In awe

Tag: blog

  • Week in week out [Day544]

    I’ll try to get back to blogging more frequently.

    Indeed many things happened. I selectively chose what to write, with most of the time being race reports. There are a lot more going on than racing! Funny, the things I posted on Facebook that I thought no one would look at attracted a lot of attention this week! It was a picture from my first race this year (Holiday Lake). I only am posting on Facebook once a year. I sneaked in my finish line picture and for couple weeks the algorithm didn’t pick it up. Once it, there were an explosion of comments and likes. To my facebook audiene the event was fresh, but to me and what I wrote on here (WP), that was already old news. There were many things happened in the interim, like the OBX 100, that is many times more significant than the Holiday Lake race. However, that race does have good ‘optic’. It is like fake news, I choose what to spin.

    Things also slow down with my life now after the 100 mile is done. I am in a recovery mode. My skins are peeling from the sunburn. They are ugly. I feel like a reptile. Not that they are bad, I just don’t want to look like one.

    Blackbeard’s Revenge was an amazing race. I still from time to time think back on it. Like today while out running a severe storm blew in. I could have taken shelter, but as wind whipped up, it reminded me back at the race when we were crossing over the bridge that afternoon. It was exciting facing the headwinds and were only fifty mile in. I like the intensity of the storm. We told ourselves, we had to get the race done. I do miss the race. We did get it done.

    It was a relief to get the race out of the way. I was not stressed about it but I am always a bit anxious when there’s a race. OBX was a pretty big race.

    I don’t remember what I did the week afterward. It was just resting for the body to recover.

    Last weekend, I went to South Mountain (SOBO) in New Jersey, originally to run a marathon. Originally I wanted to find out what SOBO stands for, if it is like FOMO, fear of missing out. It was just a boring accronym. It was a 6 hour timed event. I had an interesting trip. I woke up at 2 am in the middle of the night and drove 4 and half hour almost to New York City. Arrived on a rainy day. The trail was as muddy as it could be. I was slipping and sliding and fell down once. Yes fun. Then drove back while a storm was brewing on I-95. I made some pitstops though. Stops were more fun than the race itself, but that for another story. I packed enough to spend several nights on the mountain.

    As for the run, We run on a 3k loop. After the first loop I knew getting the marathon distance would be tough. I would be lucky if I could get 12 loops (36k). A marathon is 42k. So I would need about 14 loops.

    I kept at it until halfway having done 7 loops. My hope was to get 8 loops by 3 hour mark so that I have some buffer for the 2nd half since usually my pace would slow down. This would guarantee that I finish with a marathon distance.

    However, even with 7 loops, if I kept my pace, 14 loops were possible. Then I saw my friend ahead, and decided to walk with her. It was mostly for her I came. She is an amazing runners. During her “youth” / younger days she broke some women records. The same friend who was suprised I took 12 hours on the Wild Oak Trail while she did it in 7.5 hours at my age. She would be running circles around me if we were the same age. Indeed that day, the lead runner (a female) was running circles around us.

    It was my recovery run so there was no need to push for a marathon distance / or do it at a marathon pace. My friend finished the 12th loop by 5.5 hours. We still have 30 minutes left on the clock. I believed going for one more shouldn’t be hard. The RD kind of doubting I could make it back within the time cutoff. I know I could do a loop within 20 minutes. So I went for it and got my 13th loop in. It took me about 16 minutes but not enough time left for the 14th loop.

    The race anyway would not have counted as one of the marathons for 50 states completion because there were less than 10 finishers. We only had 8 people started in our event. In order for a race to be counted, we need at least 10 finishers.

    It was one of the reasons, I did not push as hard as I could knowing, it did not really count for the record.

    I ran a marathon in New Jersey before so I did not need the run for my own 50 states. My friend though still needed New Jersey for hers. I felt bad we did not have enough runners. Originally there were 10 runners but two didn’t show up. I could have bring couple friends to make it a 10 person finishers. Anyway. It was a good run.

    This kind of things I get excited. I like the challenges.

    I like how things are working out. NJ Trails series, the organizer for the South Mountain Run has been on my watch list because I wanted to run their Watchung winter run. But the last two years, their races have been canceled for various reason.

    The past weekend somehow led me to run with them. I found out they also host 6 days at the fair, which is an amazing race/event I want to do in the future. Yes as it sounds, it is a 6 day race! I want to test my mettle to see if I can run all six days (with/without) sleep. I met a guy who did it, and put in a total of 450 miles over 6 days.

    Up next, I have a few races/events. This weekend is happy easter – I have a chocolate bunny night run. I will write about it later, if it is interesting. I hope to have some choco bunnies when I finish. I ran it last year. It is a MMT training run #4, The last training run for the MMT race, which I wrote a lot already.

    Following week would be the BRR 50. Ya another big race. I did couple training run on this. I assume I will write a full race report on it because I love doing a indepth detailed report.

    Then there will my international marathon debut! in Toronto Canada! I haven’t planned much on the race. Only thing is I know I will be driving there. I have not requested days off yet. Hopefully I get everything done. It is a point to point race, so gonna be fine.

    I am still on the fence with some races this fall as well as races for next year. Slipping this in, a friend just finished the Georgia Death Race (74 miles), the race registration for next year race is open with 4 spots left. I want to run it, yet not sure if I have the ability. I am getting cold feet.

    It is also a point to point course. I don’t want to sign up unless I am sure about it. It is so early to commit for next year! Grrr, I don’t know how many things I have been sleeping on it.

    The problem is, too little time, too little money to do everything! Freedom! Having choices is my bane.

    By the way, I did my first run in the heat today! Boy, I’m not used to running in the 85 F. It was so hot. However, MMT possibly will be hot during the day and cold during the night!

    Got to go for now. I still have many things to say especially about what races to run for the next few years. Ohio Burning River is on my target and the midstate ultras grand slam. I woke up in the middle night thinking why do I have to wait till next year to do it, why can’t I do it this year? Indeed. A lot to think about, even in my sleep I am thinking about races!

  • Day519 lessons

    The Devil Dog is so much for me to debrief in a go. I might need some time, maybe some weeks later. It was a good race is all I got to say for now. Here below is an entry I wrote probably back in October (the airport trip) but did not get a chance to post.

    I am at the end of a long series of blog posts that started around at the end of summer. At first I did not mean for it to be a theme for the fall, but now fall is over, so I like to close it with this entry, to put a lid on.

    It all started when I had a lot of thoughts prompted by a friend of exactly why I love running (day502) and a lot of things were going on at the same time because I entered one of the busiest race schedule I have ever done my life. I tried to write them down as much as possible and saved them for later postings because I did not want to overwhelm the site with too many postings at once. There was a time I posted evert day, though now I try to keep to usually 2 posts, and maybe a third very short post, which usually announcing something I am very excited about, e.g., like the Waterfall 50K at the beginning of the year (WTF50).

    I entered the fall season with a bunch of races. There were too many for me to remember. I enjoyed going to Ann Arbor. And recently I went to Atlantic City. This reminded me that I should do a post, listing just all the marathons I did this year. I think I did about 6-7 marathons.

    I did a couple 12 hour/ 24 hour runs. I did the Iron Mountain and Rock n the Knob race. I love both of these races.

    Then there were a bunch of training runs for the Stone Mill 50. The final report already posted. Originally, this post was to be published first before that one. However, I was too excited about that race, and posted that one first.

    If you ask is there is a crescedo from all the races to a finale, the answer is maybe. This fall season is definitely something, unlike any previous year and I am not exhausted yet, and I hope I won’t burnout again like last year. I clearly remember by this time of year, I was. I have the Devil Dog coming up still but I am not sure if that will be the highest peak of this season. It will definitely be my hardest race this year other than MMT or Iron Mountain. These three races are the high points of this year (MMT in the late spring, Iron Mountian in the end of summer, and the Devil Dog at the end of fall (if we can still call it fall!) Maybe it will be a finale. I want it to be, but then who knows.

    If readers did not see the hypes leading up, that is fine. I have not been focusing too much on the Devil Dog. I was kind of keeping it at a low profile and hiding it in plain sight. That’s right. Because, I am afraid of running in this race.

    Now to the main topic, a few weeks ago, I asked myself whether there is a lesson in any of this. I kind of seeing a pattern from my running and writing reports of them.

    I had reread some of them whenever I write some reports that referencing to some earlier posts.

    In a way, I do know all what I have written but I am also so forgetful. To me, I am felt like drowning in the water called life, and from time to time I resurface and am able to breathe again. It give me a moment of clarity. Then I resubmerge in the world of forgetfulness again. This is not a lesson but an observation.

    I also note my work and recreation is also similar. Work is killing me. My weekend is what restore me. I do enjoy my work but often time it is a part of my life I don’t want to talk about. We work maybe 5 days a week and we have two days of rest. My weekend is like when I feel alive again. Specifically, running makes me feel alive.

    It is my fear that I will forget something like who I am and what I was doing. I have to write then down. There might be a brief moment of clarity in the middle of this. I tried to capture that. When I reread my own blog, I said yes, I remember now, that was what I was trying to do.

    It is funny how fast I forget thing. Sometimes when I reread my blog, it was like seeing things for the first time. And then the memories from the event start to reform.

    Also the stuff I write, sometimes they are repetitive. Maybe life is like that. We do things again and again. Maybe we go through a cycle. We often do not realize that. We have been there done that.

    When I reread my blog entries, I noted that I want every race to be uniquely special. And Yes they are. Sometimes, it is not really so significant, but I make as if they are the best race in the world. They were to me. This is my sixth (and maybe 7th) year since I started running (I lost count).

    This season, some races I have done them for the third time, like Rock-n-the Knob and many other races. There’s got to be some what different this time. I don’t know. Usually, I forget immediately after I have done them. I retain some vague memory. If a race is a repeat, the memory gets overlapped. I might mess up recalling which year is which. But thank to WP, my blog, things get recorded. It is fun for me to pull up a prior year race to do a comparison.

    Couple days ago I was thinking what all my races could teach me or improve me as a person. I threw my hands up. They don’t teach anything. Maybe I could beat them into something of a life lesson. Because I spent so much time thinking about races, I see my life too as a racing event. But I don’t like to think like that.

    Life is a race. We all running to somewhere trying achieve something. My bucket list items are like the Aid Stations on the course. Do I want to stop and get help or do I bypassing them? I hope I stop long enough to smell the roses.

    I feel my 9-5 job is like running too. I work without seeing the end of it. My weekend is my break or my aid station.

    I have been learning how to balance work and recreation. The time I spend at work, I don’t remember much. But the time I spend away from work is something I like to write about. All these posts here are what I do on the weekend.

    I don’t know if that makes any sense. Sometimes I run without reasons but when I read my blog, I then remember oh that is why I am doing it. I think when I write my blog, I try to give meaning to my races. It is part of story telling, but in truth, a run is just another run. I could do them mindlessly.

    Kind of an addentum: Other things that happened but I won’t write a post on, at least for now – I spent a weekend cleaning my room. Yes, I should do this every weekend. My roommate has moved out, and I kind of spending the time to rearranging the house and stuff. There are some long stories like we discovered a bee nest outside. I haven’t taken care to destroy the nest yet (I hate doing it because it didn’t bother me and bees are good insects, but my neighbor didn’t want the nest around).

    Yes, meh, I don’t like doing chores. Getting my room to be what I want it to be is a big deal to me. I felt I like ran a marathon.

    Second, the artists I supported on twitch have gone on a hiatus. This did affect my fall training in a good way. I guess I had more time to train. Why I brought it up is it has been a significant time and money sink. I was thinking to get some art for the house. This is open ended. I got some already but haven’t put them up.

    Third, my car has a recall where the gas tank could fall off. Yes I should have taken care of that during the last few months, but had not. These are the stuffs that were on my mind, yep, nothing related to running, but real life stuff.

    I guess I have to conclude the post somehow. Yes, these are real life stuffs I don’t want to deal with. Real life is messy. I like running and did a lot of them. Running is fun and simple. It was fun for the past season. There were a lot going on. We got through the fall season. The first post (on day 502) I had, I thought it was going be a brief interlude but many things since happened. Here we are.

  • Day456 A new year

    A new year is a new beginning. Yes Day 1.

    I will eventually reset my blog to Day 1 maybe some day. Actually to those who didn’t know I have done so like 5 or 6 times already — not for this blog here but on 5-6 previous journals usually after about 500 ish days, I started to lose track and would restart. It is kind of my thing to see how long I can keep it up. It is not important to my readers to know.

    My new year has been quiet. Last year, … I don’t remember what I did. Usually, I think I go hiking or do a new year day race. I did not race this year. I slept in. Also usually on new year, I sign up for races. There were many races usually open after new year. I did not do so this year. Today I checked. Many races already had a waiting list — like the Rim to River 100 miler, which I kind of want to redo it, had over 100 people on its waiting list! If there is a race you really want to do, you have to set an alarm and sign up the moment the open. I am not one of those who like to be on a waiting list.

    Compare to last year, this year I did not have much momey on hand. Not that I did not do well, I did. I think I made more money than I ever did! The S&P had a whooping 27% increase — too bad I got in only at the end of the summer, so I got about half of that windfall. This is like closing your eyes and randomly throwing a dart and it hit the bulleye. I know, not the best way to do with your money. That is how I feel about the stock market. I opened another retirement account after watching a Youtuber talked about it (Graham Stephan). I also increased my contribution to my work retirement plan, so I have very little liquid cash on hand at the moment. So I am too poor to sign up for races.

    This brought me to topic I want to share. Nothing important like my running. In fact I celebrated Christmas and New Year by watching youtube and twitch. Youtube has been around for a long time and it has changed over the year. At one point, it was a best place to watch movies, but now they really has shut off all the illegal uploads. At one point it was my go to place for music and that too has been no good now since they want people to pay for their youtube music.

    What youtube for me now is live content and video premiers. Live content can be VOD (video on demand) from a streamer. I mean it is unedited videos – first hand POV video (point of view). Yes it is just as much as a time sink as any other media.

    Over this pademic I have grown to enjoy a dozen or so streamers. I wish I could list all of them here. I mostly enjoy artists – the art kind and also musicians. I started watching I believe in spring 2020. As now another year passed, many of the original people I followed had moved onto some other things.

    Many have returned back to their real world job. Streaming cannot support them full time. Only a few made it to the top. For many, it was not worth it. Still there are many small time streamers, and they do it because they enjoy in what they are doing.

    What I am trying to get at is life moves on. In a sense I am happy for them but it is also a lost to their “community” they established when they are no longer there.

    One of the streamers I watched, Technoblade, a youtuber, and considered as one of the best minecraft players, brought me sad news. Over the new years eve, he finally reached 10 million subscribers on his channel. It was a goal he set when he was 13 — that he wanted to be a youtuber and to reach 10 mil viewers/subscribers. That was a good news, but I also learned just a few days prior (though the news was out since end of summer) that he was diagnosed with cancer. They almost amputated his right arm during fall. He had not upload much. He still made a joke that he would not able to clap his hands when he reached 10 million. He did. Not sure now how his future in gaming be like. He is indeed entertaining just by listening to him talking, so he might be switching to something new in the future.

    I could go on and on how I got plugged into these communities. I don’t know much about them except their user id or their stream name, yet I felt connected to them with the stories of their life they shared to their viewers. Each of them are different, yet special.

    It reminds me I am not too different. In a sense, I am doing something similar. I am telling my story. I have my angle. I hope though I will be around for a while. Happy new year to all.

  • Day446 4th Hello World

    Can’t believe once again, I reached the end of another year on WP. Yes, this is the fourth. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd are somewhere. Readers can search for them.

    In similar vein, it is the close of my fifth year of running and beginning of the sixth. I am not always a runner before. It used to be a big deal for me to note the season because each season I had some sort of goal I tried to reach. Now it is just, run and keep up with things. I am probably in my 12th or 13th season by now … I have lost count, assuming two seasons a year (fall and spring). summer and winter are usually too short to do anything, so I don’t count those.

    These few years have gone by so fast. The first year was fall 2016 – I ran my first 10K, and then a half marathon. I trained through winter and till spring, (season 2) when I had my first and second marathon within a month apart. My marathon was on April 1, easy to remember. My family thought I was playing a joke on them. They did however went and cheered me in Charlottesville. There wasn’t any marathon like that since. It was also one of the hardest marathons I did.

    Fall 2017, Season 3, I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. I trained all summer. The result was not as I expected. I did not improve on my time. Reality set in, that this won’t be a quick thing to be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

    Correction: I think I ran NCR marathon in fall 2017 and I ran Marine Corps Marathon in Fall 2018. The story is the same. At NCR I met a lady who did like 22 marathons. And at MCM I came to understand that I couldn’t reach my goal in a year or two.

    Spring 2018, Season 4, I ran the Delaware Coastal Marathon, as the first or one of early out of state marathons. I guess the idea was forming that I wanted to do all 50 states. As I ran more races, I got to meet people who were on similar quest. I met someone who was halfway to the 50 states.

    Fall 2018, Season 5, history is a bit hazy here. I think I got accepted to the marathon maniacs club. At the time, I thought the standard was pretty tough, because one had to run 3 marathons within 90 days. Somehow I did it and qualified. I was thrilled. It led me down a path of endless marathons – yes I became a true maniac!

    A lot happening then. I might have started blogging then. And marathons were not as challenging as the next level – “Ultra Marathon!”

    No idea how I got introduced to the Ultra world. It just happened.

    Spring 2019, Season 6. The rest is history so to speak. Everything now is documented here on WP, of how I became an ultra runner. I ran so many races in 2019, I can’t recall them. We did many hikes too. Because this was the year, we would go to Patagonia. Plans were made in the spring. Ah I remembered how I came to the ultra world — I volunteered at an ultra event (Seneca Greenway 50K) that spring and then everything fell into places. Spring 2019 was very important in what led to me today — both as a distance runner and an outdoor man.

    Fall 2019, Season 7. I did one of the best ultra races – Old Glory and from then I fell in love with trail running. A week after, I ran the JFK 50 mile. That was one of the longest races – mind boggling long and epic. We finished the season by traveling to Chile and backpacked Patagonia. I think that always will be a high point of my life.

    Spring 2020, Season 8. Bad thing happened – Covid-19 came and all my plans and races crumbled. But I was able to do a race in California – Carlsbad Marathon. It was one of most scenic marathons I did.

    Fall 2020, Season 9. I was willing to up my game. Due to Covid-19, many races became “virtual” – basically you ran at your home of the distance the race required. One of the virtual events I did was to run the distance across Tennessee – about 630 miles over 4 months. That was the most miles I ever ran. I surpassed the requirement and finished with 1000 miles that summer. Also, I made two attempts to run a 100 mile in Atlanta and both ended in failure but it led to greater boldness in doing runs in all locations, any time, and any weather. There was the passion to be out on the street running day and night. I ran across my city for the first time doing 50 miles. My whole city became my playground/training arena. No place is too far to go on foot. I did a lot of miles alone, and self-supported. And that helped me in doing ultra races the following year.

    Spring 2021, Season 10. Finally I succeeded in my first 100 mile run. I traveled down to Houston, Texas, to do it. Not only did I run the 100 mile, I ran couple 50 miles, and a 70 mile. It was an ultra pop off year. races: Rocky Raccoon, Grayson Highlands, Laurel Highlands, Stone Mill 50, and Seneca Greenway 50k, oh I forgot about Iron Mountain. Each race was epic and an adventure in itself. The significance of this is I got tested on the trails. Sure I could run on roads, but what about trails? Doing those races gave the confident, yes and on trails too.

    Fall 2021, Season 11. As season comes to the close, I have another 100 mile lined up and several maybe-maybe ultras. I am committed to the Devil Dog, and very tempted to run either the Stone Mill or the JFK again. I know I got to be out of my mind to do them because I am sure the 100 mile race would drain all of me – the question is: will there strength left to do any other races afterward? We will see!

    What next year gonna be? It has not arrived yet. God willing, I will be running some more. My goal as always is to do all fifty states. And to be a better marathon runner – yes run faster and stronger. Also I am still part of a virtual race with a team of runners – and we are running around the world. This winter, we would be two-third way through (20,000 miles). Wow! we ran a lot. 2000 miles per person on average. I think I reached 3000 miles – maybe. Who is keeping count? More on this in future posts.

    Something to discuss on future posts, how has running changed me? Time is devoted to being on the road. I virtually disappeared the last year or so. The body adapted. What I thought was impossible, now seems easy. I am boasting I could do a marathon any weekend. Want to run 20-30 miles this weekend? Sure lets do it. While that is true, I want to be the person who can run 26 miles every day! This is a minimum for those who want to cross the country on foot. I have that bigger dream to cross the continent one summer on foot. Ya.

    There you have it. Thank you all for your supports. Once a year, I got to thank my fans.

  • day265 why I run/blog

    Let see if I could answer this in one blog post. I have been hinting here and there.

    First off, why do I blog? Not in any particular order, here below:

    1. curiosity of WP and blogging as a whole because I never really put myself out there. I do have a Livejournal and a Tumblr but that never really take off, probably lack of community or weird community that didn’t align with me. WP has a good attraction. I see it is working. Some day, I wish to revive my LJ or my tumblr and sync them together.

    2. A memory dump. I have short term memory. I want to jot down something I can look back on. It is a project. More on this.

    3. I want to share with like minded people. I took up running and I started to follow other runners. I want to contribute my 2-cent. In a sense it is my community. When people read my stuff and comment on my posts, it makes me feel appreciated of the time spent writing them. It generates a feedback loop, which is a very good feeling. Running is my passion the last few years and I can’t stop talking about it day and night. WP is a platform I encountered many other runners who blog about their races. Running/write about my runs is one primary reason for this blog as stated in my tagline, and my profile. It is every where on my site in big neon sign.

    4. The life project and keeping myself on track. I started this blog with a goal to remake myself. It has been very hard. Change is never easy. Change means to do something different from what I am currently doing. I wrote several blog posts about transformation. Somehow I want to go from Point A to Point B. This blog serves as a manifesto for that. It is a learning process. I don’t have all the answers. Some answers maybe, and even with the part I do know, it is very hard. I have seen where I took one step forward and two steps back. There are a lot distractions in life. I constantly go from one thing to another. Having this here, and looking at it from time to time reminds me this is what I am aiming for and this is how I see progress.

    5. A place to rant and trying a new idea and/or seeking inputs. In writing things down, I go through a mental process of evaluating my ideas. It slow down my thinking process. Many of my trips started out as a blog post here. I lay out my plan and my evaluation afterward. Occasionally people commented on my posts and it helps me to think more about it.

    6. A place to show off myself of course. I impress myself from time to time. Many things I did, might not be impressive at the time, but after a while, I look back and I am kind of amazed that I did all that. For example, I set a PR (personal best) on a 5k run one summer, and at the time I thought that was not much and I would break it in no time, however, that record has been standing for three years. And looking back, I am amazed that was me back then. I have some of my fans who think I am awesome. I am, but I like that feeling too to be an ‘expert’ at something.

    7. A tool to communicate. This is obvious. All writing is meant to be read. I started running to impress my lady. And I was certain that she would like to read this and be impressed by it. So it is really is for my woman. Unfortunately, she doesn’t read it. Also many (if not all the) people I care about, you can say in the (my) real world, don’t read my stuff. But I have a steady stream of virtural or online followers who I never met in real life (face to face) who do read my stuff, so I am very happy.

    8. Making friends. It ties everything together. I saw some blogs that been around for many years like 5-6 years and the author is fairy consistent in putting out a post every month, yet it has no follower. Only the author know about the site visitor statistics. My point is some author like to write something, regardless it is being read it or not. It seems sad. My blog might be like that too. However, I had couple readers who are actively engage in my posting and it really brings this goal across. Writing is meant to be read and talk about. More than that it builds friendship whether near or far. There is a dynamic. There are people who care about if the quarantine is driving me crazy. There are things I read on here (WP) that really touch my heart.

    I wanted to write this post for a long time. I think I might have done one but I am too lazy to go back to check. That is one of my complaints of WP or blog, that you don’t remember what you wrote and it is difficult to find out. If it is a repetition, I apologize. I repeat myself a lot and tend to forget about what I wrote or didn’t write.

    Second point: Why did I run?

    The answer is simple. woman and passion. I originally planned this to be a separate posting. Until a reader asked me about it while this blog was being prepared. The answer is pretty much the same, so I decided to combine it to one.

    A woman got me into running of course, but then I found my true love through her. I haven’t gone to bed without thinking or talking about it – day and night it is on my mind and that has been for the past four years.

    The woman I was dating at the time ran marathons. It was natural or so I thought for me to run as well. I loved it the first time I did it. In my mind I was good at it. I still think I am pretty good. My time is decent. It is not the fastest but people would love to do what I can do. Of course I based my time off her time. At that point I didn’t know or realize guys usually are a bit better than women physically. It was not a surprise I could run faster than her. In no time, I was outdoing her. I am naturally an overachiever. But still my aim was to impress her. I think she was impressed! She is the only woman I know who listened to me talk about my race and not get bored and I went on and on 24-7. And you can tell, I was not putting her to sleep with my talk. Many do have their eyes gazed over if I go into it for too long. Hence, I started blogging instead of talking to people about it.

    Today, I have done more marathons than I can count with my hands or toes (well almost). I think I did 17-18 to date, not including the ultras or virtual races. I looked at it and I feel pretty impressed. I remember I was at a marathon finish not long ago (NCR Marathon) and got on a bus to take me back to the starting line. I talked with woman who also just finished and waiting to get back to the start where we had our cars parked. She told me she has done something between 26 or 34 marathons. I had only done about 4 including the one I just did at the time. In my mind, I was wondering when would I be like that. I was floored by her at that time because she was the first person I met who done ridculously a lot of marathons (at that time anything more than the fingers on hands is a lot). She blew my boat out the water. Now looking back, I am not that far behind her. She was telling me she only started a few years ago. It was unbelievable.

    I still run hoping to impress ladies, misguided as it may be. Guys are weird, I tell you or is it just me. I do feel proud of my ability. I am running farther and farther each year (with a goal one day soon I might cross the continent on foot). I think that is very impressive. If I think rationally though, it is difficult to impress the public about running. Maybe impress is the wrong word – more like get them to feel the passion about it.

    Many in the general public cannot really relate to running. To most a 3 mile is same as a 13 mile or a 26 mile (a marathon) because it is incomprehensible since not a lot can run even a mile. At first I thought that was an exception. I went on a hike with this lady once (a hike by the public definition, now a day a hike for me has to be 20+ miles). Afterward, she wanted to run. I think my talk of running was rubbing off me to her. So we ran. It was maybe even less of a quarter mile in she was out of breath (as if she was about to be passed out). I was – stunt. What did I do! She was not running at my speed. I slowed down myself even at the very beginning. Any way, since then I realize I have an ability to run that some people don’t. This point was made clearly to me last summer when I got Lyme disease and couldn’t do any physical activity at all. I imagine now everyone in the public have something like Lyme disease that prevents them from running and enjoying it. That is the key, enjoying. Most people think of running as suffering.

    So whether 1 mile or 10 mile or a marathon, they are all tough distances to the public. I always joke about that a marathon is like a 5k vs versa. In a sense yes. A marathon could be as easy as a 5K and a 5K is as hard a marathon. One mile is just tough for one who has not done it yet and if they try think ya 26 times of that, it is impossible to do that.

    I have a friend who I hike with from time to time. She understands mile and stuff better than me, because she can innately tell you how far a mile is (I can’t do it without a gps watch). She is surprised that I can’t tell how far a mile is even after all these years. She said she just does. Yet if I say I will be running 50 miles or 26 miles this weekend, there is still a disconnect of not understand immediately what that means because she hasn’t run that distance before. I sense the glazed look from her. The crazyness she think I am in. But if I tell her I am hiking 26-50 miles over the weekend, then she gets it. She knows I will be having a heaven of a time. She would say sweet. Enjoy yourself out there, but she won’t say that if I say I am going out to run such and such miles.

    While I talked about running with her, it was like reading from a dictionary. She can define all the terms and stuff but she has no functional understanding about them. Running is not her thing and it was not translatable to her from her hiking experience. That’s ok. That was the reason I have the blog. It captures the feeling that I hope can be lasting memorial of a run or a race that she can understand.

    When you like something so much, you want the people around to get it too!

    I probably could create a big list of reasons why I run like why I blog. Almost each post I have is a reason why I am doing it. The list mirrors the above why do I blog — which now you know is to share why I run. Ha.

    Meta: crazy dangerous undo function in WP app can delete the content of an unpublished post. There is no undo of the undo (redo doesn’t work). Don’t play around with the undo function in the app. I can’t stand the web version either. (Sorry again for those who received this twice)

  • day252 – coping being stay put

    Day 252

    I was reading my own posts last weekend and had to use my site navigation (the theme sucks and yes I know, the navigation navigation drives me nut, and so does the infinite scrolling) because I want to discover some pattern / big picture in my life, since I was writing a summary report. I could change site theme of course. Some day, I will get it to my liking.

    Well the only way I finally able to get around my site was by searching. Thank you for whoever put it there. Unfortunately the site doesn’t index by my personal dating system (I knew that) and many other things. Like, I want to read the blog of day #20, it just can’t find it. I imagining my blog being a book (or a physical journal, I want to flip to page 20, but it can’t do that except to infinitely scroll there and if you are not careful by hitting the back button you have to start all over again! I know a webpage is not a book. Still! It is one of those complaints about digital medium. I wish I could read it like reading on Kindle – that is a digital medium done well.

    WP search engine is pale in comparison to Google search. Sure I probably could use Google to search my site, but that is another story. By using WP limited search capacity, I learned a trick here and there in the way I of leaving better key words so to enhance it searches/indexing power. Isn’t it frustrating when you know something (a post I wrote) should exists but can’t find it? It all comes down to indexing.

    I found that they index the title, duh. By playing with it, I learned now how to search for my posts. Yes having unique key words is very important and tagging them too.

    Sorry, I got sidetracked and don’t remember why I am writing this and lost my train of thought. Yes, playing with WP is entertaining, but there was probably another reason I was writing it beside being geeky. O well.

    I received an email from my DC Rock N Roll marathon organizer giving me options to replace the canceled race (supposingly taking place today) due to the coronavirus. Oh boy, they offered so many choices! A word, most other races just give you one or two basically, sorry you can’t run but we take your money any way. Think of it as a donation to a good cause. Not this one. I have until April 4 to choose one.

    Here they are:

    1. Move to half marathon or 5K distance in 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll Washington D.C. Half Marathon: Nov. 7, 2020

    2. Free transfer to 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll Virginia Beach Half Marathon: Sept. 5-6, 2020

    3. Free transfer to 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon: Sept. 19-20, 2020

    4. Free transfer to 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll Oasis Montreal Marathon & 1/2 Marathon: Sept. 19-20, 2020

    5. Free transfer to 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll San Jose Half Marathon: Oct. 3-4, 2020

    6. Free transfer to 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll Denver Half Marathon: Oct. 17-18, 2020

    7. Free transfer to 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll Savannah Marathon & 1/2 Marathon: Nov. 7-8, 2020

    8. Free transfer to 2020 Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio Marathon & 1/2 Marathon: Dec. 5-6, 2020

    9. Free deferral to 2021 Rock ‘n’ Roll Washington D.C. Marathon & 1/2 Marathon: March 27, 2021

    Montreal and Savannah seem like ones I would like. But I probably choose option 0, that is to do nothing (no running) and they will take my paid entry fee as a donation to them.

    Good day y’all. I will begin my weekend of doing nothing but playing game and staying inside.