In awe

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  • Day317 Second take

    I already made plan to try again at the end of August to run the same 100 miles again. After looking at what went wrong, I think I can get over the huddles. August can’t be hotter than now.

    Any way, once the time comes I will prepare better.

    Going to sleep on it for now. Hotel and flights are cheaper now than when I got them before. Maybe because of the coronavirus has become more severe, or maybe this time I am booking farther in advance.

    Body-wise, A bit sore all over. It was not as bad as my first half marathon/marathon. I remember back then, I couldn’t walk after finishing. I feel it when go up and down the stairs. I haven’t felt like this for a long time. And kind of happy about it – like old friend! Seriously, last time I was like this…I can’t recall, maybe two years ago in Delaware.

    I studied the strava/garmin data. I did slow down a lot. It was a downward trend. Yes, was a very bad news. In my mind, I thought I was staying steady, but data is showing otherwise.

    Going share some pictures of the run.

    Some memorable moments: poor man dinner/breakfast (chips), can’t see anything at night, even eternal water couldn’t quench the thirst (gosh I paid extra too), all the stuffs I lugged around on the run. And finally the poorman way of lamination the turnsheet.

  • Day316 100 mile review

    There were a lot of things went well and I also made a lot of newbie mistakes. In the end I did not finish. The 100 mile run is not easy.

    They say running a 100 miles is to overcome issues that crop up along the way. To finish you have to overcome those. Some can be anticipated ahead of time, but some only pop up as you run. I found you can’t prepare for every contigency.

    What went well for me? The start time was better than expected. It was one of big concern – because I couldn’t start too early or too late since I have to make it to Stone Mountain during time when it is open (from 10-8). Also I would have to pay attention to the finish time, you don’t want to finish too late, or else can’t find a ride home. It is best to finish during day time. I chose to start at 7 pm on Friday night. It was hot. But actually that time, already became cooler. Most of the run, I had some cloud covering. It could have been hotter still. The first few miles, I had some sprinkling of rain. Luckily no thunderstorm, though it was forecasted. I am so thankful, because there is no way for me to get up on the Stone Mountain when wet (it is very slipery).

    It was really really hot. Even after sun down as I ran throughout the night I was sweating crazy. My body kind of adjusted the next day but was not enough. I knew I was dehydrated because I couldn’t pee. I tried to drink as much as possible and was water logged. I was glad there were gas stations that were open. They were on the way. Some though were not open. I had tough time finding any that were open at 3 am in the morning (They say they were open but door was locked – it could be the employee was sleeping in the back).

    The route was nicely planned. I went through the safest part of Atlanta during the night. The run started on Kennesaw mountain. It was way out of Atlanta, and costed me an arm and leg to go out there. People at Marietta, the town just nearest to the mountain, were very friendly and they live up to my expectation of southern charm. I come from DC area, no one in DC would give you a second look or say hi or smile, that is the culture in the DC area – and it is normal. But here in the suburb of Atlanta, people are quite charming.

    So I made my way throughout the night in the Atlanta Suburb. I arrived at downtown Atlanta in the morning. Oh by the way, some neighborhood in Atlanta is 24-7, people were still standing outside at 4am in the morning. Not good people I know. Luckily they didn’t bother me. By the look, I think they were pimps and prostitutes. I don’t remember the name of the locale, but the bar/or whatever it is, Babylon was interesting. I never met any real hookers in real life, and so it was sort of an eye opener for me. Well they didn’t bother me and I passed by.

    Inner Atlanta was ya, unexpected and also expected. It was around 6 ish, when I arrived. I passed by a very poor neighborhood. It was definitely scary. I lived in poor neighborhood when I grew up, but it couldn’t prepare me for this. The people didn’t bother me; it was just a different feel. They are people of color. That is a mark of Atlanta, a huge population of African American.

    I came across many different parts. Saw wall paintings. You can say they are part of the culture or part of a dysfunction society. I have seen more black people in Atlanta than my whole entire life, so was kind of an experience. I came across a small BLM protest on my run, (Black Lives Matter) organized by mostly by white people, you can tell to see who marched in it, while I was sitting by the side of the road outside the gas station/convenience store with couple back people around — and it was almost a joke or insult. You have a serious economic inequality here and all the social programs of the past half century didn’t make a dent and people parading around saying BLM. It is a bigger issue – I have visited Indian reservation (Navajo), and pouring money and food assistance didn’t get people out of proverty but instead highlight something seriously wrong with our nation.

    People open your eyes to see the condition of black people. I know BLM is about anti police violence on black people…but look at the bigger picture. I came across several police officers and they are white. I also saw an older black man asking direction from a police … my heart skipped a beat and I think the black gentlemen too (long story: we were locked in a park at Stone Mountain, they closed the gate early due to the 4th July celebration, and we couldn’t exit the park). However, I didn’t get to interact with many blacks except for one of my uber driver. Racial tension definitely is more pronounce in Atlanta than in DC. Here in DC we are like one happy family.

    An observation, and I read about this too, when a community is poor, there is hardly any ‘good’ grocery store. As I was running, only place I can get food was at a gas station, and their choices were all junk food. I was so used to running in my own neighborhood in Northern Virginia where I have Giant Food, Whole Food, Safeway, Walmart. There are array of good stuffs here in Northern Virginia. Not so in Atlanta. There is no 7 Eleven in Atlanta either. I came across of a lot of Fried chicken places. No wonder we are so rich up north. It it is quite a different feel down in Atlanta. On the side note, I miss asian stores/restaurants — because I couldn’t have Tom Yum soup on the run. High salty soup is very beneficial for long run.

    OK let discuss what didn’t go well. My pack was too heavy. There were many reasons that let me to not finishing the run. But one of the contributors is a heavy pack. I repacked it three or 4 times. In the previous post, I mentioned of taking the larger 18L pack instead of my smaller 6-8L. However before my run start, I swapped back to the smaller pack, and cut out half the stuffs. It was a wise decision, however, it was not enough. The weight though was still heavy. The reason being was I carried the full load of water, close to 3L and food, more on that later, because I didn’t expect any store to be open until day time. The weight issue really kill me. I carried the electronic gear, flashlights, phone, battery charger, wires, stuffs I normally won’t have on me on my usual runs. I also had a first kit, and a lot of food – way too much. More on this later.

    Second, dress. I was debating wearing short sleeves versus long sleeves. I chose long because I wanted to avoid sun burn and I didn’t want to carry sunblock. Sunblock is heavy, even with the travel size. I could have put a dab of cream in a ziplock. Initially I had a bunch of ziplock bags, however, when I packed my suitcase, I tossed them out at the last minute and came to regret that decision. I was over heating the whole time in my long sleeve. It was made with breathable material, however, the heat sapped my strength. About mile 30 in I was done running. I walked until mile 77 ish. However, the chance that I could finish on time was out of my grasp. The race was pretty lenient, because if you run 1/3 of the way and walk 2/3 you can finish within the time limit. I was cutting close.

    Cooling. I didn’t implement active cooling strategy. I should have pour water on me. I should have soaked my towel and cap with water, that would have helped a lot. I did this for other races but forgot to do it on this race until after I already decided to quit. If I implement this earlier during the day, I think I would have gotten farther in the race and might have finished. I was concern of ‘wasting’ the limited water I had.

    Third issue, was food. 100M requires / expends a lot of energy. It was one issue I kind of knew but didn’t pay enough attention. I estimated of expending about 4000-5000 calories. By the time I stopped, I already used 8,000 plus of calories and that was only about 60% into the race. I should have prepared or know I would burn 12,000 of calories. I was vastly undestimated my needs. I understand it was impossible to reload myself that amount of calories within the race time, but my failing was not having any in my body other than fruit juice and other sugary drinks cut into my performance. I believe what killed me was by the 24th hour, I was out of energy. I could still walk but running was impossible. Understand that if I don’t put in energy, my body would start burning the muscles to fuel the expenditure and that was very bad indeed because muscles take a long time to regrow and be redeveloped.

    What about the 2400 calories I packed? Since swithing to a smaller pack, I had to take 1200 calories out. The other 1200, I ate maybe 200 -400. They were granola, and it was very dry. They say, don’t try anything new on race day!! I didn’t take that advice. So I carry those heavy bars on me and did not really eat that much and took them back home. I should have jettisoned them a quarter way in when I felt I am not going to use them so to lighten my load.

    The core of the matter of why I couldn’t finish is I got lost too many times. I can’t blame the turnsheet. There were definitely some errors on there, but some of the parts I caught them in my preparation. I marked them by hand on the print out, however, I didn’t use thst print out. I reprinted a new turnsheet on double side and the new turn sheet didn’t have the marking. I lost about 10-12 miles of keep making the wrong turn. My map was outdated too, and a lot of street names were changed. I wished I had memorized or more familiarized with the route. This was the first time I was running a race using turn sheet and map. I spent maybe 12 hours learning before I came up a system how to do it efficiently. Those first 12 hours were costly. Also I probably was sleep deprived. How I kept missing the turns was I kept zoning out in my run. It was horrible and frustrating. I was so used to running by zoning out because in all my races, there were either someone in front of me or the trail is blazed and those were easy to follow. But this race was like a scavenger hunt. You have to be on your toes. I was not used to it.

    What new way I found? One is to keep your turnsheet and map out at all time! My phone gps died on me on some portion. That was the worse thing that can happen. Also the route on the phone kept disappearing. I had a lot of problem with it. Only by morning, I started to use exclusively a map and turnsheet and I became better at it. What I originally did was I kept my map in my pack, and every so often I would pull it out. It wasted too much time. It required stopping midrun to check the map and turnsheet. So in the end I found a way to fold the map showing only the next few sets of turns. It helped a lot. This is from hiking skill – but I was dumb and didn’t translate the skill learned in hiking to my running.

    Night run was also worse in that I kept getting night blindness. The flash light was too bright. Every time I checked the turnsheet and then looked back up, I was blind. My vision took too long to recover. I did use a red filter lamp, but there were times I forgot and blinded by my own light. Those were reflected light too. I felt next time, I should wear an eye patch on one eye like a prirate!

    What else I didn’t talk about? Flashlight/batteries. My headlamp was dying and I didn’t get batteries for it until at mile 62. By then I had already decided to quit, but I did buy batteries for the headlamp at a gas station 🙂 The whole week leading to this run, I was telling myself to buy batteries. Batteries was one of the concerns and I couldn’t make time to get them before my trip. It was a shot in the foot. During the race, I used a handheld bike light. It was heavy. I did have a very light handheld one, but it lacked batteries. So it was like a consolation at my last pit stop I brought new batteries, though too late.

    My biggest concern going into the race was pain and sleep deprivation. Noted that I didn’t sleep on Thursday, because I was trying to reset my sleep to the morning but wasn’t successful. During the race slept deprivation was not that big a deal. I was full of adrenaline the whole time. I didn’t fall asleep until I was in the uber, heading back to my hotel. However, there were still 40 plus miles, if I tried to finish the 40 miles, I bet sleep derivation would play a big part whether I would finish or not.

    As for pain, I didn’t feel too great a discomfort at mile 77. There were still 40 plus miles so I don’t know if I could have survive the pain. As some people say, the race just only get started at mile 80. The first 80 miles were just warm up. The fun stuff, and I missed that experience.

    The pain I got at mile 77 was chafing. I believed my butt was bleeding from the chafe. I applied vaseline before the run but wasn’t enough. Also my underarms were chafed. I properly could have endured the pain for the next 20-40 miles, but it was definitely no fun. I wish I had kept some vaseline in a ziplock bag so I can reapply halfway in the race.

    Blisters started to form at mile 75. They were not too bad. I took off my shoes. Popped the tiny blister on one of the toes. Put some body glide on my feet. Changed to new socks. I believed it would have last for the next 20-40 miles. This was the first time I do blister care in mid race and I was so proud of myself. The aid kit came in handy! They even have the safety pins for popping blisters! I was so impressed.

    My “planned chaos” really killed my race. In my hubris I was hoping to pull through even with many mistakes I made. It was a series of small mistakes building up and finally I couldn’t handle it any more.

    Conclusion. There were a lot of what-ifs. The race was only about 2/3 in. Who know what other problems the remainder would bring. However, I could have done a lot better in the first 2/3 by carrying lighter stuff, packing better food and eat them, study, really study my run (map and turnsheet), keeping the body cool, wearing better clothes, managing or minimize chafing issues, sleeping better on the day before the race. All these would have made a difference.

  • Day315 race day

    By the time this post is published, I should be near the end of my run, probably 24 hours into it. There will be a proper race report after I get enough sleep – either I finish it or I DNF (not finish) halfway.

    Pretty much the same theme from previous posts. I couldn’t really sleep during the day time. My Hotel is comfortable. It is one of the better inn and I got a very good deal, something close to 50% off, granted no one is traveling at this time…, or you would think. I couldn’t resist not sleeping the night of and ruin my Friday morning :(, ah, got to suffer tonight.

    Atlanta airport is completely different than Dulles (IAD). There are so many people. ATL being one of the busiest airports is no joke. Stores are closed but they have vending machines in the airport! I was thinking earlier where would people going to eat, for those who have to transfer. I can say it was so much more crowded here!

    Weather was OK, not too hot, granted it was 9 pm. There is a chance of rain on Saturday afternoon. I should be OK. Will let you know. I probably passed it or in the middle of it.

    Altanta in what we call a phase 3 so I shouldn’t have problem getting food. However, I am kind of annoyed by Walmart closing early! I thought they are open late, but I think they now close at 8pm. They are still operating under a phase 1 reopening! Well probably a good thing.

    Most of my run will be during night time. The morning stretch will be going toward in the suburb and remote areas.

    Still going to do according to plan. Going to head up the trail around 6-7 in the evening. There is no rush. I have a window from 6-midnight, in order to not rush and catch the flight home after finish. I need to be back at the airport by noon. So I need to finish no later than 10:30 on Sunday. Meaning 2AM is the latest time to start (still within a safe margin), and anything after that is tempting fate and I have been getting a series of bad lucks for this trip of days leading up to it. So the earlier the better, so I could finish at sun down too around that time the following day. The later I start, means the less time to sleep after I’m done and also increase the risk of DNF. Will see if this was a smart move.

    I repacked my pack once arrived at my hotel. I brought a bigger pack 18L in addition to my normal 6-8L. It is big for running. I tossed this in the suitcase at the last minute. It is a day pack for hiking, so running might be a challenge (I did use it to run a few times before). Since I am expecting most places to be closed, I am lugging my own food supplies with me. I tossed in a water filter too just in case I couldn’t get water and will rely on nature to provide. I study the map, there is a few places that open 24 hours, so I am not too concerned. It is a tough to run 100 miles while carry such a pack. I pretty much decided to use this bigger/heavier pack though.

    I have about 2500-2700 calories packed for 34 hours. Not a lot but will be sufficient to pull me through. Most of them are sugary, such as candies, beef jerky, and bars, so not sure if they can starve the hunger. My math might be wrong, in my mind they look more 1000 calories at most.

    I have not calculated how much calories I will be burning, maybe over 30000 and probably closer to 5000-6000. Hopefully I will get some supplements on the way. The choices I had were not ideal since I couldn’t get to Walmart and now is a bit late to do things. I wish I have real food. They got to do and hope there will be real food along the way.

    I brought some food too, to leave behind at the hotel to eat after I finish. I might go to a McDonalds or Wendys once I’m done, unless it is midnight.

    Just when I was about to finish this post, I came across an article of a planned protest at Centennial Olympic Park, which is my finish line. I couldn’t find the time. It will be evening during my finish time (7-9pm ish). Out of all the luck…this is probably the worse. Yesterday, I was even imagining heading into Atlanta with the full fireworks display in front of me as I triumphantly finish my first 100 mile run. Such romanticism. Now I have plan around to avoid the protest. I can’t control the course, but I can control the finishing time. Oh by the way, I just read, no fireworks this year due to covid19. bummer.

    Edit to add: I quitted the race a little over halfway point when I don’t think I could finish. I still got 40 miles to go and about 10 hours to do it, however I was moving at 2 miles an hour. I was hoping the darkness will give me the umph, but it didn’t come. So why suffer for another sleepless night. I will hopefully write a report why. Called an uber, and hour later, I am back at the hotel.

  • Day314 Departure

    Nothing much was done in regard to my to-do list. I packed last night. Basically just dumped everything in the suitcase.

    FedEx was closed and today morning I had to work. I tried to go during lunch but after stopping by my mom’s place for lunch, I ran out of time. There was a company team meeting immediately after lunch and I couldn’t be late. I made one last ditch effort to go to FedEx to have my turn direction laminated, but the line was long and I was cutting close to missing my flight, so I left FedEx without getting the turn sheet laminated.

    The flight was uneventful. Our flight was not full. They seated everyone at every other seat. I originally booked on a seat with someone next to me, but they called me at the gate and reshuffled me to a seat by myself, which was good.

    99% of the shops in the airport was closed. There was no food to buy at all. Suck for those who have lay over. There are some people at the airport. Getting through TSA was a breeze. Hardly anyone. There were maybe three or four people in front of me. Everyone was wearing a mask.

    Funny story. As I got to the TSA officer, she had me pull down my mask and I was confused. Then it dawned on me, she needed to see my face to verify my identity. I had expected them to just know by looking even with a mask on.

    At Atlanta Airport though, some people were not wearing a mask. There was also a guy on our flight, he was sitting two rows behind me refused to wear his. The flight attendent spoke to him couple times and they even brought him a mask after he said he did not have one. Later the guy claimed medical reason for not putting a mask on. To me it was baloney. Any way, they left him alone. I thought they were going to kick him off the plane.

    This was hapened much later, I got to Atlanta and had my mask on as I was looking for a place to eat. Many restaurants close at 9. So Iwad not able to get dinner. There was a McDonalds and Wendy’s but I don’t want fastfood. But one thing I observe the locals and realized no one was wearing a mask! This was inside a store. Absolutely no one. They were standing around chatting. Surprised surprised. The culture is really different from the Northern Virginia and DC area. So I pulled off mine too. When in Rome do as the Romans do. Haha, talk about being safe. I thought I was the only one had this observation, I got online and found other people (a user who stayed at the hotel I was staying last month) made the same observation that no one is wearing mask here during their peak outbreak!

    Everyone was concerned that I am increasing my risk of getting the COVID19. Can’t help when you are in an enclosed space with about 50-70 other people. Plus the trip back. Atlanta/Georgia now has seen an uptick of infection. This will be a wild weekend. I believe Atlanta is in something like phase 3 of the reopening.

    I am kind of scare myself.

    In regarding to the the remaining tasks: – buy batteries for my flash light and gps unit. find a fedEx place to laminate the turn sheet. Get well rested for tomorrow. Review the map again. Find good food place. Enjoy the ride.

    Oh the start time will be 6 pm tomorrow (July 3). Pretty certain now. There is no way to get myself to the start line at 2 or 3 am, which means by very little or no sleep. The safer choice is get as much sleep tomorrow and fuel up.

    On reflection, those who have been following my blogs, this was like a planned chaos. I was frantically getting my things together and it was a wild ride. Those around me (family, and coworkers and maybe you online readers) are frantic too because they want me to succeed. Some people are really good at getting their life together, and it is like a rocket launch in executing a perfect launch sequence – with no error, and everything is completed on the dot. Not me, it was and bouncy up and down at near missed. I do plan, but only rely on it 30-40%. At least I am in Atlanta now. That is the most important thing, forward movement. Hopefully the run will also be a success and I will be back home in a couple days.

    Edit to add – Real time: Race has started 4 hours ago, going mich slower than anticipated. 15 miles in. Usually I should be at 20 miles now

  • Day313 – last minute

    Nothing much was done today. All that I planned didn’t come into fruition. I’m racing against the clock on many fronts.

    FedEx print center, last night I checked they were open late but tonight I went there they were closed. They have the new limited hours from 10-6. So I will have to go there tomorrow to have my turnsheet laminated.

    I gave up laminating the map. I looked at it. It was too big. The streets were too tiny. I might as well memorize the path and rely on my phone from time to time and trust my turn sheet.

    I tested my GPS. It is a piece of crap. Like previous experience, it didn’t do jack. I should have brought a more expensive model.

    I did some shopping today. I think I know what I will eat. I will go light on the calories this time. Just barely enough to get me through. In the past I ate too much and it slowed me down. I need to find the sweet spot.

    I was able to read one of the runners most recent race report. He finished it last week. The report was very helpful. He failed to meet the cut off at the Stone mountain before they locked the gate. He got in but couldn’t make it out before the gate closed.

    I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. I am not that good in scaling fences in the middle of the night especially when I am half dead after doing 62 miles.

    So at least I should push my start an hour earlier so looking at 3 AM start at the latest.

    I have been rethinking the start time a bit. I might going to do a night run by pushing the start time even earlier starting at 6-7 PM, so I could make it to Stone Mountain in the morning, 8-9 AM instead of in the evening, the gate should be open by then. This will get to finish around 12-1 midnight the next day.

    Doing a night start completely mess up all the gas station stops because likely they will be closed most of the time I am in the city because it will be in the middle of the night. I will be in downtown Atlanta around 2-3 AM when all the eateries are closed. By the time they are open I will be doing the last 40 miles on the Stone Mnt trail. There does not seem to have a lot of places to get food on the trail until I get back into the city and by then it will be 8-9 pm the following day.

    The report scared me. I am afraid of pain. I never push myself beyond my pain point. The guy wrote that at mile 80, he felt the pain and blisters and everything including tireness from lack of sleep. I don’t know if I can handle that. I ran 60 miles before. At that time I knew I still had enough in me to push on. However, mile 80 is something I never experience before…and I don’t know if I will be willing to push on. I know it will come…I read many reports about it. No one is an energizer bunny. I am afraid I might break.

    conclusion/decision. Start time has me worry. Most likely it will be an early start at 2-3AM. Alternatively I sleep in on Friday, and run at night at 5PM. This is very high risk because who know if I can sleep during the day. If I can’t fall asleep during the day, I will be screwed. To force myself to sleep in the day, then I shouldn’t sleep on Thursday night. This will also hamper my ability. In the end, I am still running out of time. I wish I knew it earlier and readjust my sleep time several days ahead. This is part of ultra learning curve.

  • Day312 The Crunch

    I am feeling the crunch, but things are happening. Wheels started spinning as I am in the final preparation. Final? No, more like finally getting my crap together. Things are taking shape.

    I had the maps printed out. 20+ pages of them. These are in addition to the paper map I brought. I have been so spoiled with water proofed maps , ones I used for my hiking (from National Geographic), but my street map for Atlanta is the newspaper quality and really poor stuff, really not for outdoor. I hate using it, especial I know there is a chance of rain. It will just melt when it becomes wet. I plan to go to FedEx tomorrow have it laminated, but then it will make it hard to fold. How I miss the National Geo ones. Those were the best. Will got to do what I have. I am thinking after laminating it to cut out portion I don’t need. Really am out of time for an art work project now and why did I not do it two weeks ago? Shooting my foot here.

    I got my map and have looked over it several times. I am at maybe 60-70 percent familiarized with it. There are some pitfalls and I noted those. I still wish to have the whole map memorized. I am out of time so more like will wing it. I do wish use Google map too (street view) to see some of the turns. But no time for that because that will take at least 5-6 hours. I don’t have that much time.

    To do: I need to circle out some spots where I can get food/ and bathroom breaks. Google map would help here.

    decision. Do I pack my food or do I buy them in Atlanta. What snacks am I taking along? Snacks will be my main source.

    to do: I need a list of food I will be eating

    To do: I supposed to be packed by now, but not yet.

    to do. making a packing list. Two lists, one for the run, and one for the trip. some important things are anti chafe cream and balm – you know certain areas are going to hurt really bad after rubbing it for 50+ miles. We are doing a 100 here. The worse thing is no way to swap gear at mid run. It is a do or die mission.

    accomplished. I got my final set of maps and have been going over couple of times. Felt very accomplished when I weeded out half the maps, I think I could do without.

    accomplished. I got the map traced out.

    accomplished. I got my turned direction printed out in two sided on to sheets of paper. To do need to laminate them because they are the most important thing to get me from start to finish.

    accomplished. set a start time for my run. After reading the facebook page of runners comments, I got a good idea of when I should start. Originally I was planning 5:30-6:30 start but people were advising an earlier one. I am moving at a start at 4:30 start. There should be just enough light.

    to do: talking about light! I need batteries for my flashlight and headlamp. Need to check all gear. plus spare. I never ran that long in the dark – we are talking from 9 pm to 4 am, good 7-8 hours of darkness.

    accomplished. researched the start location and the constraint. There are two main mountains: Kennesaw (the start) and Stone Mountain (the middle/finish at 63 mile). I need to get to Stone mountain before the gate closes. It closes at sundown so 8:30 ish. It takes me about 15.5-16 hrs to run that distance, granted I took a 2 hour lunch break on a previous 63 mile attempt. So looking at 14-15 hours, with no lunch break, I should start no later than 6 am to get to Stone Mountain by 8 pm.

    I don’t like taking risk, so I am thinking to start at 4:30. My Hotel is 45 mins away from Kennesaw. So It means waking up at 3 am, with 30 mins prep. I need to leave the hotel by 3:30 latest. Oh be the way, when I get to Kennesaw, I need to climb 1-2 miles up. Race starts at the summit.

    If the stars aligned, I hope to finish the next day early in the morning. I never done a 100 mile before…so all the calculation is useless.

    On Stone Mountain, I hope to back summit and down before sunset. say 8:30 or 9 pm. Then the next six hours, I hope to run back to the city, hopefully, get to mile 80-85 ish. I hope to see sunrise on my last stetch as I arrive back in downtown Atlanta. That will be the best case scenario. The expected scenerio is I will see sunrise at mile 85/87 on Peach St. I will run/walk the next 15 miles during daylight and arrive downtown at around noon. Got to finish no later 2:30 pm or will be disqualified.

    If I can’t reach Stone Mnt before Sunset, the race will be over and the run will be in vain.

    Also predicting finishing time is really up in the air. I was thinking of a midnight start, but I wouldn’t want to finish in downtown Atlanta at 2-4 am in the morning. 4-4:30 am starts is only appropriate.

    Kennesaw and Stone Mountain is really the two high points for this run.

    Tomorrow is really the last day to get all the things together. Thursday will be mostly execution: flying to Atlanta, get to the Hotel, make a pit stop to get supplies. Hit the bed as early as possible. Like 8 pm. Up by 3 am. Then show time.

    Decision. I might have to get all that I need at the airport after landing even though it is ridiculously expensive – water, sodas, candies, jerky, bread/sandwiches, and batteries. Then everything else will be picked up at a gas station/store along the run.

  • Day311 random rambling

    Last night I couldn’t fall asleep again. It wasn’t because of worrying but because I was just too excited after a run. Reminded me why I shouldn’t run at night. Adrenaline was pumping through me in the wee hours.

    So I wrote the below. It is kind of stupid rambling, which I am embarrassed to post, but it kind of make sense of what I am going through.

    The older I am, the slower I become. Time seems to stop, like the last two weeks.

    —-

    Time moves so fast.

    There are so much I want to do. Yet to do each thing takes up so much time.

    When I am doing a lot, I feel tired.

    When I am tired, I don’t feel like doing anything

    There were times when I was not tired and I was also doing a lot. Those times were when I was young.

    I tried two weeks without doing anything. I succeeded in doing nothing. I was afraid if I remain like that I could stay like that.

    I looked back at all that I did. Some things were really impressive, but in the end I felt still was not enough.

    I want to have a hobby, something I do besides work. When you work, you can’t remember what you do. On the day say you can’t work any more, like on your death bed, people won’t think on the day you went to work and put in a normal day of work. Yay, I set up the fax machine this week for my work place and I was proud of that, or I reconfigured the firewall at work, I was very proud of that too. I so much want to tell the whole world how I fixed those problems.

    I felt accomplished, but mostly whenever I think back of the last few years, I can only recall one or two highlights of my life and none of them were work related. I remember my trip to the Grand Canyon a few years ago. For the first time in my life I traveled! Paid for with my own money and went and had a good time. My second trip was to Peru and stepped on the Inca Trail, and that was man Amazing! Holy Cow I was standing on an ancient site. My third trip was to Chile. No doubt not anything less. Of course I run and many if not all were marvelous (at least to me). They are like breath to me.

    Work is important, but what give meaning to life, is usually the little things or time that I spent outside of work. I need work, but it does not define me. Yet we put so much time into it, especially for guys.

    Who care that I solved seemingly impossible things at work? I enjoyed doing those a lot, but it is like normal. Done and forget about it. Move on to the next thing. But when it comes to doing something special outside of work, they are remembered for a lifetime.

    When running won’t be fun any more is when I treat running as work. I work toward it to become better and to improve my performance. I hope one day that never happen. Recently though, running has taken a back seat. So reason for this post.

    How do I know what I want to do?

    This morning though, my muscles were sore. Boy. You always have to pay a price. 6 miles is causing me to limp. Ya, what did I do. Hope ya enjoy reading!

  • Day310 when you are in a knot

    Morning:

    I feel the noose tightening so I couldn’t fall asleep last night, thinking about the run coming up in a few days.

    A little background. I signed up for this 100 mile ultra (Great southern endurance run, GA,US) I don’t know, maybe at the beginning of summer. It is a virtual run, meaning, I will be running alone, but the course is real (meaning on location). We have 34 hours to finish, which is plenty of time. The good runners could finish under 24 hours, me, maybe looking at 30 hours. 5-6 people already did it. They have been reporting between 29-31 hours. That will be my goal too. I could do a 100k in 13-14 hours, so 26-27-ish hour is a reasonable target.

    So with my cellphone I had the turn sheet open and a map spread out on the bed, I traced the route until mile 80. There are twenty more miles to go. And the turn direction gets shorter. There are about 10 more turns left to go. One of the direction was to run 8 miles straight. Sweet. That is probably the longest distance without a turn for this whole route. In comparison, the first 80 miles have about 5 pages of notes. Grr, there are so much information, a turn at every quarter mile.

    I need a second study session to get the last 20 miles.

    Evening:

    I spent the evening looking over the last twenty miles. Apparently there are only two streets I need to know. Stone Mountain Trail and Peach St. Most of the rest of directions is to continue running down the same road.

    Afterward, I went out for a 10K. I didn’t have a number in mind, but as I ran, 10K seems good. It was actually quite short. I finished it and felt I have’t really got any work out.

    It was so good to have two weeks off running. All my muscles were fresh. Most of my aches were gone. I could run fast again. The feeling of being able to run fast without feeling my heart exploding or head getting dizzy, or just the legs wouldn’t move. They were all gone. I only was running at maybe 65-70% my max, but it felt so good.

    I checked the weather down at Atlanta. And it is not looking good for me. 60% of rain on Friday and 30% of rain on Saturday. The plan was to start early on Friday and finish early on Saturday. I could delay the run to Saturday morning, but I got to finish by 10 on Sunday to make it to the airport and fly home on Sunday evening. So I really would not want to delay the run to Saturday, because it is just too much pressure to make the flight. Praying the weather will change.

    I feel alive again.

  • Day309 laying low

    I have been off the radar for almost a week after finishing the GVRAT race. It is still on going but I haven’t put much effort into it. The initial goal of running 1000k is done. I could go for the 2000k or even 3000k. Any way.

    Last few days have been a low point for me. When I run, I feel high, even when a run is very difficult and I would ask why am I doing this. But when I don’t run, it feels even worse.

    I haven’t done much in my personal life or running. Everything seems come to a halt.

    I am procastinating. Next week, July 4th weekend I will be heading to Atlanta to do my first 100 miler. It is a virtual race so I will be myself, but I will be running a actual mapped out course. Running aspect is tough. It is an endurance race. On top, it is the logistics, where to get food/drinks/bathroom. Since it is a self supported, I will carry most of stuff on me. There won’t be any place for me to swap out clothes or gear. Yup, lot of stuffs: flash light (s), phone, blinkers, safety reflector vest, socks, batteries, gps, watch, chargers, map, and turn-sheet. Navigation too will be tough, because I am poor at it. Then the stamina to stay awake and keep running. I am scared about the whole thing, so I have been hidding myself.

    Instead, I have burried myself in a chinese web novel (translated of course, since I can’t read chinese). I am reading Reverend Insanity. It is quite good apparently, but the ideology behind it is kind of mess up, but still it makes you want to root for the bad guy, like Death Note. It is definitely a Rated R novel, for death, violence and gore.

  • Day308 weekend

    Nothing in mind of what I will post. It is weekend. The race GVRAT is kind* of over. I didn’t run last night, but truly enjoying the night off.

    I did my shopping for food and restocked the fridge with some basic stuff. Really wished I would have brought a bottle of Coke :). No I just brought the boring stuff like bread and more cornbread. I don’t even like eating them. For some reason, there was a craving when I saw them. There was not much I want to get afterward. I checked the meat section, prices were normal, nothing were on sale, so I didn’t buy.

    After dinner I went to bed early…maybe around 9 pm. First time of having dinner at a normal time. I was too full to run afterward, but I was debating though. I slept like the next 10 hours, didn’t know when I felt asleep – I just did with all my clothes on. The body just crashed, I guess. I could have ran this morning when I woke up. The body is already feeling much better. I am ready for a good long run this weekend, though nothing is planned.

    I was thinking of heading to Blacksburg, which is like 5-6 hours away to do a memorial run. Last year, while running in the Eastern Divide Trail Run Race a runner died (I didn’t see it happened but I was the last guy who came to his body before the EMT hauled him away) and the race director had marked the course for anyone (for last weekend and this weekend) who wants to go out there to do a run in honor of the guy. There is a bit of memory I want leave for the guy/myself as a closure. However, it is a bit far…the course is only 8 miles. I was more looking into to run the full course 28-30 miles (50K) I did last year. So I am on the fence about this 8 mile thing.

    It will be just myself if I go. I still think it is a neat thing to do. It will take the whole day. 6 hours there, 2 hours for the running, and another 6 hours back. Technically, I can do it. My friend was thinking I might shelter / backpack on AT for the night – which is not a bad idea. However, that is just a lot of work. Do one thing and do it well…

    That is on the list. Weatherwise, looks like we will have rain the next 7 days.

    GVRAT* – I woke up this morning, and got the email link for signing up the next leg of the Tennessee Race. I knew it was coming. I duly signed up and paid the fee for another go. So I am heading back across Tennessee in the next two months (virtually). So, here we go again! This time my enthusiasm is much subdued.

    People were asking when will this race ever gonna end. The answer is never and whenever. Laz, the race director, is having the race across the US continent in the work. It might debut in January. He said 4 months thing with the Tennessee is kind of short. We should do it for a year. Not so sure about that.

    I’m going to sleep some more and then get up and put in the run. (grrr, do have to go to work before the run). Let’s go.