Tag: pre-race

  • [632]

    Race weekend is here!  Many asked if I am ready for the big day.  Nope.  I wish I could train much harder, do more runs in the heat, climb more mountains, and be faster.  All said and done, the race is here.

    How do I feel?   I have the same feeling as with any other races.  There is the anticipation.  There are the final preparations. I hate doing the logistically part.  People are messaging me giving me well wishes.  All fine

      I haven’t finalized my pace chart yet.  I don’t even have a list of aid stations. Yes, they are online. My pacers are asking me final questions like when I will be at such and such place.  Who knows. A lot will be depended on race day.  I hope to get to mile 65 at such and such time and mile 78 and such time. I wish to finish.  But anything can change on race day.

    I have my pacers ready.  My crew is there. I got the housing and transport down. 

    Let the show begin!

  • Day475 don’t jink it

    You know when your body crashes, it usually means something is wrong. I had something like that in February after my Covid booster shot. You probably know where I am headed with this.

    In my last post, I mentioned how I slept through the weekend. Now thinking back, that was unusual of me. Also, my heart has been racing and vivid dreams. Not the good kind but the bad one, like a premonition. I had a spooky feeling all week. I have been going through my mental checklist, like what is wrong, where is my anxiety coming from, but everything seems ok. It was the lighter version of what I had back in February. In February, I had a full brown panic attack.

    This Wednesday, after work my mom gave me a call. Actually I have been calling her the whole day because she kept on setting off her emergency alerts, like every 30 minutes. Each time, I had to call to check if she was in a real emergency. You know since after her stroke last October, any phone calls like these get me very nervous.

    The setting on her phone was always there, but somehow, it was enabled that day and she kept on setting it off whenever she turned off her phone or made a call. I believe it was either the 5-second hold or a combination of key press, or the slider thing. For me, how on earth do you set the emergency calling off, but apparently it was very easy. I think too there might have been a bug in a recent update from what I read, that whenever you press the power button, it triggers it.

    During the call, my mom said, you know so and so in our family was just tested positive for Covid19. It did not connect to me at that point in time that I just met the infected person about five days ago, being together in the same room. There was a chance that I was also infected. As of today, a couple other people who had come into contact with the person were themselves infected. No kidding. It confirmed there was an “outbreak” in my family (3 or more people, right?). Luckily, I only came into contact with them that one time.

    So the next day, I called my boss to request to work from home. During my lunch break, I went and tested for Covid at a local drug store since I don’t have one of those at home kits. Yes, I immediately ordered a few. My result came back negative (not detected/infected). I brushed up on the current CDC guidance. I will leave my opinion on this to myself but thankfully they had a calculator to determine whether one should be in isolation and for how many days.

    My big race is coming up, I have been looking forward to it for over a year. I do not want to be kept from it. My race weekend is on Friday the 13th. I know, what the freak! Will it be a full moon too? Luckily, nope. Well the race day is on Saturday morning 5/14, so I am good. Technically, I could drive there after midnight to avoid any bad luck, but ideally on the 13th, I should head to the camp.  The race starts at 4 AM. The pre-race meeting though is around 5 pm on Friday. Details, details.

    While I am cleared to be out of my house again, I am keeping every precaution. Stay away from crowds even from my mom. No, especially my family, until everyone is tested negative. Basically staying at home until the race time to lower the risk of getting infected. Be healthy.

    Happy Mother’s Day!

  • the night of!

    Day 185

    It has been a year since I started my first post! Thank you for putting up with my rambling.

    I have run a ton of marathons since. The following are race reports given here for those who want to read them. DC:Abebe19, MD:Baltimore , PA:York, WA:JackJill, WV:Morgantown, VA:EDU, VA:Roanoke19, VA:Seashore50.

    It is hard to choose a favorite among the races I ran. Each of them brings a lot of memories. I think running in Seattle was fun and so was Baltimore. I did two ultra marathons (EDU and Seashore 50K). I finished marathons in three new states (PA, WA, and WV). There are 44 states left to visit. California and Maine are two I plan to go to next year.

    Tomorrow, I will run another Ultra. The Marine Corps 50K. They gave me the patch already before I even run.

    I read it will be raining, but not cold. My expected finish time will be 6 hours. I ran my first ultra in 6 hours, and there is a chance I will be faster it because I will be running on the road!

    I did a 18 mile hike/run today (From Pen-Mar to Annapolis Rock) on the Maryland section of the Appalachian Trail. I think I will be ready. Fall is here and the leaves are beautiful.

    Pictures just not able to show the vibrant color of the leaves. Paul, my hike leader. He will be camping, but I will continue on the hike by myself, since I have a race to do next morning.

    Paul is carrying a big tarp because it will rain tonight.


    I should get to bed soon. Got to wake up at 5 tomorrow for the race.

  • 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.