In awe

Tag: prep

  • weekend [Day555]

    Being a bit time crunch but I wish to get this out.

    MMT 100 is this coming weekend. I should be ready. There are a lot I need to do. Get my pace chart ready, dropbags prepared, and make sure I get to start. This is the race I have been looking toward since last year.

    Over last weekend, I drove down to Dublin, VA, to do the Lake Ridge Endurance run (at Lake Claytor State Park), – 12-hour category. This year I only ran 44 miles, 4 less than last year. I blame the weather being hotter. I also did not have a good night rest the night prior, my fault. I was very sleepy during the first 6 hours of the race.

    It was my third year running it. I stayed over night after. I met Steven, who is this year winner. It is not a race per se but he has the most miles done for the 12 hour category. Fitz won the 24 hour. Fitz is Stuart’s son. Stuart will be at the MMT next weekend. We will see each other again since Fitz will pace his father at mile 62.

    Chrissy paced me the last 10~ish miles. I was glad she did otherwise, I might only have done 36 or so miles instead of 44. As the night approached I was able to regain my strength and ran my “full” speed of 15 min mile pace. Chrissy recently moved to area. She ran the High Bridge 50K in 5.5 hrs, impressive to me. I recommended Eastern Divides ultra to her, which I signed up already. The race will be on the first week of November.

    In the morning, I got one more lap in for my morning run. It doesn’t count toward my miles but I like to have my morning exercise. I went and did the lap with Katherine. She is a new friend I met. She did Vol State a few years back.

    In closing, I was very tired. It took me more than 8 hours to drive back home, when it should be about 4-5 hours. I made many stops along the way. Slept a bit in a rest area to catch up on needed sleep.

    I also started arranging my race schedule for next year. I signed up for Roanoke Doubler over the weekend (April 20, 2024). My cousin in Sydney sent me a save the date for her wedding. That is next year in March. I tried to look for a marathon there so I could hit two birds with one stone, but unfortunately, so far, no marathons found in Sydney in that time frame.

    Other news, I am still streaking for the GVRAT. Day 14 so far. It has gotten easier after day 3 during my Canada trip. As for tapering for the MMT, I wish I don’t have GVRAT to do, because it gets my legs tired. But oh well. I chose this path. MMT will be interesting in that I am not entering it with a 100% fresh body. My next report will probably be the MMT race report or similar.

  • News & Updates [Day549]

    I think I got a bit of clarity since last time regarding what races to run. Just a bit.

    After the last MMT training, I have been thinking a lot about Pihoti 100 in Alabama next year. Amanda was running with me and she attempted it in 2021. She said it is like Bull Run Run I did last weekend. I think it is a race I wanted to do next. I watched a few videos on youtube and got convinced. It gave that feeling of the right fit. I think this is their 10th year. If that is true, then it won’t be that hard.

    This fall I have Grindstone lined up. I am scared and excited about this one too. At the BRR 50 last week, while running along side of Jamie and her team and listened into their conversation. A few of them did it. They were talking about Grindstone. It gave me the confident I could do it well. They were comparing between MMT and Grindstone. If they are relatively the same, then it would not be a problem for me. They said the hardest part is the start time being at 6 pm and have to spend two nights out on the trail.

    Amanda’s husband also did Grindstone before. Hearing so many people have done it made me feel better. Amanda might crew me too. She said she would during our training run only if that weekend is free for her. I don’t count on it but that will be pretty cool if I have a crew. After I finish the MMT, you bet my attention will be on the Grindstone. Maybe this time I have a crew and pacers.

    Canada trip preparation. Feeling relieved that I got hotel and car rental settled last night. I have been delaying on this. It would be easier if I were traveling by myself, because I could sleep and stay anywhere. I could wing it and make my own decisions at the last moment. The price would not be an issue either for me. I would have stayed in downtown like minutes from the CN tower or somewhere along the race course.

    However, I will be traveling with my mom and two others, so there are other considerations and constraints. My mom wanted a specific date at a specific location (two nights at Niagara falls and two nights in Toronto, I would have preferred one night at the Falls and three nights in Toronto). Also pricing and room size etc. I can’t pick something like $300 a night or having two rooms. There were too many constraints.

    Luckily, hotels are pretty inexpensive at the falls at that time of year. In the end, I picked somewhere farther away from the race starting location. It is about 15 mins away. There is a problem of what to do with the car while I am racing. Exactly. They have trouble driving around in a strange city, plus there will be road closures. I hope they won’t try to get to Downtown on their own. But it will be their problem. I am thinking I will take an Uber to the start and Uber back when they are done. It will be a hassle for me, but it will reduce their complexity of navigating in a big city. I have to treat them like a 5 yr old.

    World’s End 100k in PA. I didn’t get in this year. I was going to volunteer again, but my cousin is getting marry that weekend, 6/6 from 3-6 pm. There was some snafus going on because they were not going to send out invitations. I felt impolite to ask if I was invited. So I made my own plan for that weekend. Actually I didn’t even know of the wedding date before this week. His mom called me maybe because someone (or my mom) told her they had left me out, and asked why I will not be going to her son’s wedding.

    It was awkward. She made her son to text me the invitation. So I guess I have to rsvp by messaging back. The situation is still volatile. I don’t like to be strong armed and I don’t want to force other people to do things because of me.

    I was thinking of how to deal with this. Does my cousin want me there? Or is this his mom’s idea? Likely it was his mom’s idea. In the past, I use first-come-first-serve policy. What ever plan is on my calendar, I do those first, others can wait. My own plan comes first. I already made plans for that weekend, and now 5-6 weeks out, this happens. I know 5-6 weeks is still flexible for me to change things around, but it is just frustrating when my plan is affected by other’s people. I guess this is what my sister means by being a grown up. She told me to grow up 🤫. I don’t always get what I wanted and just suck it.

    Otherwise, I would be creating a scene and have everybody hate me. It will go down in the family’s history, as the guy who skips out on his cousin’s wedding for a race, which he is not even running!

    A bit nearer. Tonight, in a few hours, at 1 am, I am doing the Roanoke, Blue Ridge Marathon Doubler. This race has several names. I don’t care what its official branding is. Maybe it is the Anthem Marathon again this year, who knows. I always refer it as the Roanoke Blue Ridge Marathon.

    I did this race in 2018 or 2019, just the marathon. I need to look up the race report for yoy guys. At the time, I found out they had the Doubler. It was a new concept to me that some people would go out and run the full marathon course at night and be back in time by 7:30 in the morning to run it again with the official start. This started as an informal event until recent years where the official race actually gives their blessing. Now, we have the proper signup and we pay the fee and receive some on course support and direction (water only, volunteers driving around, making sure runners are okay). So I signed up and will run two marathons starting later tonight.

    Finally, Congratulations to those who ran the Boston Marathon this year. A few people (friends) I recently met ran it this past Monday. I am so happy for them. I don’t know if I ever get to do that. One of my friends who is doing an 100 miler almost every weekend ran it. He finished Boston and he is doing the New Jersey Devil 100 this week without much of a break. Boy does he ever sleep? People in my social running club said the same of me when they heard me running a race every weekend, but I think this other guy is on another level. He is aiming 100×100 (one hundred of 100 mile races).

    There are a few more things but I couldn’t remember right now, so until next post.

  • Day378 zero

    I picked up a Gatorade Zero while shopping for food for tonight dinner and also preparing for my Saturday run. Today is only Tuesday and I have two more nights to do shopping before the big day. I try not to run around too much on Friday the night of. That night I will need to hit the bed early since I plan to be up by 4 in the morning.

    So I picked up so cucumbers. I hate eating them by the way but I saw some runners commented that they have ton of water and it prevents clamps. I need those cucumbers.

    Then I saw the Gatorade. This might be disgusting so skip this if you are fetish. The race director sent out the announcement that there won’t be any potty johns available at the starting line because we can’t have people crowding at the bathrooms. Also the school building will be locked. We won’t have access to the facility. This is all for Covid mitigation. So do all our business at home. There won’t be any restaurant open at that hour either. You guess it…We need a plan B. I know I will be at the course early because I live far away. I don’t take chances. Better get to the course early. This runs counter to what the Race Director is telling us, don’t come early. We can’t hang out at the starting line. Everyone can only have 5-10 mins at the start. We only go to start when it is our time to go. We all have a personalized start time. So I know I will need to go to the bathroom…with all the waiting. There is the bottle and a blanket for covering 🙂

    Any way, I laughed when I saw the Gatorade Zero. It reminded me of my 100 miler run where I only drink zero calories stuff and ended up being so depleted. I was thinking not again.

    It has 0 calories, 7% sodium, 0 carb, 0 sugar, 0, protein, and 0% (50mg) potassium.

    That would do it.

    That’s all for now. I am still thinking up my meal plan for the race. It will be challenging due to covid mitigation plan, meaning I will be mostly self supported.

  • Day376 small run

    I had one of the best runs last night. It was just 10k. Just nice distance. I ran too many long miles and those were slugfest. I like short and fast runs.

    It felt fast to me though the time showed otherwise. I felt I ran the fastest ever. Zoom Zoom. Due to corona virus, there have not been any 5K or 10K in the area. I use 5K and 10K as a stress test, that is, to run my heart out. For some reason, I could not run fast if I feel it is a ‘training’ run.

    Normally last couple weeks, I did not have the motivation to do night runs. Either I was hungry, tired, sleepy, cold, or just wanted to watch youtube videos. I was slacking. The fear of lack of training for my race could not move me out of the door.

    Yet last night, I faced with all the same situation. I was cold after leaving work. I was wearing three or 4 layers and was still cold. I had not eaten dinner. The sun has set (we turned our clock back so now it gets dark after ,5:30). Funny story, I think the construction people in the area forgot about the early darkness, they were still doing road work in the dark! I thought that was funny! Oops.

    Any way, we had the coldest night so far. I made up my night to suit up and stepped out. I did a loop around my house. Did not feel like I was doing it. Feet did not want to run. However, my body started to warm up. So I stopped at my house and delayered. I dropped my two jackets. Took off my long sleeves and only have a tee on. I wrapped a glow jacket around me and headed out the second time.

    The cold evening air felt alive! I loved it. I stretched my legs and ran. It was cold but alive at the same time. Originally I wanted only to do 3 miles but it was not enough. Halfway through, I decided to stay out a bit longer.

    People at a church gave me a chill for a different reason. I did not expect anybody therrle but then cars started pulling in. They had an evening prayer virgil for the election today. The place was dark and it was just spooky as I ran across it. I felt better once I made the connection that they had a special prayer night. My church also sent out similar announcement – to pray for our nation (I think mostly so that Prez Trump would win). There though kind of panic in our area of fear of rioting. Stores in DC were boarded up. Though Virginia is calm.

    I turned around and ran back home.

    Why I wrote about the run? I had a thought this morning while in the shower. (Oh my the way, I was freezing once I got back in the house. I had to put back on 4 layers of clothes and were shaking in my bed.) My thought was our life consists of tiny events like a run here and there. It is like those tiny gears in a mechanical watch. The tiny gears drive the bigger gears, and those drive even larger gears so forth.

    I have been only blogged about ‘big events’ relating to my runs but forgot about the smaller yet boring daily runs. Maybe because I felt they were not as important.

    I actually have something I wanted to write but did not get a chance. On Sunday, I got my act together and went out to the Seneca Trail to preview the course (part of it) for my race.

    I glad I went because I spent about three hours looking for that one turn off that looked weird on the map. I traveled about 8 miles back and forth at that particular point searching it. Some people pointed me here and there. I actually got in my car and ‘case’ the neighborhood to find where the trail ends. Glad no one called the cops on me. Eventually I found something I thought that would be it and decided to go home. I ran into a local trail runner and I popped the question if she knew where the course turns. She said yes, she will be running in the race two and she knew exactly where I was talking about. She said she volunteered at that turn in a previous years and noted some people missed the turn. She offerred to lead me there. I went with her and indeed, it was sneaky because it was not a path and unmarked in any maps. The whole point of this narative is I felt a bit relieved, I resolved one suspicious turn for my race!

    I might write why this is important in another blog post about the seneca run.

    OK that is all today. Outtake: I am looking forward to a big race so I can write about. Sometimes though a small nightly run is a gem.

  • Day373 seneca run

    I was training for Seneca 50 Mile run over the weekend. The good news is it will take place. The race organizer won the appeal and gathered all tge necessary permits.

    I signed up last month when they posted they got the permission from a local school to stage their start and finish line on site.

    It is kind of a late signup. Nornmally this race sold out quickly once announced. I was lucky maybe due to COVID uncertainty that throughout the summer the race was only accepting entries as wait-list only, meaning those who signed up are not charged until the race is definitely is going to be held. Not too many people jump on the wait-listed registration. Neither did I.

    Remember I signed up their sister race in the spring and ran it the week COVID broke out in our area. At the time, we were on edge whether the race would be canceled. things were going downhill the whole week leading up to the race. But we held it and ran it. I don’t remember if there was any COVID mitigation plan at all. Did I even wear a mask?

    With COVID dominating the news cycle running an in person race was pretty low on the list.

    Then now, we kind of think we got this. We have this and that races started up again. I did the Gettysburg Marathon in PA. Seneca will be the first one here in the Washington DC area.

    They say all the eyes will be on them to do this properly.

    So yeah, I was excited when I felt we can do it.

    We all joked around on the race Facebook page, that now we start to train for the race with about two weeks remaining before the race after hearing the news that the race will be on!

    Me too. It finally sinks in of how am I going to run 50 miles. Given I have done it once and did it in 11.5 hours, this race should be easy right? But last year, I specifically was training to run it. This time around, I don’t have the confident. I have not been training that hard.

    Over the summer I was running in Atlanta, all the paces I was calculating were off. My point is I don’t think I am that tough guy as last year. My pace sucks. If given enough time I could run 50 miles, but to run at a certain pace and finish by a certain time, I don’t think I can do it.

    The race limits us to 13 hours. That seems plenty right? I checked previous year results. Some people took over 14 hours. I think there will be a lot who will not able to finish this year. 13 hours is tight for me. I have to run a perfect race, in my opinion. I hope to reach half way by 6 hours and use 7 hours for the last half. Of course if I could do it faster the better. There is no way I will get to mile 50 in 5 hours.

    So last weekend both Saturday and Sunday I headed out on the race trail. It was good the race is local and I could use the trail as much as I want. It is kind of late to train, but any little bit helps. Saturday, I did 13 miles. It was hard. My body refused to run fast.

    On Sunday, I did about 14 miles on a different segment. This was even harder because I kept getting lost. (Those who has access to my public Strava data can see I was walking back and forth trying to find the right trail. It was a good experience though. I rather getting lost in the practice than on the race day. I remember how painful that was getting lost in Atlanta, while my clock was ticking down. I don’t want a repeat here.

    Why? even though it is a local trail, I have not been on it. It is in the Maryland side. As I mentioned before, we Virginian have very little association with the Marylanders. They are like a foreign country to us. Every time I go to Maryland, I get lost (exaggerating a bit), but normally, we stay out of Maryland.

    I plan to go back out this weekend. There is one or two places I am not sure about. I checked the race course on Strava, and it looked fishy because the course shows it was going over people’s houses and backyards. I need boots on the ground to confirm.

  • Day312 The Crunch

    I am feeling the crunch, but things are happening. Wheels started spinning as I am in the final preparation. Final? No, more like finally getting my crap together. Things are taking shape.

    I had the maps printed out. 20+ pages of them. These are in addition to the paper map I brought. I have been so spoiled with water proofed maps , ones I used for my hiking (from National Geographic), but my street map for Atlanta is the newspaper quality and really poor stuff, really not for outdoor. I hate using it, especial I know there is a chance of rain. It will just melt when it becomes wet. I plan to go to FedEx tomorrow have it laminated, but then it will make it hard to fold. How I miss the National Geo ones. Those were the best. Will got to do what I have. I am thinking after laminating it to cut out portion I don’t need. Really am out of time for an art work project now and why did I not do it two weeks ago? Shooting my foot here.

    I got my map and have looked over it several times. I am at maybe 60-70 percent familiarized with it. There are some pitfalls and I noted those. I still wish to have the whole map memorized. I am out of time so more like will wing it. I do wish use Google map too (street view) to see some of the turns. But no time for that because that will take at least 5-6 hours. I don’t have that much time.

    To do: I need to circle out some spots where I can get food/ and bathroom breaks. Google map would help here.

    decision. Do I pack my food or do I buy them in Atlanta. What snacks am I taking along? Snacks will be my main source.

    to do: I need a list of food I will be eating

    To do: I supposed to be packed by now, but not yet.

    to do. making a packing list. Two lists, one for the run, and one for the trip. some important things are anti chafe cream and balm – you know certain areas are going to hurt really bad after rubbing it for 50+ miles. We are doing a 100 here. The worse thing is no way to swap gear at mid run. It is a do or die mission.

    accomplished. I got my final set of maps and have been going over couple of times. Felt very accomplished when I weeded out half the maps, I think I could do without.

    accomplished. I got the map traced out.

    accomplished. I got my turned direction printed out in two sided on to sheets of paper. To do need to laminate them because they are the most important thing to get me from start to finish.

    accomplished. set a start time for my run. After reading the facebook page of runners comments, I got a good idea of when I should start. Originally I was planning 5:30-6:30 start but people were advising an earlier one. I am moving at a start at 4:30 start. There should be just enough light.

    to do: talking about light! I need batteries for my flashlight and headlamp. Need to check all gear. plus spare. I never ran that long in the dark – we are talking from 9 pm to 4 am, good 7-8 hours of darkness.

    accomplished. researched the start location and the constraint. There are two main mountains: Kennesaw (the start) and Stone Mountain (the middle/finish at 63 mile). I need to get to Stone mountain before the gate closes. It closes at sundown so 8:30 ish. It takes me about 15.5-16 hrs to run that distance, granted I took a 2 hour lunch break on a previous 63 mile attempt. So looking at 14-15 hours, with no lunch break, I should start no later than 6 am to get to Stone Mountain by 8 pm.

    I don’t like taking risk, so I am thinking to start at 4:30. My Hotel is 45 mins away from Kennesaw. So It means waking up at 3 am, with 30 mins prep. I need to leave the hotel by 3:30 latest. Oh be the way, when I get to Kennesaw, I need to climb 1-2 miles up. Race starts at the summit.

    If the stars aligned, I hope to finish the next day early in the morning. I never done a 100 mile before…so all the calculation is useless.

    On Stone Mountain, I hope to back summit and down before sunset. say 8:30 or 9 pm. Then the next six hours, I hope to run back to the city, hopefully, get to mile 80-85 ish. I hope to see sunrise on my last stetch as I arrive back in downtown Atlanta. That will be the best case scenario. The expected scenerio is I will see sunrise at mile 85/87 on Peach St. I will run/walk the next 15 miles during daylight and arrive downtown at around noon. Got to finish no later 2:30 pm or will be disqualified.

    If I can’t reach Stone Mnt before Sunset, the race will be over and the run will be in vain.

    Also predicting finishing time is really up in the air. I was thinking of a midnight start, but I wouldn’t want to finish in downtown Atlanta at 2-4 am in the morning. 4-4:30 am starts is only appropriate.

    Kennesaw and Stone Mountain is really the two high points for this run.

    Tomorrow is really the last day to get all the things together. Thursday will be mostly execution: flying to Atlanta, get to the Hotel, make a pit stop to get supplies. Hit the bed as early as possible. Like 8 pm. Up by 3 am. Then show time.

    Decision. I might have to get all that I need at the airport after landing even though it is ridiculously expensive – water, sodas, candies, jerky, bread/sandwiches, and batteries. Then everything else will be picked up at a gas station/store along the run.

  • final prep

    Day 197

    I am feeling much better this morning. I remember that last year around this time between the last race and the new year, I suffer similar the feeling of blue.

    I think I got over it by signing up races and training in the winter specifically to prepare for this coming weekend (a year out).

    In those dark nights, I think the only thought was to run and survive the cold. This morning my thought was, regardless the circumstances I will focus on something unchanging. I know I will get through it. I am just happy to be out there this weekend and run.

    I am pretty excited about the race. It will be a big weekend. It is considered America oldest ultra marathon (50 miler). You can read about the history at their website JFK50Mile.

    I learned a bit about out current race director. RD for a big race usually would not make a different. But they are usually the one to be blamed for anything that goes wrong. In recent history there were some high profile races where things went horribly wrong. However, I think this race, we have it in a bag.

    My friends too are excited about the race for me. Some will come out to the course. There are people making cookies and cupcakes. I will be looking forward to those.

    A guy at my church came up to me and said he ran it in 1981 when he was a young man. How cool is that?

    Am I nervous? A little because I have not done that distance before and I am not sure if my body will hold it together. However, I break down the course into two segments and neither of them are too bad. The first is the trail portion about 13-15 miles. I think I will do fine.

    The second segment is a 35 miles (actually 24 or 26 + 6 or 8), isn’t too bad. I believe I have the strength to do it. When I start faltering, I think would be the final 2 or 3 miles and I trust that my experience in long distance running will push me through.

    ETA: My logic doesn’t make sense. Breaking a long race into two halfs doesn’t shorten it a bit. What I left out is the first part is fairly easy. I will mostly hiking on the mountain so by the time I get to the second part, I should still have plenty of energy to run 35 miles, of which the distance is closer to what I have done before.

  • Old Glory Ultra prep

    Day 190

    I don’t like counting my chickens before they hatch. But I am overjoyed that this weekend I will be running another ultra: Old Glory. It would be my fourth lifetime ultra. It really came at the last minute so I am scrambling to get my mind into running shape and line up my logistical support. Physically, meh, I haven’t trained as I should. But Ultra now starts to get easier. I am not as fearful about them as with my first and second one.

    It was not a last minute sign up. I signed up for this race back in the summer after doing the Eastern Divide and before I got sick. It was part of the three race series: the Eastern Divide, the High Bridge and the Old Glory.

    High Bridge race was last month but I couldn’t make it (I went to Wild Oak). Luckily, the race director allowed me to defer it until next year. I thought I would also have to defer for the Old Glory too due to overbooking with my hiking events.

    It is not really overbooking – because I have a policy of first-come-first serve. I will do what ever first on my calendar. If it has been on the calendar longer, it must be important and anything that comes after it usually are less important. Do older things first! But then sometimes that isn’t the case, that is when hell breaks loose like this time. Then I have to evaluate what thing I value more.

    For me it is hard to choose between running and hiking, which was what happened. If it is purely on the activity, I will always pick running first because that is my joy and passion. Nothing get between me and a race. How often do I go out to the woods by myself just to hike? Almost never. Unfortunately, this year, I gave up three races already (two of them were deferred) and Old Glory would have been my fourth. One of it though was really worth giving up on a race (Roan Mnt backpacking). When you add spending time with a friend to the equation, things get murky and that was what happened.

    My hiking buddy also planned this weekend hiking/backpacking trip (we changed venues and dates couple times) for months and it landed on my race date. Actually, that was how I missed the High Bridge race too. I race every weekend almost so I told her not to worry about checking my race calendar. I will suck it up when that happens.

    So I have been holding my breath with a hope maybe I still get to run the Old Glory. Finally, I got a message yesterday that the hiking/backpacking trip would be canceled and she won’t take me along. Well it was kind of my fault to suggest that the trip is too cold to do. I camped in colder weather before though.

    With the hiking trip canceled, now all my race machinery starts humming again. I am wishing for warm weather. I checked the race director emails, got the last minute race instructions, got the race location and start time, cut off time and now I am studying the course. Basically I need to get my brain into racing mode. Yup, weather will be nice for running. Low 50s. Perfect.

    This race would be the last long run before my dreaded 50 miler (JFK50) coming up in two weeks. I am still in denial about that.

  • course preview

    Day 188 JFK prep

    There are a lot things to say. The most important was I was out on the trail running again. I haven’t run that much due to various reasons. Weather, scheduling conflict, and probably plain laziness.

    I ran on Tuesday. Didn’t do it on Wednesday because of church. Thursday was because of the weather and I had to fix my car (it had a recall for defective airbag). I finally took it in to have it serviced. Friday was my nephew’s birthday. Normally I do my long run on Friday!!! And skipping it really hurts. Yet it was for my nephew. Also I am just lazy trying to find excuses to skip out on my long run.

    So today, I had my run. It was out of this world awesome. I woke up at 3 again 3 in the morning to make it clear. I left the house a little before 6 and drove to Harper Ferry, a place north and west of where I live and where Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland meet.

    It is a beautiful place and has historical significant, just don’t ask me what it is. It was mentioned in my history book.

    I got there just in time before my shuttle leaved. I was there because a volunteer has offered to shuttle us to Boonsboro about 30 minutes from Harper Ferry, where we would run the first portion of the course for the JFK 50 mile race later this month. We would run from Boonsboro to Harper Ferry on the AT (Appalachian Trail).

    I love trail running and just not doing it enough because mountains are so far away. I know I only live about an hour away and I am complaining that it is far.

    I am awesome on the trail compare to many city runners because I go backpacking and hiking frequently. My feet just know where they are supposed to land and I don’t have to look at the ground. I run on uneven surfaces as if I am on the road. And I am strong on hill running. I can run miles now up steep hills because I am an ultra runner! It is like I am in my element when a race takes place on a mountain. Best of all I don’t easily get lost.

    I am bragging of course. But most runners because they are coming from road running, are very careful about where they are stepping and so would miss the trail or get off to a wrong trail (because they don’t look at where they are going). This is no lie. At the very first mile onto the AT, there is a side trail leading to a camping shelter for backpackers. Many runners would inadvertently ended up at the shelter because they were too focused looking down. The JFK has been around for years, and so over the year, the path to the shelter were widen by lost runners! I can’t help but laughed when I saw the situation. Our driver has warned us not to end up at the shelter.

    In fact the whole AT trail in Maryland are widen (and eroded) by us runners. What can we say? We even made the AT feels very flat in Maryland.

    Though I think I will do well in the JFK 50. I will run conservatively. On the trail portion, I will walk (keeping a 16-18 min mile). Then on the Canal portion, it will be a normal marathon. I hope to run it in 5:30 (5 and half hours). The final 10K, I will just have to endure through. The whole race will probably take me 11 hours. People are telling me to break the race down with a 2 mile warm up, a half marathon on the trail, then a normal marathon gravel, and a final 10K on road, and a 2 miles cooldown walk/run.

    It was so beautiful this morning. I crossed into Harper Ferry before the sun was up but as we ran, it was just gorgeous. The trail were filled with laughter and people. Look the leaves are turning!

    Where is this? It was maybe 3 or 4 miles into my run. It was so cold. I was freezing. Temp was around 32 or 33 (yup freezing). Luckily there were no wind. I ran in two layers until the sun was up and I got rid of my outer layer. After the run, It took me 6 hours to warm back up. Yup, I crawled in my bed after a nice long and warm shower and stayed in bed after. But I love the cold so much. Yup, up since 3 AM.

    I met Kathy, Wendy, and Amy on the trail. Kathy though didn’t finish. She might have gone off the wrong trail. I waited for her for an hour at the end but she didn’t come out. I then left after Wendy and rest arrived.

  • Filler post

    Day 149

    Sometimes in TV shows or especially in long anime series, they would put in fillers because the writer needs some time off.

    I hope this is not a filler but I don’t really have anything in particular I want to write about. Maybe it is a filler.

    I just finished my last dose of my medication. I should be completely rid of the Lyme causing bacteria in my body. How can you tell? People asked if I am to see a doctor again to have them declare that I am healed. Nope. Or Maybe. There is no more blood test as far as I know that can show that I am bacteria free. I am not sure if they can tell, but base on what I read about how they test for Lyme disease they can’t. Many people seem surprised by this.

    I am tired from the past trips. I haven’t unpacked my things yet. Last night though, I did laundry. I won’t say much but that were a lot of clothes. Any way, the next trip seems to be challenging in term of navigating because there seemed to be lack of map and direction. So last night, I opened the map of the place. Indeed we will travel off the map for part of the hike. Some of the trails we will be using are not shown on my map because they are not officially recognized trails. We will be doing some bushwalking too. Even the leader of the hike is saying, let hope we won’t get lost. I don’t think we will get completely lost, but we might make a false turn here and there. And by the way, we will hike a bit in the dark. Luckily, I think the moon is up. Where are we going? Dolly Sod, especially, the southern part called Roaring Plain.