrapped a glow jacket around me and headed out the second time.

    The cold evening air felt alive! I loved it. I stretched my legs and ran. It was cold but alive at the same time. Originally I wanted only to do 3 miles but it was not enough. Halfway through, I decided to stay out a bit longer.

    People at a church gave me a chill for a different reason. I did not expect anybody therrle but then cars started pulling in. They had an evening prayer virgil for the election today. The place was dark and it was just spooky as I ran across it. I felt better once I made the connection that they had a special prayer night. My church also sent out similar announcement – to pray for our nation (I think mostly so that Prez Trump would win). There though kind of panic in our area of fear of rioting. Stores in DC were boarded up. Though Virginia is calm.

    I turned around and ran back home.

    Why I wrote about the run? I had a thought this morning while in the shower. (Oh my the way, I was freezing once I got back in the house. I had to put back on 4 layers of clothes and were shaking in my bed.) My thought was our life consists of tiny events like a run here and there. It is like those tiny gears in a mechanical watch. The tiny gears drive the bigger gears, and those drive even larger gears so forth.

    I have been only blogged about ‘big events’ relating to my runs but forgot about the smaller yet boring daily runs. Maybe because I felt they were not as important.

    I actually have something I wanted to write but did not get a chance. On Sunday, I got my act together and went out to the Seneca Trail to preview the course (part of it) for my race.

    I glad I went because I spent about three hours looking for that one turn off that looked weird on the map. I traveled about 8 miles back and forth at that particular point searching it. Some people pointed me here and there. I actually got in my car and ‘case’ the neighborhood to find where the trail ends. Glad no one called the cops on me. Eventually I found something I thought that would be it and decided to go home. I ran into a local trail runner and I popped the question if she knew where the course turns. She said yes, she will be running in the race two and she knew exactly where I was talking about. She said she volunteered at that turn in a previous years and noted some people missed the turn. She offerred to lead me there. I went with her and indeed, it was sneaky because it was not a path and unmarked in any maps. The whole point of this narative is I felt a bit relieved, I resolved one suspicious turn for my race!

    I might write why this is important in another blog post about the seneca run.

    OK that is all today. Outtake: I am looking forward to a big race so I can write about. Sometimes though a small nightly run is a gem.

  • Day375 Signal Knob

    update: A bit worn out from the hike and run yesterday at Signal knob. Not sure if I will run today. Bye bye seneca. I will just have to risk it on race day without checking out where the trail goes at certain spots. (I read Benrunsonbeer’s report on his race and it got me worry. I am experiencing about the same thing)

    I expected a cold morning yesterday with the temperature fell to mid to high 30s for the first time in our area this Fall. There were ice forming on my windshield.

    I was slow in getting myself ready in the morning. I had a breakfast and tossed a bunch of food into my lunch bag. Got a bunch of clothes too, by the time I left the house it was 8 o clock. The drive took an hour and I set the wrong location to the trailhead without realizing until I showed up at the wrong place. I realized when I pulled into skyline drive, that this was not it. I had to reset the GPS to the real place and so got to the trail by 9-ish. Originally I wanted to be out there around 7-ish am to do one loop first before the kids arrived.

    Kids! They were my sister’s and family. We were going to do the day hike together and in the afternoon I would run some more. They showed up at 10.

    I ran there last year. It was challenging but not as bad as Wild Oak. The loop is shorter between 9-11 miles depending on the trails you take. You have a choice. The elevation gain is maybe 1000-1500. Oh, it is 2200 ft. But Wild Oak is twice to three times as that. still a loop at signal knob took me about 4 hours. I am slow. My goal is to run it in 2 hours.

    As a matter of fact, we came across a guy four times on the trail. He was there when I started and he finished at 4 pm while I was just about to start my second loop. Amazing. He was going very strong when he passed me on his final loop! 36 miles in what 7 hours? Crazy! Did he even stop for lunch? If only I could run like him 🙂 It was a training run for him because the way he was hitting the strides, he was not straining or putting in sweat, while I was like a wheel has fallen off.

    I got my run in though. The last lap for me was iffy. The time was four pm and I was unsure whether to start the second loop because sunset is around 6:30 and I don’t want to be on the mountain after dark. I experienced that a few weeks ago. Nope not going to repeat that trying to descend from the mountain with a tiny candlelight flashlight.

    I did start hoping I could finish it in about 2 hours. So I went for it. Then came the hill climbs. My feet were jack. I couldn’t run uphill. Yes I need to work more on the hill climb. I literally hiked up the mountain. I ended up getting caught in darkness.

    My hope was to chase the kids as they literally were doing 40-45 mins a mile. They had about 6 miles to go when I left them. I was hoping by running I would caught up to them. Nope, I took the wrong turn and ended up doing the longer loop of 11 miles instead of the 9 miles. I arrived at the separation point at about 5:20. We were there having lunch at 2 pm when I said I would run and hope to catch up on my 2nd lap. I know I was 3 hours and 20 mins behind them and they had only 6 miles to go. I was hoping they would slow down to 1 mile an hour. I have about 1 hr ish to catch up. They texted me later that they finished. I thought so too that they should be finishing around 6:30. I knew I had an hour left and 6 miles to go. If it was on flat ground I could run 6 miles in an hour, but we were on the mountain here. Looking at the stat now, I was moving 3 mi an hour – yes very slow!

    I got their message that they arrived back at the car around 7 o’clock with me having a mile-ish left, maybe 1.5 miles. It was good though because once I got their text message, I relaxed. No longer was I chasing them. I took a water break, got my gu gel in me, to restore my energy. They called this a reset – to reset your heart rate. The sun had completely set by then.

    I could still make out a bit of the faint outline of the trail using my god given spider sense. Then I told myself let not break a leg and need to turn on the flash light. Flash light actually made it worse because now my night vision ability was gone. The faint outline of the trail was completely gone. The flashlight did not help in seeing the trail. I felt more blind with the light on than without the light, but it was too late to turn off the light now, a little light is better than none. All I could see is the immediate steps in front of my shoes! You don’t run by looking at your feet! You have to gaze ahead. Basically that was the end of running for me. I hiked the rest of the way out.

    I had a flashlight on me but it was hard to see the trail. I went by feel and trusted my feet would find the path. The last two miles were in darkness. The final mile was iffy because I was not sure if I was on the trail or some other terrain (it felt like I was on a dry river bed). I could not see the blazes at all. There was that fear I might be lost in the forest with half a mile to go! I finished around 7:15 pm. The kids left me their birthday cakes (It was one of them birthday). They said so long by messaging and was long gone when I arrived at the parking lot. I hopped in my truck and out of there.

    The reason that it was kind of scary was I was wearing a tee and shorts and temperature would drop to freezing point in the night. So I didn’t want to be stuck out there. I have layers put away in my hiker pack but still, the thought of spending night out in the woods is no fun.

    So that was my exciting adventure of the week. (voting too could be up there as the most exciting thing for my week, but I don’t write about that. I did the early in-person voting the past Wednesday. Running in the dark though, you can’t beat that)

  • Day374 Happy Halloween

    Need to prepare for my seneca run with only two more weeks left.

    This week has not been great with training. 0 mile run.

    I was really lazy. After work each day, by the time I ate I did not want to head outdoor. Each day was the same.

    Hope to get some miles in today. I need actual course experience. A couple places on the course is having me worry. I read from previous reports of people getting lost. So I am thinking to head out there tomorrow. Why not today? I already had something going – hiking/running signal knob.

    The race is stressing me out. I might need a new headlamp. Not sure where mine is at. I hate it when I misplace things. This is not like me. Hate it when I have to replace things.

    I have been buying stuffs for the race. I got tape to tape up blisters. I got wipes. Needles. I got a new watch. I might need better socks. Compression socks. Need shoes too though not for the race…but after the race, I need a good pair. I need a real trail shoes.

    I really didn’t have any content to post, so just getting this out. I feel each day blends into the next and a month is gone. Nothing special. Happy Halloween Guys! Scary.

  • Day373 seneca run

    I was training for Seneca 50 Mile run over the weekend. The good news is it will take place. The race organizer won the appeal and gathered all tge necessary permits.

    I signed up last month when they posted they got the permission from a local school to stage their start and finish line on site.

    It is kind of a late signup. Nornmally this race sold out quickly once announced. I was lucky maybe due to COVID uncertainty that throughout the summer the race was only accepting entries as wait-list only, meaning those who signed up are not charged until the race is definitely is going to be held. Not too many people jump on the wait-listed registration. Neither did I.

    Remember I signed up their sister race in the spring and ran it the week COVID broke out in our area. At the time, we were on edge whether the race would be canceled. things were going downhill the whole week leading up to the race. But we held it and ran it. I don’t remember if there was any COVID mitigation plan at all. Did I even wear a mask?

    With COVID dominating the news cycle running an in person race was pretty low on the list.

    Then now, we kind of think we got this. We have this and that races started up again. I did the Gettysburg Marathon in PA. Seneca will be the first one here in the Washington DC area.

    They say all the eyes will be on them to do this properly.

    So yeah, I was excited when I felt we can do it.

    We all joked around on the race Facebook page, that now we start to train for the race with about two weeks remaining before the race after hearing the news that the race will be on!

    Me too. It finally sinks in of how am I going to run 50 miles. Given I have done it once and did it in 11.5 hours, this race should be easy right? But last year, I specifically was training to run it. This time around, I don’t have the confident. I have not been training that hard.

    Over the summer I was running in Atlanta, all the paces I was calculating were off. My point is I don’t think I am that tough guy as last year. My pace sucks. If given enough time I could run 50 miles, but to run at a certain pace and finish by a certain time, I don’t think I can do it.

    The race limits us to 13 hours. That seems plenty right? I checked previous year results. Some people took over 14 hours. I think there will be a lot who will not able to finish this year. 13 hours is tight for me. I have to run a perfect race, in my opinion. I hope to reach half way by 6 hours and use 7 hours for the last half. Of course if I could do it faster the better. There is no way I will get to mile 50 in 5 hours.

    So last weekend both Saturday and Sunday I headed out on the race trail. It was good the race is local and I could use the trail as much as I want. It is kind of late to train, but any little bit helps. Saturday, I did 13 miles. It was hard. My body refused to run fast.

    On Sunday, I did about 14 miles on a different segment. This was even harder because I kept getting lost. (Those who has access to my public Strava data can see I was walking back and forth trying to find the right trail. It was a good experience though. I rather getting lost in the practice than on the race day. I remember how painful that was getting lost in Atlanta, while my clock was ticking down. I don’t want a repeat here.

    Why? even though it is a local trail, I have not been on it. It is in the Maryland side. As I mentioned before, we Virginian have very little association with the Marylanders. They are like a foreign country to us. Every time I go to Maryland, I get lost (exaggerating a bit), but normally, we stay out of Maryland.

    I plan to go back out this weekend. There is one or two places I am not sure about. I checked the race course on Strava, and it looked fishy because the course shows it was going over people’s houses and backyards. I need boots on the ground to confirm.

  • Day372 – race schedule

    Keeping with tradition, here are some races planned for next year. Most of them will be either a redo / or races that were deferred from this year.

    For the rest of this year, there are possible one or two races left.

    Some are fatass races or virtual races. I orginally signed up for Richmond Marathon, but then deferred to next year. Now my friend wants to go do it. This is a strange race. It is a virtual race but on a actual course. My friend wants to use the course because they have mile markers and water point specifically set up for the Richmond Marathon (plus real tracking/timing). However, my friend is just borrowing the course (since it is open for public) to do his MCM 50K marathon. I also signed up MCM 50K, but deferred it to next year as well. Here is the weird part, because my friend shown interest in traveling down to Richmond for his “virtual marathon”, I am thinking of heading down there too to run even though both of races (Richmond and MCM) were deferred!

    Why is life so complicated?

    11/7 – Possible virtual race in Richmond. More like cheering for a friend

    11/14 – Stone Mill 50 miler.

    12/5 – Devil Dog (lite) 50K

    Due to COVID-19 restrictions still in effect the two real in-person races are iffy but I signed up on both of them. Stone Mill was original on track, but now there is permit a snag and we are still waiting for word if the race is a go. I am kind of disappointed even though I have been through so many of these cancelations this year.

    Fingers crossed. Next year is no different. COVID-19 is here for the long haul, so everything is still day-to-day and week-to-week.

    Dec. Rocky Fatass Philadephia run. Not likely. The “run” is officially canceled on its website, but still it is a fatass and any one can show up and do it on your own. I was kind of enthusiastic about this earlier, but now kind of eh, it is too much work. We will see.

    —–

    For 2021:

    (Jan) (doubtful) Cold TWOT is in January/February, one of those holidays (President Day/Martin Luther). This is another Fatass type of race. I didn’t sign up but I might show up and run a loop or two…

    Feb. 6-7 – (reg’d) Rocky Raccoon 100. This is currently the race I am training for. But with COVID still raging, no one know if I can travel to Houston-Texas for it. It is just a pain in the rear dealing with what-ifs.

    –(Mar. 3): (Considering) One City Marathon, Newport News, Va (Feb/Mar). Originally a goal to run this, but there is zero sign if the race will be held. There is currently no sign-up being available. We might not know until next year.

    -(April 17) (considering) Blue Ridge Marathon, double marathon maybe. Just maybe! I was supposed to run it this year, then I changed it to Virtual. So still kind of want to do it. Might have to defer it to 2022.

    (May – 1st-2nd. ) (rescheduled/deferred) Grayson Highlands 50 Miler. 50% disc of $160. I registered and deferred to 2021. This race is a go. I will start training after Rocky Raccoon.

    (Jun 2nd weekend) (deferred) Laurel Highlands 70.5 miles Ultra. Goal race! fingers-crossed. need to confirm the race date. This is a go too. I just reconfirmed I will attend this race. This was my goal race for 2020 but deferred to 2021 (Organizer did go ahead and held the race in 2020, so we are expected the same thing for 2021 – a very hard race)

    July 4 Atlanta 100 mile race (virtual) (considering). Yup, Been trying this twice this year unsuccessfully, so really want to try it again.

    (Jul 11) (considering) Catoctin Ultra (50k). reg opens on Jan 1 to Jun 1. Hot race to run. Was a race I signed up but did not do because I was just returning from Atlanta and was still under 2-week quarantine period. So maybe will do it in 2021.

    (Sep 5) (considering/not reg) Iron Mnt Ultra 50 – IMTR, labor day weekend. highly likely. Don’t miss reg Jun 1. It was canceled this year. It has been on my list since 2019. I already think I have a lot of races on my plate so this might be deferred to 2022.

    (Sep 25) (considering) Pemberton 24x5K, Friday 7:00 pm – Sat 7:00pm. Reg open on April 28. I missed the registration opening in 2020, so aiming to do it 2021.

    (Sep) (likely for 2021) Yeti 100. Abingdon, VA. fast, flat, race around 9/25/20. Really don’t know.

    (Oct 4) (considering) Maine Marathon. Portland, ME. to replace the canceled May Marathon. Just Maybe.

    (Oct 25) (deferred to 2021) MCM 50K, again! 6 hr is course limit. Need to re-reg in April. Yup, I deferred the race to 2021 so got to run and have it done!

    (Nov 14) (Reg’d; deferred to 2021) Richmond Marathon. Also a deferred race. So likely going to run.

    Nov 21 – JFK 50 miler. Possible. Or Stone Mill.

    (Nov 22) (Considering) Philly Marathon. Already a full plate but this is a possibility.

    -Dec: Rocky 50 http://www.rocky50k.com/, been on the list year to year since 2019

    (Dec) (Considering) Devil Dog 100, Triangle, VA. Ah the real Devil Dog. Debating between Yeti or this.

    That is it! My eyes are bigger than my stomach. I won’t run all of them, but hopefully many of them. COVID-19 restrictions and various other complications make a lot of races being uncertain either from the race organizer’s point of view or me as a runner (like the decision to go to Texas or Georgia). It will be a hard decision to make with each race. Also even without COVID-19 just the training and recovery is hard to have all of them done.

    So there! I hope to run the Rocky Raccoon, Laurel Highlands and Grayson’s Highlands. The rest eh, we take it as they come.

  • Day371 – 2nd anniversary

    It should be my 2nd anniversary here on WordPress or the first day into my 3rd year of blogging. No special fan service today…other than Thank you fans always for your continue supports!

    I remembered in the early days it used to a delight every night as I finished my run and I rushed on here to post how great that run was and usually talked about this and that of what I discovered during the run.

    As my runs have been longer and longer recently, I don’t write so much about them any more. It is like oh another 5K, what to write about that.

    No, I still think short runs are exciting. I have not done enough of those. Couple weeks ago, I finished a short run. I think I went out to do a three mile that night. Details now escape me, but at the time I was so excited. So that was how it use to be like I told myself. I was going to write a blog entry about it. I think I fell asleep not long after and the entry never made it out the press. I forgot now why I was so excited after that run that I was dying to share. Only thing was it was a great run.

    These few days I have been reading on how to improve on my runs. I want to run fast. An article in the Runner World peaked my interest. It mentioned about form. You have to run more efficiently to run fast. A way to do that is build strength and also train your mobility (involve stretching). I hate doing either of them.

    I see that is one of my weaknesses. I don’t pay too much attention to strength training and much less on stretching to improve my balance and mobility (range of motion).

    When you look at fast runners, their strides are incredible! They are flying through the air. My strides compare to them are just baby tiny steps.

    I have been doing more running on trails and I notice I wish I have better footwork. There are certain positions I can’t do well. Some steps are too far out of reach. There were a few times I almost fell. Mobility training will definitely improve my trail running.

    I am kind of losing my focus this year. If you read the previous year anniversary, I was bubbling with excitement because I was on the verge of running the MCM 50K and I was just off the mountain the night of, which was kind of my first trail run.

    Nothing crazy for this year anniversary. I did not go to the mountain over the weekend. The race I thought I am about to run, got one of their permits denied. Race won’t happen unless they have all the permits approved. Who knew there are so many of them. We thought having the Covid permit approved was the hardest thing and rest would be easy. We held our collective breath for that one. What frustrating is our race will be mostly done in the park. I think we got the park permit approved, but we got hung up on the road permit. We do have a short section being on roads and a few road crossings, so it is not that we can ignore that. The county denied our permit for the road portion. The whole race is up in the air at the moment. The race director is trying to appeal the county’s decision. I don’t know what to think. The race date is so close already and now this.

    I know with Covid many races got canceled. We have come to expect no racing for the forseeable future. However, things were improving in our area and we got our Covid plan approved and it looked likely a race would be possible, but now this. It is like don’t get our hope up and then got dash by it.

    Why all this mumbo jumbo I am writing? I hope next year will be better. I wish I have the exuberance like I did before. This is the third year, right? It should be better than the year before.

    There are many different things I could write…I have a list of races I did for this year and a list of races I am ready to do for the next year. Don’t worry I will post it some day soon. I want to show, even with a crazy year, we got things done. That though is not what I am feeling at the moment. We are baking something but we are not there yet…not sure how it will turn out, since I am kind of doubting anything good will happen. A little pessimistic won’t you say?

    I know there is always next year. How about that for 2nd anniversary?

  • Day370

    I didn’t go camping. Instead I had a lazy saturday.

    I injured my foot last weekend while running. I didn’t notice anything wrong at the time, but it probably was from over straining my right foot. You know the whole body hurts after running the marathon and my right foot was hurting. I didn’t pay much attention to it but through out the week, the top of my right foot continued to hurt. I stopped running by Wednesday to let it recover. By today, it still hurts.

    I googled on foot pain. They had several reasons. I am scared of having foot fractured. They said it would take 4-6 weeks to recover. It means no running.

    I can’t be sure unless I go see a doctor. They said even with the x-ray it might not show up. Only advice is to rest and use ice/heating pad. I don’t know. I massaged it every day and night. I hope it will be better soon.

    So because my foot is bad, I was thinking to go camping to rest a bit from running. That though probably not a good idea either since I usually carry a heavy pack on me when I backpack.

    In the end I didn’t go. It was not for my foot but because I was too slow in getting my things together on Friday night.

    By noon on Saturday, I was still only partially packed, I decided to abandoned the trip but to go to a park to run instead. In a couple weeks I will be running a 50 mile race. I signed up on a spurt moment early October. There is finally a race being approved in my area. So I signed up. I have very little training for it. It finally sank in now I need to train.

    So I went to Seneca Park – well not exactly there but an area south of it. My race will be the whole thing at the park and the surrounding region. I did a race there this spring and already know part of the trail. So today I went to explore the part I have not been to. The trail is called Muddy Branch, but luckily our fall is quite dry and I did not get muddy.

    I did a six miles out and then back. Ended up with 13.1. I reached 13 miles when I got back to the car, but I wanted the extra .1 to say I did a half marathon today for a training run.

    That’s all. Originally, I wanted to do my birthday run too, which means a lot of miles because I am now into my 4th decade. I backed out of that. I would not want to be out running the whole day. A short few hours of running was enough.

  • Day369 Life

    I have been blogging on and off since 2018. I probably have been repeating myself about my running and stuffs.

    Not sure how many users/readers are out there reading my posts. I admit none of my writing are creative works unlike many other writters on here (wp).

    Existentialist question: what is the purpose of all this? I write because for myself because it feels good. If there is someone reading it, good. I am happy about that. If none, it does not bother me. They say, write for your readers. Nope. Not me.

    Over the summer, due to Covid-19, and I was mostly quarantining at home, and I watched a lot of Ytube videos. That is the new platform compare to blogging. People who want clout and monetize the media should go into video making. You get ton of fans. We are talking about audience in millions. vblog at one point was pretty popular. Now it is all about VOD – video on demand, something I just learned. People record livestream, and saved it to be “reboardcast” for the rest who want to watch it at a later time, but also want the livestream experience, you get VOD. You do it for the crowd.

    Back on topic, blogging, the way I do it…ya is for audience of one.

    Have I lost everyone now? Writing used to be expensive (time/printing/distribution), but with online platform, cost is low, very low. So I am basically writing everything and anything. The cost is usually now bear by the readers in term of time. Time is expensive. Videos I think is a better platform people can endlessly watch dozen of videos than to have the time to read a blog entry. I don’t mind the crowd moving to videos.

    So what’s up. I took my truck in for a maintenance today. Nothing is wrong just that it will reach 100000 miles soon maybe in a week or so. I wanted that peace of mind, to have the half-life maintenance done. Yup. My truck required the big job done like timing belt replacement (actually I just checked the maintenance schedule, TB is required at 105000, so I was a few months ahead of schedule). I know this. I got the parts and watched endless numbers of Ytube videos on how to replace the timing belt since March.

    In the end, I decided to take it to the mechanics to have it done by them. It was probably a good decision because nothing I open up ever come back together in one piece. They did everything, hopefully well. This was a new mechanic. My normal guy went bankrupt during Covid, and don’t know where he went. So this was just a random guy I passed at a gas station. He look honest to me and the charge was around what I was willing to pay. I don’t know the market price (I know it takes about 6 hours). Any way the guy finished the job. There is no way I can inspect it if it done properly unless I was there watching him work or I take my car apart. It takes some trust that he did what I wanted him to do. I asked him to replace the spark plugs too though that wasn’t due till 120000. The car turned on and I drove it away. If the guy didn’t replace it, there was no way for me to know. I asked him to replace all other stuffs too, water pump, tensioner, pulley. I gave him a new serpentine belt too so he can cut the old one. But I didn’t know about the serpentine belt tensioner and related pulley, so those were not done. Some people say those should be replaced too, but they were not as hard as replacing the timing belt.

    The engine sounds the same to me after the work. Maybe a bit quieter but this might be just my feeling. It is one of those things it is impossible to tell if any work has been done. Unless the belt broke not long after. Oh I pray not.

    Out of curiousity I started googling known problems with my model. The bad news is I probably should replace the radiator soon because it tends to break down without warning and will mix the fluid with the transmission fluid and damage that, which will cause tons of money to replace. Online people were saying to spend 200 dollars now to avoid needing to spend 5000 or more later.

    I hope it will last me another 100000 miles. My previous truck was near 300000 miles before I let it go, so I have high expectation for this truck. I like a machine that just works.

    I have been following the maintenance schedule. So fingers crossed.

    I have no plan for this weekend. I am thinking of going to Cole/Cold Mountain. It will be a solo camping trip. I am a bit scared about solo camping. But then, if I have time, I should go because I don’t know when else I will have the chance to do it. My hiking buddy has been doing it with her friends or by herself…so not likely, I get to do it with her by year end. It is not fair right…she gets to lead one but I don’t get to have my trip. Any way, since Covid, I have not done any camping with her. That’s fine. Just an observation, not a complaint. I just feel so much safer when I did it with her. I think though she wants me to have my own experience…so I don’t have to rely on her.

  • Day368 commute

    Hope this will be a short post because I am kind of out of time. I’m on the metro after almost 6 months, where I normally do most of my writing. But today will only be one stop because my work has moved much closer to home.

    I still rant about the traffic. It took me 1 and half hour to get home last night with maybe half hour at my own local community.

    Oh I arrived.