In awe

Tag: events

  • [693] catch-up, Philly Marathon (cheering crowd), NCR Marathon (half)

    So it has been some time since my last race. Holiday and such we are into December at the very end of the year.

    So many things happened in personal life, with all the ups and downs, and racing, it is hard to say or remember what happened in between.

    Of course, if I run I would remember. Last few events, I have sat out, maybe due to lack of money, motivation, and also to let my body recover from some hard runs I did such as Grindstone and the Virginia 100. Sometimes, it is not the body needed rest but the mind.

    It was a season for me to do nothing. One stand out was going to Mountain Masochist 50 Run to volunteer. It was a course I hiked on in my earlier days 2016/2017. Never had I thought that trail was runnable. So it will be my future project to go back to run on it. That reminded me, I forgot to ask the Aid Station captain to sign my volunteering form for Vermont 100 for 2026. Oopsie.

    The second event I did was going to Philadelphia to cheer Caroline for her marathon. I ran it two years ago now seemed ancient. I had a good time when I ran and I believe the condition was same this time. We had nice weather.

    We executed the plan like my previous trip to Philly. We arrived a day before. My cousin happened to be there at the Convention Center for a gaming event and so I asked him to pick up the race Bib for Caroline, otherwise we would have been hard press to try to get there before the closing. We arrived two hours after closing (5 pm). It would have been tight if we had tried to pick up the bib ourselves.

    With the assurance that the Bib was secured. We stopped for lunch in Virginia (Yechong, my favorite Korean place) and later met up my cousin in chinatown at a pizza place where I tried the authentic philly cheesesteak. It was too rush to truly enjoy my first cheesesteak in Philly, so one day, I got to go back and try again.

    We stayed in New Jersey since hotels in Philly were either fully booked or many times the price we were willing to spend.

    It meant the very next day, we had to get up 3 or 4 in the morning and we made the drive to Philly. I was worried that there would not be a place to park our car but there were plenty public parking garages near the community school. Sorry, I forgot which street that was on. Parking was around $12 for the whole day, which was good. We paid like $15 the night before for an hour in chinatown.

    We stayed in the car until reasonable time to walk to the start. I was anxious to get my runner into the chute and into runner village. As I remembered, the walk might be a mile out and for me in the previous year, going to security took a long time. Caroline though breezed through the security check. The runner village where runners waited for the start was restricted to runners only, so I waited outside.

    She did not use a drop bag and she wore a light jacket, so she was cold before the race even started. I had on plenty of clothes and winter coat and whole shebang so I was toasty. I saw many runners tossed away their throw-away jacket. She could have done the same like at the MCM earlier.

    We waited and finally by 7 am, the first wave came out. Caroline lined up in the 5th wave. There were two sides of the street where runners would be running through. I stood on the midian and betting she would come through from the left. However, it happened just too fast and I did not see her went by. She could have gone by from the right.

    When I was sure, no runners were left, I walked to mile 6, which was just a few blocks from the start for us, but runners had ran 6 miles by then. There, I set up to catch her. This time was a success. The street was narrower only like 5 runners deep, so it was easy to spot. Also, by now runners are pretty much slowing down. We could even read out runner’s names on their bibs and cheered by calling their names. I stayed maybe an hour and then had another breakfast at some food truck nearby.

    So, I checked the map and followed the crowd to the next location by the river. This was maybe 3 miles away. It was so exciting with everyone screaming. For runners, it was their mile 12. They went up to the reservoir and then running back down, so we could see them twice. So I heckled Caroline again. She was moving well. Pace-wise, on pace for me to arrive exactly when she appeared. So I was please for not having missed her.

    After the river section, it was my lunch time. I stopped by some grocery store and brought a bag of chips. Caroline had a long way to go to a turn around point at mile 20. I had plenty of time.

    If I had a car or bike or know how to take the public transport, I could have gone to mile 20 to see her. I spent maybe two hours trying to get there but in the end I realized I wouldn’t make it so I started cutting across town to where I think she would be. It was just passed the cementery. Someone told me it was mile 23. Caroline arrived like a few minutes later. So it was perfect.

    The final stop would be the finish line. I walked and run using a shortcut to mile 26, learning from earlier wandering around the race course. I think it was using 19th st or something. Caroline came in strong and happy. I was happy but she was tired for sure.

    We ended our day at a dimsum restaurant nearby and then it was a long drive home.

    #####

    I ran the MCM turkey trot. Nothing say about that other than I love 10K.

    At the NCR Marathon, I was not going to run originally, but Caroline signed up so why not do some light running too. I decided to do the Half marathon instead of the full. Caroline then dropped down from the full to run with me. We would receive the same swags anyway – a sweater and a blanket.

    I was not as anxious doing a half than if it were a full marathon, knowing I could finish by the cutoff (5 hours). The day was cold but sunny. It has been a long time since running a half so I did not know how to pace. I told myself to go out slow. I used my recent 10k race as a guide, running around a 10 min pace. At the turn around, I pushed a bit harder. In my mind, Caroline was a few minutes ahead and was out of sight. But at the turn around, I saw her again. She just did a marathon a week ago so there was no way she could keep up my pace. Then the full marathon runners came back and caught up with four miles left to go. There I met the second place runner and he seemed struggling. So he said he will follow me, I said no, I am too slow for him. Indeed, he followed me and we finished together. He was dropped down to 5-6th place.

    It was his first marathon. He said never again will run a marathon. Oh, brother, I told him to try again. To me, I will never get podium or anywhere near. I was just glad I could finish. I hope he will find joy in running.

    We went back to the school and had a lot of soup and later had a good meal at Yechong, a Korean restaurant.

    Happy Turkey Holiday and xmas if I am not able to post before then. I wish everyone a safe holiday.

  • [622] fire on the mountain and bridge collapsed

    Wow these were news that hit home on the day I got back from Sydney. The Baltimore bridge is no longer there. I am not sentimentally attached to it, being on it maybe once or twice in my life  but seeing it on the news the next day, was a OMG, what just happened. Those who watched the news knew all about it already. I won’t add more here.

    A much bigger and personal news was my beloved mountain MMT is on fire. Not sure if it was accidental or part of a controled burn, but MMT (Massanuttan Mountain) has several wild fires raging from north to south. Before I went on my trip, I heard the forest service was trying to do a controlled burn on one of the peaks, maybe it went out of control. MMT training run No. 3 was rerouted due to it.  Basically, we have to stay away the whole area for now. Meaning, the Chocolate Bunny run (Easter midnight/sunrise celebration, MMT training run) was canceled.

    There is a possibility the MMT race itself too might get canceled. We are standing by, once the fire is put out, and a call for trail maintenance put forth, we would fix up the trail for the race. It might be a tall task. OD100 sent out their assessment that their race will still be held since the burn area doesn’t affect their course. OD100 and MMT100 do share a similar course. MMT100 though mostly is on the MMT trail and does go through the fire area. I will be running in both events.

    Instead of the Chocolate Bunny Run, I was invited to join the CAT runners (Charlottesville Area Trail) for their weekend run. I always want to run on the Priest and Three Ridges, having hiked and backpacked there many years ago (when I was 18) long before I was into trail running. It was be good to go back and see how things have changed. 

    Initially, I wanted to write about it, but there was very little to share. My heart about the run was not in it. I got off work, packed, then went to the trailhead. It was a three hour drive. I got there around 2:30 am, which was perfect for me since I was still suffering insomnia from jetlag. Morning was night and night was morning to my body.

    I was not sure where to park my car. The lot seemed small and full. I pulled into a space I found. Everything was quiet. I walked and hiked up a bit on the trail and then found a place to pee. I decided not to wander too far in case I might get lost, so I headed back to the car. I set alarm to wake me up later. About 5:30 other people arrived. Somehow everyone managed to fit their cars into the small lot. We ran. We finished pretty early. It was only 20-ish miles. I wanted a 30 mile day but I needed to use the restroom again, so I did not continue for climbing the Priest a second time as some of them did (it was a hill repeat day, 7000 ft) but went into town for food and to rest.

    Afterward, I felt the Wild Oak Course would be a good follow up to the Priest since I didn’t want to do another loop at the Priest. The Wild Oak Trail was only an hour away and my favorite place to be. I celebrated Easter there (by tuning in to a church in Sydney). The night passed quietly, with a storm came at midnight but I slept through it.  The morning came. I wanted to start early so I could finish the run early, however, my legs were more tired than I anticipated.

    After hiking up for a mile, I decided to trust my instinct to go back to my car. Wild Oak course would be a 20-mile loop (I was thinking of skipping Big Bald, and using the road to Camp Todd; this was Grindstone 100 training loop). I had a nagging feeling that it might not be a good idea to hike Wild Oak at this time. The good feeling was not there. Usually my gut feeling is right, and I told myself to trust it.  Nothing bad happened to me but I met a fisherman who said a tree has fallen over the main road and blocking access into deeper in the park. I felt better when I decided turn back. I was able to leave since I parked outside of it.

    I am writing this because, normally, I like doing a big run. The day before, while the run was hard, I felt it was not enough. The next day, the run on Grindstone was supposed to be hard, but I did not have the mental prepareness to handle it. So, I canceled it. So I felt the trip was unfulfilling as I was leaving.

    While driving back home, I stopped at Ashby Gap near Sky Meadow State Park, which was much closer to home and finished my 10 mile hike/run on the AT, by visited the Wiskey Hollow shelter. Someone wrote in the Logbook there “Happy Easter.”  I doubted they stayed there for the night. The hike on the AT felt very good. I guess I wanted to see people on the trail and Sky Meadow area was a better choice compares to the Wild Oak Trail. I still got a significant hill workout. The AT is never easy.

    I have been trying to get back into my normal routine now I am back home. The marathon I did in Taiwan was such a high point, now everything else seems so normal. I have been asking myself what to do next. I do know what I wanted to do. I have a huge to-do bucket list, but none of the items seems inspiring at the moment. They were when I made them.

    I want to feel goals with urgency. I want to do everything. Feed the fire.

    Seven years ago, running in all 50 states seemed like a good goal, maybe because it was eternal or impossible to me at the time. Now, it is just tedious. Should I continue? I concluded, yes, as long as I still enjoy running marathons. And I do enjoy.

    I am reading Into the Wild, and that kind of life excites me, it was a short one, but it fully embraced the ethos of pursuing ones ideal, and not many people live like that — walking the walk to the point of foolhardy  — he chose to go to Alaska during a winter with insufficient provisions and so ended being trapped and dying there, which might be too simplistic an explanation; surely he must have known the consequences and I am sure he did not want to die. My running is like that. I want something that I feel worth living for and worth the pursuit.

    I need to do some soulsearching to find out what I really want. (Hint, a podcast I am listening, said try to ask yourself the 5 Why deep question, like why do I like running?, If my response is I feel good while doing it, then the next level, why does it makes it feel good. So usually by 5th level, you get to the motivation)

  • Day388 some boring stuff

    boring stuff to most but me, I checked out some spring marathons last night. Hey it is that time again where races are on sale.

    I would have to defer the One City. Finally there are words from them. It will be a virtual event. I am no longer enjoying running virtual marathons, so I will defer this to next year. No flaming on the organizer. It made perfect sense to have it virtually since Covid cases are rising everywhere and the fear that cases will overwhelm the health system is real. If they had it in person otherwise, people like me would be considering traveling hundreds of miles to run and likely increase the risk of bringing the virus to them/taking it back home to my community.

    Charlottesville Marathon. Kind of eyeing this. They will be hosting it outside of the city since the city itself has a maximum limit of 50 people per event. When there is no running races in 2020, any races in the spring is selling like hotcakes.

    Roanoke Double Marathon. Also eyeing this. This one originally on my schedule last year, but Covid canceled it. The same organizer. We are facing the same circumstances. Likely it will be changed to virtual again. Know this, I’m still kind of wanting to sign up. I can save $35 for the early registration.

    Dirty Kiln in PA. Also eying this race. Because it is outside of my state, I will need to be tested for Covid before running. PA requires visitors to be tested for Covid within 3 days before arrival or quarantine for 14 days after arrival. I think this is a sane way. So no more sneaking into another state to run a race. Well I think everyone should be tested before running a race. Weird they think other states have more covid cases than they do. I read on FB many runners before running the JFK went and got tested. I guess this is likely will be a trend in the running world.

    That’s all. I am about to get up to run the last race of 2020. The race is at 7 AM. About 2 hours more. The wait.