In awe

Blog

  • Sunday reflection

    Day 118

    I like to spent Sunday to reflect on and review what the past weekend has been. It has been a normal weekend. There were weekends when I had a plan like a race or a backpacking trip. This weekend started with a plan and as the day approached, the plan kind of unraveled. It was not a bad weekend but it could have been even better.

    Originally, it was going be a hike on Saturday with a group of people. It was another hike for noobies. I was looking forward to it. Then the hike was placed on my shoulder and one by one people dropped out. It is typical that people drop from an event, speaking from experience. I don’t think it was just because I was leading it that people were dropping out. In the end it was me and another dude. I was counting on him not showing up because over the week he never reached out about ride and where to meet.

    I ended up doing the hike by myself. It didn’t bother me a bit. It was better that way because I could hike faster by myself. When I got to the trail parking lot, it was full, so I did some exploring driving a bit farther down the road and found another lot. There was no cell signal to contact the other guy about a last minute change of location. The other lot was secluded. There were only two cars there. I checked one of the cars out and it had an ultra trail running sticker on and I know there must be probably a trail around and the driver was probably running on it.

    I pulled out my map of the area and saw the trail connects to the AT (Appalachian Trail). I had all my running gear with me and I was planning to run on the trail any way if no one showed up. I put on my Nathan 7L camelpak (don’t know the real name/ it was quite big, it holds 2L of water, I don’t use the water pack though). I packed my lunch and snacks and water. Put on my trail running shoes – Salomon 3. The trailhead was around the bend on the other side of the road. As I started, a hiker just finished his and I asked how long it is and he told me 4 miles to the AT. It was much less than that (I think about about 2).

    I started running. The trail was kind of nice to run on. The uphill portion was gradual. I ran and walked. Actually, I am quite out of shape for uphill. I could only run a few minutes before I was out of breath.

    At the top at the Pass Mnt Hut, I came across a thru hiker (one who attempts to hike the whole AT, about 2000 miles), Lost-n-Found. He started two weeks ago from Harper Ferry doing Flip-Flop, now SOBO (South Bound). He did part of the north bound portion last year. We talked. At the time, I didn’t recall his YouTube channel, but afterward, I think I saw some of his videos before. It was very cool to chat with him in real life.

    I got to Mary’s Rock and stopped there for lunch. I only had a sandwich and I was rushing to start that I didn’t put any spread.

    Mary’s Rock was kind of cool. I was there maybe two winters ago but that day was very cold and I didn’t go out to the outcrop, and I didn’t know how beautiful it is. I took some pictures. It was foggy but I love the rock formation.

    The original hike was calling for 6 miles and Mary’s Rock would be the turn around point. I felt it was still early, around 11AM and I could put in more mileage. I decided to do my ‘weekly’ long run. I checked my map, if I want to get to the original parking lot – BuckHollow (one that was full), and come back, it would add 15 miles. Currently I had done about 5 miles up to Mary’s Rock. Twenty miles would be the total. Sorry if my math doesn’t seem to add up.

    Surprisingly, I got to the BuckHollow parking lot at 1pm. I ran out of water by then, but I had with me a Sawyer water filter. I replenished my water by the stream. I love drinking from the stream! I took a different route back, using Buck Ridge instead of BuckHollow. Boy that hill was tough. It is two miles straight up. The photo doesn’t do justice how steep it is.

    I forgot how hard it is to run up this hill. It was maybe a 2000 ft change in elevation. It was tough. I gave up running up that thing after maybe five minutes. Even walking up on it, was tough. I calculated that with my current pace I wouldn’t be back to my car until 7 pm. K and I in our previous hikes here, saw runners running up and down this as if it was flat!

    The hill goes on forever. My friend K, named this hill the Heaven Hill because you will see heaven once you get to the top. I got back to Mary’s Rock, sometimes after 2. I stayed at the Rock a bit, having my fruit cup. It was beautiful. I was very hungry then. The two slices of bread I had earlier did not provide enough calories. Rain started. As I got off Mary’s Rock, I ran into lost&found, the thru-hiker I met earlier. We chatted some more. He told me he got some trail magic from someone.

    Rain was on and off with some drizzling. I picked up my pace.

    Running downhill, I came across many people. I rolled my ankle several times, mostly on my right ankle (the stronger one) this time. It didn’t hurt but it put the fear in me to not run too fast when I’m tired. Doing downhill was easy, but every time when I came to uphill, I was too tired to run.

    I got back to the car by 4:30, way ahead of my expected time. It was my longest trail run practice thus far, totalling 20 miles and took eight hours to complete. Not spectacular. If it were my 50k race, I would get a DNS (did not finish within the specified time).

    The trail is not smooth and it is rocky on some parts. It is worse than running on concrete, but it was very beautiful. Wild flowers were all around.

    I enjoyed running on the trails a lot. It was very peaceful. It wasn’t easy. Mentally, it was very satisfying. I don’t remember what went through my mind, however, I felt it was a time well spent with God. All my problems from life disappeared at the moment (escape mentality), though I think I can deal with real life now because of the run.

  • When nothing to do

    Day 117

    When I have nothing to do, I read up on races and what races to run. I came across a funny race called Flying Monkey Marathon. I won’t able to do it this year but this race attracted my attention.

    I have been too overly concerned about a race course being certified, but this race has none of that. It claims running for running sake and not about time and getting qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. I like the snub it gives to other ‘toughest’ marathons. This one seems pretty tough. There are rolling hills. It is probably as tough as the Roanoke Marathon, which claims to be the toughest road marathon.

    It got me thinking, that next year I should do all the marathons with flying in its name. So Flying Monkey will make the cut and Flying Pig too.

    I also came across the Rocky fatass run. I think it is a 50k. It is interesting to run to all the spots in Philly as shown in the Rocky movies. I learn about what it means when a race calls itself a Fatass race. It means no support and is informal.

    Edit to Add: Another race that caught my attention is Crazy Horse. Not related to flying, but hey, the name sounds cool.

    Also the Air Force Marathon is related to the flying theme.

  • Running in the rain

    This weekend was pretty intense too, but wasn’t like last weekend. Some people say I have a lot of energy.

    I don’t remember what I did on Friday. Ah, I took a half day from work on Friday and went to Harrisonburg to watch my cousin’s graduation from James Madison University. They were forecasting heavy rain that evening and the ceremony was outdoor. They cut out or shorten many of the speeches and called the graduates name to come on stage at the beginning in case the rain comes and they would have to cancel the ceremony. The rain came as the ceremony was ending.

    Students walking on stage to receive their diploma.

    I got home at a decent time. Originally, I had expected not getting home until midnight. We spent a lot time on the road. The trip was special because I got to spent time with couple other cousins who were riding with me, normally wouldn’t see them.

    On Saturday, I left for Frederick, MD. It was not too far from where I live but it was far enough that I decided to stay over night there. I had to go there early to pick up my bib for the Sunday race and I also signed up for a 5K on Saturday night. It was so cool that this race gave out 4 cans of free beer at the end of the 5K. I only took one…I didn’t want to get drunk or be dehydrated the night before the big race.

    Sunday: Frederick Half Marathon is one of the big time races at a small town. I was surprised of the services and race support they offered. The whole town came out to support us.

    Worse of all, it was raining buckets of water even before the race got underway. During the race, the rain alternated between light and heavy. I had my rain jacket on, and it helped but everything was wet.

    I finished at a bit slow at 2:02. I got tired about at 10 miles. My ankle though wasn’t healed yet but did not bother me. I was afraid I might trip again during the race. I think I have recovered from my last marathon. I had enough breath in me. The course was familiar since I did a pre-run on the course couple weeks ago.

    The reason I was slow might be because I didn’t (couldn’t) go to the bathroom before the race until the race started. I never had this problem before. I tried to go but nothing came and when the race about to start, I had such a strong urge to go. I thought it was race jittery. So while running, I hit the first pottojohns I saw and floodgate opened literally. Running with a full bladder probably costed me 5 mins.

    I ran in my trail shoes. I brought a bunch of shoes with me, but decided to go with the trail because it might do better in the rain. It did.

    I carried my phone with me but the rain was too much for me to take pictures.

    Funny thing, I read beforehand that they asked us (runners) to leave for the starting line at least 30 minutes before what we think we should be there. Apparently I forgot. My hotel is only at most 10 minutes away, but boy, did it take me 45 minutes to get to the parking lot. There were a lot of road closures and detours and traffic. I was aiming to get to the course at 6, but didn’t arrive until 6:45. As the race started, I saw people were still pulling in. Boy was I nervous that I couldn’t get a parking spot and couldn’t start on time. Next time, read and follow directions (printed in the runner handbook).

    As I ran, I saw a lot of fast runners were passing me from behind, I think because they got to the course late!

    Also we parked on the grass lawn. It was Frederick Fairground. We (cars) totally ruined the lawn. Rain and car tires don’t go well together. There were cars that couldn’t handle the mud well. Smaller cars couldn’t get out the parking lot at the end of the race.

    Fairground: we finished on the race track. It was special because I have never been on a horse track before. It was much bigger than what I thought. It must be exciting to see horses run on the track! I felt I was a thoroughbred as I ran on it!

    This was taken on Saturday before the rain turned it into a mud pit.

    What I packed. I didn’t end up wearing my swimming truck because I was afraid I might get chaffed in bad places. I was tempted though. Wool socks were good. No blister.

    There were a lot of people, thousands I think. I didn’t take any picture of the crowd though.

    Here 15 mins before the start and no runners willing to line up at the 7 min pace. They came later. I guess many were stuck in traffic or stayed in their cars until the race about to start due to rain. (I don’t run at 7 min pace though and I moved back to my pace group after I took the picture). Rain was not heavy at this point but a few minutes later, it really came down hard.

    Really though thousands of people were there.

  • Intensity

    Day 115

    I came across a training article. The concept is pretty simple and logical, but it occurs to me that it is an important truth that I have overlooked.

    The concept is we train in three phases. The first is foundation. We build a good foundation and hopefully the last three years, I had a solid foundation. Then come the real deal where we pursuit after our goal by increasing the effort/power and intensity at the growth phase. Lastly (third phase) we maintain our level and perfecting our goal.

    I think intensity is the key. I felt in a lot of things I do in life, I reach a mediocre level and normally stay like that with very little growth. What I missed was I have not really amped up the intensity to get to my potential. And I have gone through life/everything in a boring kind of way.

    I came across the article at the right time. Intensity is what make what I am doing exciting. What drives my passion is doing more of the things I like.

    I attended the talk (secret church) last week and there was segment on having a passion for God. What drive Moses to know God more? It was to know God’s glory. And the speaker was saying did Moses see enough of God’s glory already? He was a guy who spoke to God in front of a burning bush. He saw the Red Sea parted and many other miracles. What drove him to ask God, to show him more of God’s glory when he already seen more than anyone else in the world. The answer was it is never enough.

    In parallel, I never experience enough of running. It is not a bit different for me to do a 5k or 10k or a marathon. Some might think (those who are not a runner) ask whether it is enough since I have run 8 marathons already. Nope. The experience of running my eighth one was just as exciting as running my first one. Related to intensity of what we are talking about, I actually want more! Some call it an addiction but I think not. I could easily be satisfied with one race! But because I love it so much, and my body is able to handle it, I am upping my races both in quality and quantity. I don’t need more race to have the same ‘high’, which is those who have an addiction needed. Any way…

    Running a 10K is just as fun, except it is just too short! Haha. Sorry for those who were dying on the course when I did mine, I don’t mean to put them down. 10k might be the hardest thing they did.

    Last weekend I did the Pike Peek or Peek’s Pike, whatever it is. This post was originally about this race but I got suck in on the topic of intensity from something I read.

    Why I love doing 5k/10k is it bring out community. Almost anyone can do it. You will be surprised if you think you can’t run a 10k. I got it that many couldn’t do it but some, a few who attempted, I applaud them.

    The race is usually open long enough so even those who walk (fast walk) can finish. That was a reason you get to see many who are not a fast runner on the course.

    Runners are a friendly bunch, but with the slower crowd out, it is even friendlier.

    The crowd support was great on this one. For the race, we ran down Highway 355. It has 4 lanes going each way, but they closed three of the four lanes, so that they can have more room for runners. We ran down most of the way. There was a festival at the end (Peeks and Roses). I had to be somewhere so I didn’t stay too long. I stayed long enough to see the slower people finish (last few). I think it was the 1.5 hours crowd.

    That was that. I probably can go on and on. I love the race and will do it again.

  • Wednesday

    Mid week already. Life really starts on weekends. There were so much happened that it takes a week to unpacked.

    I was going to write more about it. There were so much other thoughts I wanted to capture. Friday night was a high point because I attended a talk called Secret Church from an organization called Radical. This was my first ever. We had a long prayer/fasting marathon and I was dozing in and out. In the end everything was a blur. We prayed for East Africa — I forgot the name of the country. A recurring thought to me was I got to go there. There are probably some amazing hikes to do there. I wish there were more videos on the place, but time was short. The talk was entertaining though that was not the point.

    The next day, I hiked Meneka peak. I thought nothing could top Friday night. A lot of interesting things happened. It was a first we got to hike with some of our good friends who complained we always doing too many crazy 20 miles hikes. We brought the intensity down couple notches. It was under 9 miles. The crazy thing happened was near the top, we ran into a group who told us some fire up on the peak. We went and checked out. My group leader didn’t find any smoke or fire. Few hours later, while I was doing my trail run on the mountain, I ran into a team of fire marshals/rangers and they were asking me if I saw any fire/smoke. I then checked every camp sites up on the peak making sure no fire. I touched every fire pit and they were cold. I did came a large log or a long tree trunk some crazy camper was trying to burn. The campers had left. I guess they didn’t completely put out the fire. Maybe that was what the cause of concern from a group of hikers we came across earlier and they called the fire department.

    Sunday was also pretty amazing because I was running a race. It was a new race I never done before. I want to write a race report on it. It was a 10K. The race was short, but there were 2,500 people running it. It was just awesome. I wasn’t at my usual pace but toward the end, I got faster.

    Today, I did some ‘hill’ run by running up the stairs at my office building. I realized I could only mantain my breathing up to five floors. I was not used to doing hill run.

    The week has been good so far. I started working out at my work gym everyday and it feels good to be sored all over.

    And lastly, there is a chance I will do a triathlon this year. I found a friend who indicated he will do it with me. There are too races I have my eyes on.

    Day 114

  • Weekend

    Day 113 /long post on delight and peace

    Everything about this weekend pretty much fell into place according to plan and I was pleased. I couldn’t ask for more.

    In my life, there is someone special. I would love to spend every moment with her. This whole weekend, I was pretty much with her most of the time. She though wasn’t happy and I didn’t try to find out why. I was on the other hand, very happy inside, not because of her misery but because I overcome a struggle and was at peace.

    I was assisting my mom planting some flowers last week and I looked across the street and saw a family also gardening. They were sweeping flower petals that fell from the trees. Their entire driveway was covered with pink flowers (they have a cherry blossom tree) and their was blooming last week.

    I saw how peaceful and beautiful that picture was. And I was really jealous too. I want a nice house and family and was thinking when will I be like that.

    Time is short though. I was thinking, that the family across probably might not even think that scene of few minutes from my perspective was beautiful. They probably thought, how much work they had to do to clean their driveway.

    I had a moment of insight then, that we spent a lot time working toward a goal and that satisfaction is only last but a moment.

    Thinking about myself, I spent months and years training for a race all for that moment of joy when I run across the finish line.

    This weekend I had that joy. For the longest time, I have been struggling to find satisfaction and I have been contemplating the meaning of delight and friendship.

    There was a girl I delighted but later we broke up because she delighted in someone else. Since then, only thing I delighted, is running.

    Running will put a smile on my face. Running will brighten up my face and running will bedazzle my eyes.

    I got to spent my weekend with people I love and doing the things I love. On Friday, I was at church with my best friend praying for mission work. Church and mission is what my friend love most. Though they are not my stuff, but I was happy to be there supporting her.

    I didn’t go to bed until 3 in the morning. The next day though, I wasn’t tired. I woke up early and did my morning reading (on Facebook). I came across a post from my race I will do in June and it scared the light out of me. It reminded me that the race will be on the mountain.

    So, I immediately got up, no more delay and got to the mountain trail that was about an hour away. My best friend and her friends planned to be there too later in the morning to hike on it. I got there first, started running it.

    They came later and we had a good whole day of hiking together. Afterward, I stayed behind and did more running. I had a blast running on the trail. It was hard but it was not the hardest trail to run on. I did hurt myself toward the end of the day when I rolled my ankle. That was the end of running for that day.

    I met on the trail a guy who have been running all his life. It was so good we got to talk like normal people but he has done so much beyond what I can imagine. He set a course record in a race he recommended me to do, I didn’t find out until later. He was humble and didn’t boast about his achievement. I wouldn’t never know he was such a fast runner.

    On Sunday, it was pretty much normal. I woke up early around 5:30 because I had a race in Maryland. I got to the course around 6:30. Funny thing was the meet up location was so big people couldn’t find the starting line. Luckily, we got there early and was wandering around. I was misled by some people who ran the the race before. They led me to the wrong parking lot because they said it was there last year. In the end, I did find the right place.

    The race wasn’t my best because I was limping for the first few miles, before finding my pace. My ankle was bothering me and I didn’t want to put too much force.

    There was drizzling rain and it was a little cold. I still enjoyed the race nonetheless. There were 2500 other passionate people there and you could feel the energy.

    Later, I went to church and had more time being with my friends. It was pretty much normal for the rest of the day.

    I did some biking, about 16 miles. I was pretty much alone but it was a refreshing time after running the race. I didn’t do my long run so I wasn’t as tired as usual. I got to spent time pulling my thoughts together and writing them down here.

  • Random thoughts thursday

    Day 112
    No complaint. It has been relatively peaceful on all fronts. It means I should be writing more. I haven’t been good with my time management this week and spent way too much time on the phone and my sleep suffered. Still, I have been getting to work an hour early.

    I am still recovering from my marathon. Every time I went out to run thinking I am all good, but as I started running, I realized it took twice the effort and I was only able to get half the speed. I have been racing with this dude on my run and I been losing to him every time now after the marathon. There was no contest. He beat me by a wide margin. There were days I can’t even keep up with him on a slow run. We used to be able to run neck to neck before my marathon.

    I know I should take it easy and not to rush my recovery.

    I still haven’t put together my training schedule. Someone suggested just do a long and two short runs. I had a 13 miles last week long run. So either this weekend, I need to put in a long or the following weekend I need a 20+ miles long. I don’t think I can put a 20 miler this weekend.

    What plan do I have for this weekend?There a prayer meeting tomorrow and I will be there with my friend K. We will pray till midnight or whenever one of us tap out. I have been going to bed pretty late but I think I may be the one going to tap out first.

    Then on Saturday, I am going on a hike. It will be easy though 5-6 miles. My friend told me lot of people will be there. Normally, it would be just me and her. We are bringing a lot of our ‘don’t hike’ friends to expose them to hiking. They all sounded upbeat and want to do it with us.

    I think we will be back by evening. Sunday then would be the usual Sunday. I have a lot of up keeping to do, but probably I will slack off and go out and run most of the day.

    Yesterday, while had some time on my hand , I ran through a wood in my neighborhood. It was so thrilling. I have been through the park several times but yesterday night I discovered a hidden trail and it is a dirt path, so I followed it. I was hopping through fallen trees and mud. I had on my nice running road shoes and was kind of upset they got mud on them. The fun part was I was not sure where the path leads. It was very secluded but I can see the path was well traveled.

    I hope to do some more of that. I planned a trip today to go to a national park and run (The Wild Oak Loop) at North River Gap, Mt Solons, VA. I will write on it once I have done it.

  • Easter

    Day 111

    I woke up early and got to church for the morning Easter worship. We were told to come early, lest there won’t be parking spots available at the layer service. Normally, I attended the night worship, but today there was neither Sunday School (they called it Adult Bible Fellowship) nor night worship. I didn’t get to see my friend. Sunday is the day I get to see my best friend.

    I couldn’t really focus on the sermon. It wasn’t a hard one, just a three point sermon. One thing I was struck with was Christian can’t stop talking about Jesus because of his resurrection.

    Similarly, I can relate to that because I can’t talk about running and I think running is the best and greatest and everyone should join me! I talked much about running than anything else. When I wake up, I run. While during the day, I day dream of running. And when I go to bed, I still think of running. I am compel to spread the gospel of running.

    With plenty time left in the day, I went for a run, unlike other Sundays since I didn’t get to see my friend, there was no eating lunch together like we usually do. Our family doesn’t do Easter Brunch either. Worship was over by 9. I hadn’t eaten breakfast and my stomach was rattling. Across from the church was a McDonalds and so I went there and had an egg muffin. They substituted the sausage with bacons. I don’t like bacons. O well. I don’t waste food.

    I already planned to do a long run. So the food helped. Nearby the church was a paved trail (4-mile run and the W O & D) and I have been running there almost every Sunday for the past month. I attempted my longest run there yet what is called the Arlington loop. Basically run to DC and back in a big loop. The whole loop is around 18 miles (I think, it felt less).

    It was my first time attempting the loop on foot. I biked it last week. The day was nice 18-22C. I got to the trail I think before 10AM. Pretty much I was the first car there. There were occasionally other people passing by.

    I wasn’t particularly tired, having done a 12 mile run a day before. I had plenty of rest. I eased into a gentle run. It was a long run by definition. Not long after, I think at about mile 2, I was joined by a DC club runner, he was doing a little faster than I was doing around 9:30-9:45 min/mile. I followed him for the bulk of the way. It was good to have a pacer! I complained to him that he ran a bit too fast for me. I lost him near DC.

    I continued on and stopped for lunch in Crystal City, the store I wanted to at was closed, so I had pizzas and a lot of sodas. Afterward, I could hardly move and walked couple miles along the airport and I ran the remained few miles back to my car on the Four Mile Run trail.

    I didn’t timed it. I ran at least 14 miles. I know last time I biked, we had about 20 miles though we did not do the full loop that time, we biked halfway and turned around. I don’t think though the whole loop is twenty miles. At most it was 18.

    Once I got back to the car, I brought out my bike and biked the whole loop again. It was a fun ride and I finished it at much faster time. I wanted to bike around twice but changed my mind.

    After the biking, I started to feel a bit tired. I skipped the swim portion. I was going to hit the pool for some water exercises. The next day though waking up was a bit difficult. All my muscles and bones were tight. I blamed myself of not stretching after the run. Monday is my rest day, so no running.

  • Post marathon blue

    Day 110
    Not sure if it is actually real thing, but I’m suffering post marathon blue. I guess when you get such a runner high and a week later you feel normal life is too normal.

    The cure is, of course, to go back out and run. I returned to semi formal training but don’t have a plan yet. I should draw one up tonight. I have run every other day this week. Been a bit too lazy to write about. We have really good running weather in the DC area. Got to take advantage of it before it get mucky and hot when summer comes.

    Everything though been pretty quiet. I am still doing my work at work, cheer! That is expected of me, right? Some people want to know. I am getting my work done and nothing much to say about it.

    I am frustrated on a number of things. I don’t want to share about it or know how to share them tactfully. The boiling point was Friday. I was going to run in the 5k after work to take some steam off, but as I rushed to the race course in Crystal City, there was no race. There was no announcement of cancelation. A bunch of other runners shoe up too. We were just walking around looking for race information. There was nothing posted online either. Well, that was that. I haven’t paid for it. But still I was uncontrollably mad. So mad. Not so much at the race organization, but at life itself of being so unlucky. Any way. Moving on. I did use the time off ‘from running’ effectively. I visited my family.

    I did something I have never done before today by going a pre race run event. In two weeks, I will run in the Frederick Half Marathon. This morning, a local running group was doing a course preview run (they had it as 12 miles instead of the full course). It was really nice. I think I ran with 150 others who will be in the race. It was good to kind of see who is at your pace. People were very friendly. By the way I was almost hit by a car, and it was totally my fault. I ran out in an intersection without thinking to stop to check for traffic. Luckily I hear the car engine and jumped back. The car zoomed by and I was ok. Otherwise, I would have been out of this world. I’m OK.

    I haven’t completely recovered from my last marathon. My muscles are fine, it is just the breathing. No matter how deep I breath, I don’t feel I get the air and energy. I feel my breathing is very shallow.

    I hope to do my long run tomorrow.

  • Roanoke

    Day 109

    It was probably my 8th marathon, but who is keeping count? My training was about the same compare to previous times except for lacking in long runs this time. Even though it was only couple days since the race, things are getting blurry. Statistics wise I didn’t do as well as in my previous marathons. I was much slower. It shows that without working on hill runs, I did poorly on hills. The whole race was about running up the Roanoke mountain and that is about 1000ft. The whole race has about 7000 ft in change of elevation and the topographical map shows about 600 ft at the most extreme portion. Everyone just walked up except for a few who were running for prizes.

    I walked. They said we ran over and on top of three mountains. The first one, Roanoke was the hardest and longest. Mill mountain was in between and was really on our way down from Roanoke Mnt and I don’t really consider that a mountain. The third one wasn’t as high as Roanoke Mnt nor Mill Mnt but it was unexpected more difficult for me. I guess I lack the will to tackle it any more after running up the first two. I just walked along with everyone else. I did a walk run going up the Roanoke Mnt but when I got here, I couldn’t muster a run.

    Running downhill was fun. It was pure joy. They say watch your knees. I had no problem the first long downhill, but second downhill, I couldn’t manage it any more. My run was like a walk. It was still better than flat! It think it was at mile 15-16 when I broke. It came early. I had a big breakfast and ate all the right thing the night before — spaghetti. Maybe my metabolism is way too high, at mile 16, my tank was empty. It was screaming – what spaghetti, where was the spaghetti you ate. It’s not there.

    I don’t remember how I was able to recovery. The crowd support from the community was amazing. I love the volunteers, always. They were the sweetest people. At the food table, I had some gummies and fruits. I think the strawberries helped. I didn’t take some Gu (gels) they were handling out. I think some of the stuff I drank – they were offering scratch energy drink, which I never had before, kind of upset my stomach. I felt I drank too much water also. There was water station almost every mile apart and I drank at each of them until I felt i had too much water and about to release back out in the other direction. I don’t know how I was able to get to mile 20. It was a mile at a time.

    I saw my mom at mile 22. At that time it was just plain tiredness. All the hills were behind me by now. There were little ones here and there. The tip to myself was don’t find any excuse to stop, if I stop, I wouldn’t able to bring myself to run again. I was feeling loopy. I was crying, yet no tear. My emotion was all over the place. There were only four more miles but they were the longest miles I ever did. The ‘wall’ was over. I got new burst of energy. The feeling was great – hence I was crying. I saw a flag and thought of ‘the Lord is my banner’ and I cried as I ran. I think at that time there were two more miles left.

    Then there was one more mile. Everyone by then was gone at least to my mind. Those who still could run already passed me while I was feeling loopy. All those who were around my pace disappeared. I looked far ahead. They were gone. Somehow the people behind me weren’t catching up either. I passed the 4:45 pacer a few miles back. I was alone. I felt indeed it was the longest mile.

    But you know what? They had to put one last hill right before the finish line. I don’t remember seeing the 26 mile marker, but I had a sense the end was near. I saw the hill, but the finish line was not in sight. I turned and said to the runner next to me, I was no longer alone then. I felt being crowded by two or three other runners. I said last hill. The people watching also echoed out last hill. I pressed on. The runners passed me.

    I turned the corner. Saw the finishing chute ahead and the crowd. My vision grew dimmed. Only thing I saw was the finishing clock above the finishing line 4:43/4:44. I ran as I never ran before. My mom said she waited at the finishing line and didn’t see me at all because of couple other larger runners were in front of me blocking her view and suddenly I appeared, she said she couldn’t get her camera ready at all as I ran through the chute passing other runners.

    My lung was screaming. My back cramped up. I did it. They put a finisher medal over my head. Then the rain started literally. I was just overjoyed. I forgot to stop my Garmin watch! Oh no have to rerun the course. Ha!

    My exgirl friend first told me about marathon and Roanoke was her first. The things she told me about really matched up as I ran it. It took me three years to tackle this race. I know I shouldn’t think about my ex any more but I just couldn’t help it. It has been near three years working toward to this race. Every step I took there was like stepping on sacred ground. Weird feeling.

    Having obtained it now after working so hard toward this, not cheap, but I didn’t value it. It was just another medal and another marathon. Some day, I will have run in all fifty states and have 50 medals. So this is just one in many for Virginia.

    But I am happy at the same time.

    The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight:
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad:
Mad in pursuit, and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
        All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
        To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell

    Shakespeare’s Sonnet 129

    In our Sunday school class, we talked of what things we went after that in the end let us down, and I thought of running this race. Well sort of. It is done now. On to the next one.