Tag: MMT training

The second training run for MMT went better than the first (Trn1). There are two more left before the race in May. This training run was a lot easier than the first one and I met quite a lot of people.

MMT is one of the three signature races I will be running in 2023. By signature, I mean A-goal races. I have many races lined up, but 100 mile are my jam now. MMT, specially, I have a thing for it because I did not finish it last year and a reason I need to do better this time. 100 mile for me, has a 50-50 chance of finishing, so it is more exciting compares to other races I do.

Preparing for training run #2 was as hectic as the first. You would think, I am doing this almost every week, you would think I got the system down. My original plan was to leave work on time (and maybe even a bit early) and then head to the trail for camping since we would have to be there by 5 in the morning. I was hoping to camp out, so I would have more time to sleep.

As much as I wanted to start out early, I was kept late at work (and it seemed to be a pattern lately). Not blaming. I had a last minute urgent assignment as I was preparing to leave. I bursted a few veins. I wanted to say I’m off but it was urgent. I was just miffed, and the endless frustration of being ruined by outside factors.

I left with a choice of facing it or pushing back. I took a deep breath and handled the work. I did not get out of work until couple hours later and camping out was out of the question by then. It could still be done, but I didn’t want to wander about in the dark when I was likely to be cold, tired, hungry, and mentally tilted. My evening plan was ruined and it was not a great start to the weekend.

I stayed home Friday night instead and stayed up late and got about couple hours of sleep, before setting out. I had the alarm set for 3 am. I already was dressed before going to bed, so didn’t need chamging after getting up, but still it was hard to get up and get into the car and drive. I spent about 30 mins to clear the drowsiness. It was good my body responded well and I was fully alert by the time I set out. Lately, I have been having interrupted sleep, so catching a 2 hour sleep was pretty normal. I didn’t have any side effect from the lack of sleep during the day.

The parking lot at Camp Roosevelt (we used the horse parking lot) trailhead was tiny, so I had to get there early to get a spot because we tried to get 50 cars in there. This is the same lot for the Kennedy Peak hike. Note, Camp Roosevelt is closed in the winter.

This training was a point to point 30-mile run unlike last year. Coordinating rides is kind of a pain but we got a system. We parked at the finish and the “faster” runners would bus us (carpool) to the start. The idea is we the slower runners would run at our own pace and get back to our cars without pressure of having to find a ride back to the start. Basically the shy people as long as they get a ride to the start, shouldn’t worry about having a ride afterward.

Whereas the faster runners, would run faster and likely be able to find someone to give them a ride back to their cars once done. They shouldn’t have to wait for long. The slower runners would not need to wait at all. This system usually works out fine. Anyway, since I am one of slower runners, I need to get to the lot early to get my parking space so don’t have to drive to the start location, otherwise, I could be left without a ride.

The day was exceptional mild for winter. We had a warm Friday. It carried into Saturday, though a winter storm was forecasted for Sunday. We were lucky to have the run happened before the storm hit. The temperature was warm like the previous the night. Early hours the temperature was a bit nippy. The coldest time was around 7 am in the morning. Throughout the day the temperature was well above 40 F, around mid forties, which was just the right temperature for some hard running. We had great sunshine.

I dressed in my usual running clothes. Two layers, a short sleeves over a long sleeves tech shirt. I had a long pants on but most people wore shorts. I had gloves and neck buff, though probably not needed, but it was better overdressed than underdressed for a wilderness run. I carried a puffy jacket too, plus a rain jacket. The jackets were just for emergency. It was definitely whole lot better than last weekend or the first training run when I was freezing.

We signed in. Handed over our snacks and water. This training run had a communal potluck style snack for aid stations. We each bring something and everyone share the food for the aid stations. We had two aid stations. First one was at the 8.5 mile and the second one was at the 19 or 20 mile. There were 48 runners. Plus a few volunteers too. Some of them ran a portion of the trail.

I found myself a ride to the start with Tony, who was driving a van that was converted to a sleeping van (like a mobile home). I have seen them at some events where those runners drove their vans to races and sleep in them. This was a fancy van, almost like an RV. He has a cot, a bucket toilet, an icebox cooler, some totes, and race clothes and water packs hanging along the wall. I thought it was so cool to be inside of one in-person. About 10 of us fit inside. We had only 3 seats with seatbelts, not including the driver. The rest had to sit on the floor or on various objects. This was probably not safe or legal, but hey, we did what we need to do. I probably shouldn’t post about this 😉

I and couple others got the cot. Someone (Heather) sat on a toilet bucket. Dan sat on the cooler. It was quite an interesting rides. We had two conversations going on. People up front had theirs and we in the back had ours. Heather was quite talkative. She believed she saw me somewhere before, likely at an aid stations she thinks. They were talking about the revenge MMT they ran in the fall and it was much harder than the real MMT were about to go on. We had a jolly ride at 5 am in the morning.

At the time I didn’t know Tony, the driver of the van, but we met again while on the trail. He and I was able to share about 5 – 6 miles alone with him. We slogged up the mountain while no one talked. But Tony and I were ones who outran our group on the way down. He and I had a decent conversation. Tony will be doing a 200 mile at the TWOT this coming Wednesday (today). I wrote about the TWOT last week — I mislabeled it as the TROT, but it should be TWOT, stands for The Wild Oak Trail.

I finally met in-person someone who is attempting a 200 mile. It is one of my goals too to break into the 200 mile world. One hundred mile race is hard, but I want to know how it is like doing a 200 mile. To me, it is impossible. You would ask what did I say to the man, maybe getting some tips? I enjoyed the one on one time with him while running from Shaw Gap and to Veach Gap. He was without ego. We chatted random stuff, mostly on the MMT and my experience last year. I was very happy.

Tony turned around at the first aid station. He only wanted about 19 mile that day. Also Tony will be doing the MMT, so I will see Tony again on race day.

The training helped me familarize with the course again. I had been on it last year but most of the turns were hazy in my mind since. For example, at Shaw Gap, we go through the saddle. Logically I felt turning left should be what we should take, but going through it was actually the correct way to get off the mountain. This part was completely not stored in my memory last year. I think because it was uneventful and I did not remember running on the road from Shaw Gap to Veach Gap. We passed by Sherman Trail, mentioning it because I’ve read about it on some other training run plans, but did not know it was there.

Ascending on Veach was not as difficult as I had thought. I was joined by a father and son team. Jeff is a local Eddingburg’s resident. He is a good guy and a straight shooter. I felt embarrass when he addressed me as Sir in every sentence, like the military way, and he could be my father. He has a southern/country side accent and southern charm. Maybe that what country people do. Do I call him Sir back? Later I learned everyone loves Jeff. We shared the trail until we got Indian Run. Descending from Indian Run to the road, we met Bob G. Bob was the last finisher of last year MMT. He is in his 80s, yet still a strong trail runner. Bob is a colorful person in our running group and he is seen in all races. Everyone knows Bob as well. This guy is a legend.

Two stories here. First Jeff and another older gentleman, we met at Indian Run. These folks are at least over 65. Yet they can run. I was overtaken by them. Indian Run is a steep downhill for us coming off from the MMT at the ridge, probably the steepest on the whole MMT course. One mistep would cause the runner to tumbling down the mountain and forever disappear into the ravine. Yet, Jeff and others started flying down the hill. I love to see when runners get excited. Note, they were pretty slow earlier, slow enough for me to be ahead of them. Luckily I stepped aside to let them lead to avoid embarrassing myself. They earned my respect of how good they were going down hills. They were indeed pro runners. I could not keep up after couple steps, and they disappeared after a turn. I know they were alright, but at the same time how vastly inferior I am in term of skills. They were fearless. Note, I generally run down hills too but this was too steep and rocky for me.

We met Bob at the end of the Indian Trail and Bob engaged in a long recount about Jeff on last year MMT. Apparently Jeff and Bob were leapfroging one another during the MMT race. Jeff mentioned how Bob cursed like never before when he fell and broke a rib. Note, Bob went on to finish the race. Bob was praising Jeff of his resilency of not quitting even though he was down 5 times (Bob said Jeff was dead 5 times and each time resurrected). Bob joked how Jeff left him each time after he recovered, but Bob would catch back up. Their stories were captivating to the rest of us. Everyone stopped to listen. It reminded me at the Devil Dog, when Jimmy, a runner I was with, greeted Bob by saying: Shut up Bob! Bob likes it. Of course, Jimmy doesn’t mean it. Note Bob was a former general, and it was just weird with the disrespect. But Bob too doesn’t carry an ego. Bob also praised Jimmy today, though he wasn’t present, about him being a good pacer. Jimmy will be pacing a friend at the MMT this year. I was like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration, tongue-tied, before Jeff and Bob.

My MMT story was too humbling. I dropped out at mile 95 while these two older gentlemen, frail, but finishing the race and even one of them did it with a broken rib. They were at another level. I told Jeff if he sees me at the MMT and I was not doing well, please slap me or something to get me moving. I want to be with these older people.

After getting down from Indian Run, Charlie and a bunch of other runners caught up to me and Jeff. Because Jeff was walking for his son/grandson’s sake, so I joined up with Charlie. The young man seems to have an injury before the run. Both his ankles were taped up. I didn’t ask. Yet the young man also flew down the mountain earlier, so I wasn’t too concern, but Jeff was checking on him every mile or so, like how his foot.

You know on the first training run, there were three runners I was with for the whole run, yet I felt being mostly ignored by them. Guess what, they were back in this training run as expected. I believe I will be partner with them in the race because our paces were nearly identical.

I didn’t recognize them though and didn’t make the connection until later, but they were Charlie and his friends. As I mentioned in previous post, I didn’t blame them or anything. It is just the nature of the run or maybe something weird that day I didn’t hit it off with people. It was just bad vibe and a bad day. The vibe on this run was much better. All was forgotten and forgiven. Of course, they know me before I recognize them.

This training run though, the trio were spread out. Charlie was running by himself, leading. The road portion was boring. Charlie was one of the few who ran in a decent pace. He and I outran everyone else of the people he was with and there were about 10 of us at the time. I needed a companion to get me through the road portion. Charlie had a nice pace going and I joined in. We together made it to the second aid station, at Habron Gap (some called it Hasbro, we couldn’t decide if it is a long A as in Hay, or short a sound, as in Hat, we asked the local Jeff, but he didn’t know either, he said he heard it both ways). Since this was only a training run, we stayed there for a while until the rest of the people caught up.

Habron has the hardest climb of the entire MMT course. In my memory it was the toughest ascend. Today, the climb did not seem too bad. We had fresh legs relatively speaking, only 20 miles in instead of 50. It was quite gentle with switch backs, we got up to the top in an hour or so. In theory, it is runnable. I had many rougher climbs than this one. Personally, I think Duncan, Jawbone, Scothorn or Bird Knob is much harder. Yes, all the later climbs (wait for the 3rd Training run).

When we got to the top, we had to make a sharp left. More story happened here later. Habron trail seemed to go straight over to the saddle. However, the trail and blazes would end soon on the other side. Some runners (3) went straight and down on the other side, included one of Charlie’s friend Stu. We almost went down the other side too until Charlie stopped us and we saw the orange blaze on trail to the left of it. Note both trails were to the left. MMT has a sharper left.

The rest of the run was kind of easy. It was about 2.7 miles to Stevens trail and then 4.8 miles to the road where our cars were. The descend on Steven’s was gentle but long. Charlie took off and disappeared. Coasty, who is Charlie’s friend, and I took our time descending. Coasty caught up to us at the Habron’s aid station. Stu was probably not too far back, but we didn’t see him and unfortunately he got lost.

I finished at 2:30 pm (8.5 hours since I started) for a total of 30.5 miles. It was not bad. We should be at 64-65 mile in the MMT race. In the race, this is the location when the race started to get hard for me last year. Honestly (ngl, not gonna lie), I almost cramped up running down Stevens trail on this training run.

Today though, the run was easy because we only had 30 miles. Afterward, we sat around the camp fire. A few of us were telling stories. Dan, the MMT RD also was there too. Boy, he had a lot of stories. Charline came in. Tracy came in. Tracy was one who ran the MMT a few times but is still chasing the buckle and like me, she failed at mile 95 all three times. Tracy and John were supposed to be the last runners today but they somehow leapfrogged the three others, who got lost. So, we were waiting for the last three runners to come in. One of the three was Stu, Charlie’s friend. Many people said they saw Stu while running. And we all concluded they must have gotten off course.

Indeed, they took the wrong trail down after Habron and they somehow managed to not find the trail to backtrack onto, since the trail disappeared. So decided to bushwhack for an hour to the top of the mountain to the ridgeline because there likely is the MMT trail. If they could get on the MMT, they could find their way to the finish. They were lucky that their guess was correct. Some got scratched up by thorns and threstles but at least they were able to get back. We joked that they ran the Barkley (the hardest marathon on earth).

PSA: Even on a training run, bring the essentials, map, compass, jacket, warm clothing, light, somenfood and water, because you don’t know if you would get lost and how long you might get stuck in the “wild”.

We were worried the runners would not able to find their ways off the mountain and night was approaching, plus a winter storm was forecasted, so it was not looking good to get lost out there. We were contemplating when to send out a search party. It would be us runners of re-running the trail again, even though the chance of encounter them could be low since they were not on the trail. However, none of us was willing at the time to go back out (we were really tired) unless necessary. We know in the past, runners had to find their own way out and the best chance for us was to wait. Besides, we were certain all three lost runners were together and seasoned, so their chance of “survival” was quite high. In the end, everyone was safe and sound.

The RD for the training run is the same RD for the TWOT and TWOT is my dream race. You bet I wanted to kiss up to the RD. I had a good day seeing the RD in operation up closed and what to do in an emergency situation. Also, the RD is one of my personal heros for his accomplishment at the TWOT. Plus Tony too was around too. Just unbelievable I could spend the day with these people.

Conclusion: I had one of best runs. It was certainly a good weekend I got to do something like this. I got to spent time with some cool people.

On the ascend after Veach Gap. The time was around 8-9 am.

TL;DR – A weekend long run on a weak leg.

What a weekend! It was like taking a cold shower. I have done many kinds of runs and gone on many outdoors trips, but this past weekend was one of the best. It was a training run for my MMT 100 (Massanutten 100 mile trail run). I compare the trip to be like when I ran on the Wild Oak Trail one night, (the post is somewhere on here, maybe one day I find the link and link it), but that was another story. Or it was like the Smoky Mountains trip, except less tiring. I felt refreshed by it.

Granted the event was just one of the small training runs for MMT, but it felt like a real race. As many as 40 people showed up and they ran it fast, I don’t think they were holding back. The training program was free and was open to all on a first-come-first-serve basis. So many of the runners were using it to train for something else other than the MMT or they just wanted to run it for fun. I had to hold back because of my hamstring injury and also my condition is not good. Even so, the event was so good and it would be many times that when the real race (MMT) comes in May.

My training for the last several months has not been as great as I would have hoped. For various reasons, and mostly due to various injuries but also being unmotivated, my training hasn’t really been seriously taken off. Luckily, I had a few so called training runs and this was one of them (TR#3).

All the training runs for the MMT are on the actual course. Each time, I am humbled by it. This time, coming in with a hamstring injury, probably sustained at the last training run a month ago, which was probably stemmed from an injury from even earlier at the Devil Dog 100k in December, I didn’t know if I would be able to do it. The injury seemed to be serious enough for me to not being able to move or walk much for the last two weeks. The big question of course is why I even tried to go and run, right? But I couldn’t just stay home. It was the same reason I ran a 10K race the week before while limping, but now the pain has gone down significantly. Note readers, Don’t do what I do. Instead listen to your body.

Luckily for me the run was problem-free, but just maybe a tiny bit, which I will tell. I woke up immediately at 3:30 in the morning after my alarm went off, the drive was 2 hours away, so I knew I had to be out of the house by 4 to make it on time. Even with only a couple hours of sleep, I felt refreshed and ready. I rarely felt tired on a run! I had kind of packed my things already the night before, and was just missing a few more things. I planned to camp out too afterward, so I had to gather my tent, sleeping bag, my food bag and some clothes. I had a big loaf of bread (banh-mi) in the car and I ate it for breakfast as I drove to the site. I thought that was enough for the day but a bit later in the morning I was hungry again. I regretted that I didn’t bring along other snacks.

Originally I was going to leave on Friday night and camp out before the event so I wouldn’t have to make the morning drive but for some laziness in me, after work, I didn’t pack quickly enough and ended up having dinner and after dinner I was a bit too sleepy to do the night drive. My excuse was I didn’t want to look for a camping spot after dark.

Anyway, I arrived a bit “late”, just 15 min before the event. Ideally, I like to be there an hour before, for any big event. I should have left the house at 3 in the morning instead of 4, but that would cut into my sleep time. Many already were there. Luckily, I got a parking spot. Note, we were trying to fit 40 cars in a small lot that was probably designed to hold 15-20 cars. It was a tight squeeze and I was afraid either someone would dent my car or I to them. This was by the way the same lot we used on the last training run at Stephen’s Trailhead at Camp Roosevelt (and that time, we tried to squeeze 60-65 cars in).

The temperature of the early morning was nippy cold. The city temperature was 42 F but I think up on the mountain was near 30. It was cold enough to see my breath. Definitely, I was not dressed for the occasion. I didn’t bring gloves or a wool cap. My ears and fingers were burning from the cold. I didn’t check the weather closely before going. It rained just 15 mins before the race.

I found the race director and signed in. Unknown to me and the race director, there was someone having a similar name as mine and it caused much confusing through out the day. He was also asian. I was using my last name and he was using his first name, and they are the same. So whenever I reported myself arriving at a checkpoint, the volunteers would say, they already cleared me or I came through. I felt someone stole my identity. This also led them to believe I was no longer on the course for having crossed my name off early. Some even said I didn’t show up or not on the list. Nothing wrong with that except I would receive no aid for showing late. By the way, they offered me food. They are one of the nicest people.

I also decided to add a few more layers on top of my T shirt before starting out. It was a smart move. I carried a rain jacket as well. Guess what! It snowed midway into my run. Unbelieveable that there was still snow at the end of March. It was not too bad, but the wind and temperature was consistently on the cold side.

We started our run in the dark. I couldn’t remember much of the landmarks and turns we passed by. I was just following the crowd. I ended up being the last one eventually. We crossed several streams and maybe by mile 5, I could no longer keep up with the group. On one hand, I was being careful with my hamstring, stepping gingerly and didn’t want to push it too hard. And I know it would be a long day, and many more miles to cover. On the other hand, my aerobic performance was poor. Little did it occur to me to have a plan B, like how to bail out or take shorter the course in the event if something bad were to happen. Eventually, I did have to take a shorter course, thanks to a lady at an aid station for the trail guidance. It did occur to me at mile 5-6 whether to turn around and go back. I told myself that if I need to turn around it better be sooner rather than later now and before mile 15 when I reach the point of no return.

The sunrise was amazing as I was climbing the first hard climb. I don’t remember what mountain it was (I think on Duncan Knob) but it was on a blue blazed. Too bad, I was a bit too tired to take a photo. Throughout the day the views were amazing. I recognized a mountain in the distance. I named it Mt Doom because as I know we would be there 25-26 miles later. It was maybe a mile or two from where I was but we would circle back to it. It is a landmark close to the finish for this run as well as the actual 100 miler. As an aside, after checking the map post race, Mt Doom might not be the same Mt Doom I thought I saw, but it is near the finish.

What so fun about trail running is the significant distance we would be covering on a run. I am surprised each time I run to see landmarks that we eventually get to. Even though we could see it, but it would take us a whole day to get there. Of course, we meandered around several other mountains and valleys to get there. It is something I am very proud of.

My pace was beyond slow and I know it early on. I thought it would be nice to keep it as if it were a race day. I had no doubt that I would finish regardless. On race day, I would be at 70 miles in with 32 miles to go. normally, I wouldn’t be running much by then. The pace I was doing I felt was not too far off from race day pace for that stretch. I felt my pace was reasonable even though it was slow.

Little did I know though there was a cut off time for the training run too. Logically, yes, I wouldn’t want everyone waiting for me. I remembered later reading it somewhere before, but while on the course it didn’t occur to me. I was planning to run that course in 12 hours, and didn’t realize we were given at most 11 hours (for 35 miles). This was my fault. If it were race day, I would have built up enough buffer in the first 70 miles to allow me to go slower than the required pace at the end. But today I had no buffer since I just started. What even worse was I was also doing/planning to do a reverse split, which I believe I could, but this was a no-no for a long run, because most cutoffs usually give more lenient toward the end than at the beginning, not the other way around. I was taking it easy and chilling and walking even during most of the down hills and flats, thinking I could always make up in the mid or final section. I also made enough stops to take pictures — at one point I almost took a quarter mile up a side trail to summit a mountain for a picture. I thought I was having fun because I know on the actual race day, I wouldn’t have such free time to do all these side excursions.

By 10 am, 4 hours into the event, I sensed time was ticking by faster than I wanted and even without any prompt, my spider sense kicked in telling me I need to giddy up. I started running then with the aim to reach the first checkpoint by 10:30 (note, in my mind I thought the checkpoint would stay open until 11). On a normal day, I would have made it, but today was not one of them. My body refused to move. I could hardly even do a 12-13 mins on flat. Every few steps I needed to stop and breathe. It might be the altitude affecting me too. But I knew I was maybe 2-3 miles from the first Aid Station. I came in at 10:45. The last person came in like 20 minutes ago. And the actual cut off was 15 minutes ago. They were wrapping up. The two ladies at the station was surprised to see me. The one who was in charge of the station apologized, they thought everyone had gone through (this was because of the names mixup and they crossed my name off before I even arrived). They felt that they had failed me and I felt bad too like being a bad guest. They offered whatever food they had left. But the hard truth was I had been DQ. They said I shouldn’t (actually couldn’t) continue on the course and they showed me a way to cut off a 10 mile loop to get ahead of other runners and so I could get to the finish in a decent time. Reason being even though I was just 15 minutes behind, they fear, by the end of the run it might increase to an hour or more and they were not wrong about that. They were not wrong.

Navigation was my biggest concern since I tried to read the trail notes before the event (for the 100 race) with my map several times but each time came away in confusion and feeling sleepy. So I was worried on the actual run I would get lost.

I was sad because the whole purpose for me to come out to the training run is to know the course. And now only a third way into it, I was kicked from the event and the mission is not achieved. I did not want to jeopardize being banned from future events, so I obeyed.

With the shortcut, I got in front of many faster runners. It was funny to see the look on their faces, like how did this slow guy get in front of them! Of course the front pack was amazing in their ability to climb and actually ran up the mountain not breaking a sweat and they already have done 26 plus miles while I only had maybe 15 miles and I was struggling as I slowly climbed one step at a time.

I finished around 2 pm (2:16 as recorded) having done about 24-25 miles that day. It was still a pretty good stat in my opinion of running 24-25 in 8 hours. I was slower than my last training run but it also meant I ran much faster after being cut from the race to make it back to the finish (which was in the same location as the start) in a acceptable time. I know if I had run properly in the first place, I wouldn’t have been cut.

I was tired after finishing and was actually glad I was being cut. I couldn’t imagine how I would have managed an extra 10 miles if I had gone the full route. I was able to sit around with the faster people as we waited for the rest to finish. We had a fire going and the Race Director was grilling some good burgers for us. It was a free race, so any extra food beyond what we brought to the race was coming from the club fund or RD personal fund. We felt honored for the food and the excellently managed event. Normally, no food was expected.

I ended up camping out on Saturday night. It is really for another story, but it was nice and cold when the temperature dropped during the night. I did my camping thing. Pretty much the only guy on the whole mountain. The following day, I decided to drive to the 10 mile segment that I missed and ran it on my own. It took me 3 hours to run it. It was much easier than I thought. It was less rocky and it was pretty much runable for the most part. I am glad I did it so as to have an idea for the actual race. People were saying all kinds of stories for this section and I had to see for myself.

In conclusion, I did what I came to do. I did 35 miles over the weekend. My hamstring held up well and I believed it got stronger due to the event. I am in less pain today afterward (almost pain-free). I think I am at 85% recovered now from the injury. Before the event, I felt I was at 75-80%, so maybe another 10% improvement. It felt stiff still, and I am not at 100% yet, but soon will be. Readers might not know the joy of being able to run again! Physically, I am not ready for the 100 mile race as I would like but I know I can get a bit more ready by the next training. The 100 mile race is scary yet manageable. I believe I said the same thing on the last training run. This time having seen almost the entire course, and I believe I ran on the hardest section of it, laid to rest whether this race is within my capacity. The next training, called Chocolate Bunny (on Easter Sunday), will be a night run on almost the same portion of the race course as this time. I am looking forward to it. It would nail the finishing portion of the course in the actual condition because on race day, most people will be running this last section in the dark or predawn period.

I am grateful to have run it. All the volunteers made it possible. I was not in peak condition. It was humbling, but I sense that it is so true from scripture that my grace is sufficient and my power is made perfect in weakness. The weaker I am, the more appreciative of the type of runs I could pull off.