In awe

Tag: race report

  • Day517 Turkey Trot / NCR

    TL;DR – I ran a local 4 mile race on Thanksgiving and over the weekend did a marathon. They are thanksgiving related or happened about the same time frame so two race reports in one.

    I have done this Fairfax Turkey Trot charity race a few times and yes every time it was freezing cold. The first year I did it because this was the only turkey trot that offerred a 4 mi run instead of a traditional 5K. 4 mi is a weird distance but I like it. I was looking for a “long race” to run. At that time, 4 mi was a long race. A bonus for me was the hills they have for this course. I did not go about choosing a race based on how hilly it is but it was so happened to be like that. It was just right for me. I love hard runs.

    We had great weather this year. It started at around 30 F and got up to around 55 F in the afternoon. It was similar condition for the whole week because of the cold air / jet stream got push up to the pole. So it was like a final fall weekend before winter arrives.

    I dressed the way I did for the JFK, double layer for the top and shorts for the bottom.

    I arrived bright and early. The race did not start until 8:30 but they said parking would be hard to find because there were 1200 of us signed up. And the nearest lot held maybe 50-75 cars. There were no lots big enough for 1200 cars. Of course cars scrambling around the neighborhood looking for spaces. I was one of the first few to arrive around 7:30 to stake my spot. Then I just walked around the neighborhood until start time. I tell you, I was freezing, yet I refused to sit in my car. I figured it would get me prepared for my winter races.

    I had fresh legs and pretty much recovered from the JFK50. I decided to run my best by pushing hard early to see where I am at. I did not realize the neighborhood has plenty of hills. After a few of those, I was exhausted. I managed to finish. I mentioned this because I hit a wall around halfway and the feeling is like hitting a wall in a marathon. My legs became very slow. I felt like they were frozen. Time for me was not important. I just wanted to finish and to see how I did. I knew I was slower than my previous times. I managed to finish around 40 minutes averaging about 10 min pace. My best was probably around 35 mins. I am too lazy to look up my other finishes (my earliest was 32:34 in 2018, and probably my best). You just have to take my words for it. For short distances, finish within 4-5 mins, seems insignificant.

    Then of course, I did not feel good after running so fast. Originally I planned to go to downtown to do run with a turkey image on my strava (they call this strava art). My running group does this every year. We plot our run so that it will turn out to be a picture of the turkey on Strava. Yet I was too tired from my turkey trot, I decided to call it off. It would be a self guided run this year any way since everyone was out of town. I did not like the complicated parking in DC.

    Instead, I went to a nearby neighborhood trail and was going to do my usual Thursday training run. However, I was too tired to run and only did a 3 mile hike on a trail called the Wild Turkey Trail. I called it a day. I kind of watching my body. I knew if I struggled I could put out the miles I wanted to but I knew I have the Devil Dog coming up. I should be tapering for it and I shouldn’t push my body beyond its limit yet. Afterward, I went home to clean up, eat, and rest. At night, we had our Thanksgiving celebration. I was super tired.

    Part II. On Saturday, I had a marathon in Baltimore. It was the NCR race. I did this four years ago and I was happy to try my hand at this again. Back then, this was my first trail marathon. Speaking of trail, it was flat, and a fast course. I finished it in 4:23:00. Yet, because I was running with a bunch of runners on their championship event, I felt I was the last one on the course.

    This time around I had experience of not to push too fast. I was racing with many top local runners since this was a RRCA (Road Runner Club) champion event. A lot of fast older people came out to run this (as well as a lot younger runners). Let say, a competitor, who seems at least 10 years older than me, yet finished at a time I can only dream (3:15:00). A woman about my age who finished at 3:35 and said she was slow this year, meaning, she used to be faster. What are these people? They probably running sub 3 hour back in their younger days. If I could run under 4 hours, I would consider this year a success. Yes there were a lot of fast people at the race, so over 4 hours seemed to be really slow. I am happy with my time though (if you compare it to my last marathon in Atlantic City, it was just a couple minutes off).

    Not much can be said about the race. The swags were awesome. We got a premium hoodie sweater and we were given a wool blanket as a finisher prize. It was also well run. We had crossing guards at every intersection. We had buses picking us up from our parking lot. The race really was spread in three sites (runners parking, the school staging area, and the start and finish chute. Each location is about 1 mi to 2 mi apart. It was handled well.

    The trail was scenic out in a rural area (might be near Camp David, i need to check). It was in a wooded area north of Baltimore near the PA border. There is a bunch of history about the trail but I did not read up on it. NCR is the name of the rail road company and rail line which now the track has become a rail to trail called Gunpowder Falls Trail (state park). It is one of the best trails I run on in the area. It is unpaved.

    I did arrive early this time. I left my house at 5 and got to the race location (bus pick up location) at 6:30. I was one of the first one there. I went to a Dunkins and got a couple bagels for breakfast. This was smarter than the first year I did it. Also, I did not stay at a hotel this time and saved some money. The bus took us to the school (Old Fields, and all girls boarding school that seems to have a bit of history; I feel like I’m in a Harry Potter movie) where the start would be. We waited in the field house. It was a long wait, because the start was at 8:30.

    The race was uneventful. I started off at a 9:30 pace but I got slower as the race progressed. I finished with an overall pace of 10:04. I have not analyzed my spits. My pace must have degraded badly around mile 22. My pace was 10:50 for the final section. I was running a 10:26 after the turn around.

    I was mostly by myself. The fast runners all passed me during the first mile. This time I did not panic nor did I try to chase like I did the first time. On the second half, I led a pack of maybe 5 runners. Though I couldn’t manage their pace. With 10K left to go, they passed me. Then it was just me running to the finish.

    I struggled around mile 21-22. I was bonking. The aid stations being about 2-3 mi apart helped. I was revitalized. The last two miles were not an issue for me. I was some what regaining my pace. I finished without feeling too tired. I believed I could still run some more.

    NCR is one of the best marathons I did. It is not like the Grandma’s Marathon or other city marathons I ran this year. It was low key event but had great supports. We had a lot of aid stations. Many are well stocked with gels and drinks. Some had sodas. Finish line had the usual water and bananas. But at the field house, we had soup and other snacks and lot of breads that they were giving out loaves to runners to take home. It was pretty much a lunch in the field house. Not many marathons serve lunch. This is one of the rare ones that does.

    I don’t know why I signed up for this race in the first place. I think it was because I wanted to run a marathon but I wanted something local. I think I did well. I glad I did it. See the 2018 report. It offers an interesting perspective of my early days marathon run.

  • Day515 JFK Race Report

    TL;DR – Race Report for JFK. 2nd time running it

    “Let us run the race set out for us with perserverance”

    The quote was much an encouragement in my race, which was especially a very long race that went from sun up to sun down. There were plenty of time for me in solitude pondering on it. When I felt pressed of being too slow, I relaxed, knowing by being faster a bit would not bring me to the finish immediately. Yet at the same time when I started to walk and in my low state, I was reminded to press on to finish the race.

    I did not have much a goal of what time I would finish. I ran a 50 mile under 12 hours the week before and secretly hoped i could repeat the feat. The race gave us 13 hours. I knew I could do it.

    This time around I learned the history of JFK 50 Mile Ultra marathon Run and why it is called the JFK and how it became America’s oldest ultra marathon.

    There are a whole bunch of videos online explaining all this, so I won’t repeat it in details. Also I am not good with dates and names. The race was inspired by John F Kennedy when he wanted to know if his marine officers could hike 50 miles under 20 hours due to a mandate he discovered that was given by another former president (one of the Roosevelts, I think it was Teddy).

    Originally it was not a race at all but a military fitness evaluation, but many people around the country took on the challenge and started organizing events to walk 50 miles. Some youths in the town of Boonsboro, MD also took part in the challenge and later led to a formal event. After the president’s assasination, the event became a memorial run and now occurs every November. So, we lined up in the cold this weekend (25F, -4C), subfreezing tempersture, and once again run this to remember JFK and his push for healthier lifestyle for the average citizens.

    I also have a piece of personal history though not any where as dramatic as the race history.

    I ran this race in 2019 as my first 50 mile (link provided at the end). Why I ran was mentioned in that post. It was the hardest run I did at that time.

    Couple of my friends wanted to run it last year, and might have been influenced by me (my friend David crewed me on my first 50). They signed up, but one of the guys got sick just two weeks prior to the event and he had to stay out. I stayed out too because of my busy race schedule, and JFK sandwiched between Stone Mill 50 and the Devil Dog 100, races I did and about to do again. David ended up only one running. We said we will try again this year.

    So early this year in the spring, everyone was healthy and three of us said let do this for real. I, was conflicted because I wanted to run Stone Mill 50 and also the Devil Dog 100, which the JFK saddles between the two events. I was not sure if I could handle three hard races, so I did not sign up until Monday, just a few days prior the race. Luckily, they still took reservation (in former years, the race usually sold out).

    I thought why not, I felt ready. Doing two back to back 50 milers should not be that hard. I boasted to be able to run a 50 miler any weekend in a few posts earlier, and let see if I could live up to my big talk.

    On Thursday night after work, I drove three hours to Hagerstown to pick up my race package. Friday would be too much for me to fight traffic to get there, since I live in the Washington DC metro area and it is impossible to get anywhere fast on a Friday or any day as a matter of fact. I don’t like being rushed. I like to have a calm evening before my race.

    Friday evening came while I was still getting ready after work, I received a call from my friend David saying they got in a car accident of a collision with a deer while on the way to the race event location (they were within 30 minutes from the race hotel). I got a sinking feeling, oh-no, not again and probably only me running it this time and we would have to redo it again next year.

    They needed someone to pick up their bibs prompto or else they could not run. I was too far away from the race hotel at that time to pick the bibs up for them. Without a bib means no race. Plus, they still needed to have the car towed back home. It was not a good night for them. Couldn’t offered them much help, I said good night.

    My two friends made it to the race the next day. They were able to get someone else from their hotel to pick up their race packages for them.

    The morning of the race day was cold with temperature started from 27F and got to high 37F. It was pretty much a freezing temperature. It was much colder than the year I ran. 37 high was not exactly warm but the air was crisp. I like taking in the deep breath and let the cold air fill up my lung. It was so invigorating during the run.

    I was struggling what to wear the night before at the hotel. I had planned out wearing a long sleeved of thermo underlayer shirt, a tee shirt from a previous marathon over it, a pair of shorts, a long pants on the outside, and another long sleeved shirt on top. Plus I would put on a hoodie, head buff, neck buff, and a pair of wool gloves. No rain was forecasted but I had a lightweight rain jacket along to double as a wind breaker. Note, it was almost exactly what I wore the last time (but that was 10-15 degrees warmer).

    In the morning, I made last minute changed on the specific shirts and shorts because I did not like the material of the set I had, but the plan to dress in layers remained.

    At the start line, I had to ditch my long pants because I felt it would be too hot. The shorts though made my legs cold. Later in the race, this was a correct call. It was perfect when the temp got to 35 F, just wee bit above freezing. There were a few others running in shorts. We were the minority.

    I had to ditch my outer layer hoodie too about half mile in. I left behind my wind breaker. I was feeling over-heated. So I ran with a thermo under layer, a t-shirt on top and a pair of shorts.

    During the run, when there was no wind, I felt a bit hot, but when the wind blew, I was cold. I was alternating between hot and cold. However, I felt choosing the thermo shirt was the right choice. It was super thin and light and comfortable and it was warm. It also moved over my skins so I did not feel sticky. I liked it to be a bit hot and the thermo did that. How do people come up with this kind of clothing? I am impressed. I wore this for hiking before but not for running, so this was the first time.

    The race: Three of us started together. It was soon obvious we were not running at the same pace. My friend Dave stayed back with Robert. And by two miles when we arrived at the Appalachian Trail, I separated from them because I could run better on the trail. David and Robert had their stories to tell, I leave it as that since those are their stories. Basically, they struggled this year, (note that David could run faster than me, and David finished around in 10:45 last year, and hour ahead of my fastest time at the time).

    Experience is a valuable tool. The first time I ran this I was inexperienced. I was well-prepared to run it but I was not experienced like today. This time around with three years more of trail running and ultra racing, it was completely different. I was more confident and relaxed. I was settled. Nothing would rattle me.

    This year, I learned to endure patiently and not to push too hard in any part of the race. I let people pass me. I walked when the person in front of me walk. If the person became too clumsy on the trail then I would pass. There were a couple runners that scared me by how they moved on the trail. I had to pass them. I tried to kept my heart rate down. Run smart not hard. In a previous year, I felt the need to keep up with the person in front, and that was a stupid thing to do. This year, I let everything go.

    I got off the trail after about 13 miles, 15.5 miles from the start, and three hours later, total time was 3.5 hours, arriving at Weverton by 10:05 am. It was not fast nor slow. I ran this portion half an hour faster last time. Why I mentioned? I ran this section in 2.5 hours the previous year. I was half hour slower this time around.

    I stumpled couple times but did not fall (I was not wearing trail shoes). Once I reached the canal, I expected the faster runners from the rear to catch up. A few did but just a few, unlike the previous year when I felt the whole field passed me by. There were much fewer runners catching up to me this time. The people I ran with on the trail stayed with me till the finish. We were not by my side, but I recognized them whenever I passed or they passed me (we leapfrogged a lot). Runners moved up and down all the time but I could recognize a few of them.

    None of them kept at my pace and I did not keep them either, so there was no chance for me to strike up a conversation. I ran the canal portion in 5.5 hours for 26 miles. Not bad at all. This was half an hour faster than last time. Based on this, it should be a wash (tie). But I actually got off the canal about 45 minutes earlier than last time. The math confused me.

    I was not hurried. I told myself, I don’t need to chase anyone and I don’t need to fight for a position placement. This was totally different from the first year I ran this. If someone passes me, let it be so. I run my own race. I kept watch on my body. When I felt I became too focused (stressed) I would ease up. A couple times I took a walk. Whenever I walked, I told myself, don’t stay at the pace for too long. I think I kept my walking breaks brief to only 2 minutes each time.

    Soon I reached the end of the Canal portion. The time was around 3:45. I do want a 5 pm finish now. We had about 8 miles left. I knew I had to be slow and steady. 8 miles could be as long as two hours. Unlike a previous year, I could still run. My feet were heavy but running was still possible. I ran with the same group of people I started with earlier in the day. No one was passing and I was passing no one. They were not letting up on the road portion, so I was not letting up either. It was funny that I was expecting someone to bonk so I could pass them, but everyone was holding up well. They were well trained. This time around, I did not see anyone bonking hard, like I did at Stone Mill.

    With only a few miles left, we got to the finish line. Some sprinted in. I held my pace steady. I finished the race in 10:45:00 at 5:15 pm before it got completely dark. I was happy to finish in the “day time”. It was just a little over 5 pm but I was happy for set a personal best. At Stone Mill last weekend, I broke my own record by finishing a 50 miler in 11:16, and this week I broke it once again and got the record down to 10:45.

    My two other friends were having much difficulty with their runs but they finished. One finished in 12 hours. The other finished 20 minutes later. We all decided that this is our last time, well who knows. I had fun. They were proud of their accomplishments too. The struggle was real for them. I was happy to able to have two more friends to be able to see and experience a 50 miler run. If I have time, I would go much into what this means. I was happy though my two friends were able to share in the struggle of ultra running and they completely it.

    There were a few friends I saw on the course. Blaine, and Caroline were running this. Billy, Mike, and Gretchen were out there supporting. I like to mention them because they made my race special. I also met a runner Trevor, who ran Stone Mill the week before. He stopped and said, hey you ran Stone Mill too last weekend. It was a bond we share.

    Running ultras is like life. I know I have a destination to get to. Sometimes being rushed doesn’t get us there sooner. Only way is to keep a steady pace.

    Link is here to my 2019 race report. I reread it and found it interesting. I met up with Marnie at C&O 100 in April this year, and we were arguing who was pacing who at the JFK in 2019. She was correct to say she paced me. After reading the report, I had to agree. At the end, we happily concluded that we were pacing one another.

  • Day508 Atlantic City Marathon and TR3

    Race Recap: NJ Marathon, 11th state. One last far away trip for this year. I ran surprising fast.

    Maybe couple months ago, I heard of Atlantic City Marathon from Vanessa on SheRunsByTheSeashore. I got a promo code from the blog and signed up. New Jersey is a new state for me and it is also within my driving distance. I tried to save money recently of not flying to races after my trip to Michigan. My trip to Oklahoma was canceled due to cost. NJ seemed like a good replacement. I thought this was going to be an inexpensive marathon.

    I was looking to cross off more states on my marathon list before the year ends. This year I had run in Minnesota and the Michigan. Minnesota was a planned race from the start but Michigan and New Jersey were not part of my original plan. Oklahoma was in the plan but plan changed. I knew of Ann Arbor race since last year from a local runner whom I met at the Laurel Highland race. Somehow things just worked out and I got to go there at the beginning of October, just a few weeks ago. The plan for New Jersey too fell in place at the last moment. I kind of kept it quiet since this was a last minute thing, I did not want to be too upset if I didn’t get do it.

    One reason why I thought I was done for the year after the Michigan Marathon was I don’t like running in the cold. Winter (or late fall) marathons usually have to deal with the colder weather. We already had some cold morning here (35 F, near 0 C). I don’t like it.

    Plot twist, I made a new friend during the race (Sanjay), and he asked if I will join him at the Philadelphia marathon (Nov 20) — I think he meant next year. I told him I will think about it. Anyway…I will think about it.

    The forecast today for the race was 55-60F, with rain (50% chance) to start around 7 am and lasting for the whole day.

    I could stand the temperature (it was warm and stayed steady) but the rain was a complication and made it hard to plan for what to wear. I could run in T-shirt and shorts like the day before.

    However, I don’t like being wet. I could add a long sleeve on top. Still the rain could make that useless. I would be cold. I thought about wearing a thermo shirt –I have those thin nice ones from my hiking days– that could keep me warm even when wet. But I worried of being overheating. I could also throw in a rain jacket (I recently brought one of those super thin and light but durable wind and rain jackets for running/hiking) that hasn’t seen actions yet. I was afraid the rain jacket will definitely make me overheat. I still could get wet inside from my own sweat because I know, I wore a rain jacket while hiking and running before, and I would be wet from sweating. Basically, I was back to square one.

    In the end, I decided to do layering. It did not take long for me to feel it was too warm, so I removed the outer layer and went with just a t-shirt and shorts. The race had not started yet. I thought I could drop off the extra clothes at the bag check-in, but I forgot to bring a bag to store my clothes.

    I had assumed earlier they would provide us a clear plastic bag at the bag check-in. I didn’t know the bags they gave at the package pickup was for the bag check, because they were not the clear plastic bags normally used at a lot of other races – we had a black hangbag instead to put all our race stuff at the convention. Actually, they allowed us to use any kind of bags and I saw some checked in even backpacks and luggages — the airplane carry-ons (this was normally not allowed at other races for security or weight or storage reason).

    Without having a bag, my option was to take the extra clothing back to my car or just donate them to charities by leaving them on the course. I don’t like littering but this is what other runners normally do at any races. They would leave their extra shirt and jacket at the starting corral, hoping the stuff would still be there later when they finish (or that someone will dispose it for them). It was a reason some even made temporary jacket out of a black 50 gallon trashbag so they could ditch them any time without remorse.

    There was also the wind, because we were by the seashore, it was strong from time to time. It was around 15-mph (ish) and might be up to 25 mph or at least seemed so to me. They were not gentle breezes, but good gusts for flying kites. Mentioning this because the environment is what could ruin my enjoyment of a good marathon and a reason also I avoided running race set by the seashore in the past. Weather makes a race unpredictable. I just remembered my running friend David told me exactly this when he did it a few years ago but it went out my head until now that I finished it.

    It was fine for me to take my clothes back to the car, because the walk wasn’t too far. I came almost 2 hours early to the race, so I was not going to be late. (Tip: park in Caesar’s Colosseum. Their spaces are wider than Bally’s).

    It was good the start line was right in front of Bally’s and we could stay inside a building to stay warm.

    I was familar with the area. I was there the day before. I arrived to New Jersey on Saturday afternoon after my morning training run for Stone Mill. I did about 20 miles during the training.

    By the time I reached Alantic City, sun was about to set. I got my race package and decided to explore the boardwalk.

    Hotels in Atlantic City were too expensive for me. I did not book early so it was expected, but even if I received the host hotel deal, still it was not something I would pay for. I am sure they were good rooms but I couldn’t afford 200+ for a night, plus all the resort and parking fees on top etc. I think $200 was the minimum. The average was maybe around $300 and up. Even the Days Inn there was too expensive for me (I don’t remember, but I think it was around $250). If I could affort the host hotel price, then the race would have been right at the front door. I ended up staying in Absecon, about 6 miles outside. The price was much more reasonable there.

    Tolls on the highways were at another level – I think I spent over $100 on tolls going to NJ. In my state we don’t have many toll roads but this is starting to change. NJ has tolls for many years and I knew this, but still it was a surprise at how many times I needed to pay. I had an EZ Pass so I did not need to stop, and the fee was automatically deducted from my account. Yet, I know my trip was expensive.

    Gas (petrol) I paid was probable near $200. I drive a truck. Over all, my transportation cost was higher than my entry fee. I felt I was robbed blind by NJ before even gotten to their casinos. So NJ took all my gambling money. I was not going to gamble, but still, it decided I didn’t want to give away any more of my money. If I have to redo — I might take a bus or train and it would have costed me less.

    As about the whole casino scene, they built the whole city on the basis that people will come to gamble away their money. But with the pandemic and worsen economy, nobody goes there any more and their business model is in serious trouble. I think also because a shift in demographic. There is the online competition. The boardwalk was pretty empty even on a Saturday night to my surprise. It was not that fun when most people decided to stay away. Of course, I still enjoyed my race, but I had expected to have some fun the night before. Yet it felt like a ghost town.

    About my race: The course was interesting, though some questioned about this. Looking at whole it was flat as a pancake. We had couple early climbs over overpasses. Everyone was running up the hills. I was so proud of them and it’s rare in marathons to run the hill. Of course, if you are trained for it, you could run it.

    Everyone started together at 8:00 (half and the full). To me that is kind of late, but it gave me enough time to get ready. We went to the northern end of the boardwalk and then turned into the streets, looped around Borgata and other casinos there. Then we ran south to the end of the island. The half marathons turned around about halfway of the boardwalk to their finish back at Bally’s. The full marathoners continued on south on an out-and-back and we looped around city on the south side, probably Ventnor. Some think this was boring. For me, it was fine. I like looking at the seashore while on the boardwalk and at the casinos and condos. True, if I do this a second time, it is maybe a bit boring. Also I found it was interesting a lot of street names are familiar to me — because they were used in the Monopoly game.

    What got to me, was how long the race was. I know 26.2 is always 26.2 but at times it seemed, I was not moving because the landmarks did not seem to change much. We have a few tall buildings and though I was moving fast, the scene seemed to change slowly. I finished around 4:21:05, strava said it was my 4th fastest marathon. Sure. I was happy with my time. For comparison, I finished in Michigan with 4:30 and in Minnesota with 4:19. In Newport News Virginia with 5:01. I forgot my time for Salisbury Maryland (4:52) These are marathons I ran this year.

    AS: We had a lot aid stations. Course marshalls, and volunteers were especially fun and helpful. I found them more enthusiastic here than in many of my other races. They cracked jokes and all. Crowd support was good enough for me. This isn’t a New York Marathon, so I didn’t expect people to line along the roads for the whole way. We had bad weather, but a lot people still showed up. Maybe the course covered an area smaller than most marathons I ran (like the Newport News), so people were able to get to various points on the course easily. I think everything was within that 5-6 miles (we had a lot of loops and out-and-backs). Maybe this was a reason why some found the course a bit boring.

    Something particular to this race was the boardwalk. Running on it mostly is like running on solid ground but occasionally, some boards might give way a bit and they squeak. It was just a little but it can be scary when the board shifts underneath. Of course, planks could become slippery when wet. There was that concern.

    Lucky for me, I beat the rain at least the heavy portion. I had a few drops at times bit remained dry. For the 5 hours or later finishers, they ran in the real rain and it got a bit heavy. My friend finished a little after 6:00 and was drenched and he was cold, even though he wore wool cap and couple layers of shirts (exactly how I would have done). I was just lucky I did not have to suffer like him and others.

    We had plenty of gels at selected aid stations. I know those were not cheap and was glad this race provided them (I have done race where gels were not given out or very little provided). Gels helped me through this race. I did not bring my own this time. I think I at least used them 3 times (like at Mile 6, 17, and 21).

    Pace. I started out fast again (at 10:00 pace – min per mile) like my last marathon. I got a bit faster by 5-6 miles and until I passed the 4:10 pacer, so I was probably running at a 9:30 min mile pace. By mile 17 though, I was no longer keeping up the pace. By mile 21, the 4:20 pacer passed me back, and at this point my pace was down to 10:30 min mile. To me, it was fine. My goal was only to finish under 4:30:00. We had 5 more miles to go. The wind was strong at the time (storm was brewing). My legs were tired. This was probably not smart of me to have run 20 miles for training the day before. (Stone Mill training run, which I have been doing for the past few weeks)

    Exactly, why did I do that? If I tapered I probably could run this faster, but I kind of wanted to pile on a lot of miles. I know Atlantic City Marathon was not the last race, since I have Stone Mill coming up and then Devil Dog. I need a lot of miles. So both Saturday 20 mile and the Sunday Marathon also served as a training run. A good training run. I called it the 3rd training run.

    post race. I did not get my free beer (It was provided) but that was fine. We were at a casino so beer should be plentiful. There might not been much finisher food except a banana (I didn’t check out the Casino’s restaurant – the Yard, where they were directing people to go for finishing prizes). I was waiting for a friend and rain came down heavy. After he came in. We just went home because we were wet and cold. I was dry (because I changed my clothes while waiting) but cold nonetheless.

    Lunch: The casinos around were pretty cool. I am amazed with buildings so definitely was a paradise for me. Everything speaks of luxury and money. There were some good restaurants around like Hell Kitchen at Caesars, but I wanted something cheaper and I was more for comfort food, so I wanted to travel outside to where the locals (real) people eat.

    The rest of the afternoon was spent driving home (I left around 5 pm). I-95 is always crowded. It is the only north-south highway on the east coast. It was slow going. I ran into traffic going there and had traffic coming home. I didn’t have a good experience from my drive because I was mad at drivers of staying in the outside lanes and driving 15 mph below the limit. I think because of the speed camera or weather. There were other reasons too. I was keep getting brake checks by people whether intentionally or unintentionally who knows. I felt people did not know how to drive. I was having my road raging moment. Maybe it was the race mentality of needing to get to the finish fast. I was finally relieved when I got back to the DC area where people were driving more “normally” (leaving at that). They did say DC and NYC have the worse drivers in the country. I was happy to be out of NJ. I’m not admitting of being a bad driver.

    I put this in because, the race itself was good, but many other things (at least for me) were not as enjoyable as my other races, such as my hotel was not as good (though the staff was friendly) and I liked my pillows. I did have a good night rest before the race. Matress, curtains, the carpet, and lighting were more to be desired. I guess it all comes down to money. I think that was the theme for this race. I paid to drive fast. Need to pay for a nicer hotel, etc. Need to pay to have fun. Need to pay to have good food. I could have stayed at a 5 star hotel versus a 2-star that is operating like a $50 motel. Same for a lot other things.

    I have an axe to grind with NJ. I rarely traveled up to New Jersey and New York even though it was just a few hours away.

    Bottom line: I enjoyed the race but other things were not so great. If I had more money, then yes, it would have been a blast but for me looking for a low key no frills race, I got what I paid for.

  • Day501 Ann Arbor Marathon

    TLDR – 10th state completed. I enjoyed my weekend stay in Ann Arbor, Michigan, brief as it was.

    I was nervous when I arrived on Friday in Detroit, Michigan. This is a cold place. Though I run well when it is nippy, I don’t like the cold. I packed a bunch of sweaters and long pants, and all my other winter running stuff seeing the temperature might reach down to the 30s.

    The cold weather ended up being not an issue. We had a great and warm day. Overcast in the morning and became sunny later on. The temperature was little cold for some, but for me it was perfect. It stayed almost constant around 60F, about 15 C. I ran in tee and shorts, though I wore a double layer tee I got from the Duluth marathon and a thick shorts, I think of wool like material. The shorts were a bit too warm later on.

    The race started at 8 AM so, to me was kind of late and it allowed me to sleep in a bit. I like starting after the sun is up. Many races usually start at the crack of dawn.

    I stayed in a motel not too far from the race location, at about three miles away. I could have run to the start. Ann Arbor is a small sweet town. It has all the city anemities without the big city’s headaches. There was plenty of time for me to get to the race. I left my hotel around 6:30 and felt kind of late, but did not have to rush.

    Ann Arbor being so close to Detroit, its marathon get over shadowed by the Detroit Free Press one that will be taking place in a couple weeks. That one is an “International” Marathon, because the course takes you into Canada and many times more people from all over will run it. It is always fun to say you run in another country.

    But today, Ann Arbor is just a “boring” two loops around the course. It seemed kind of a let down. Nevertheless it was a great marathon, and I did not regret my choice. A pacer asked me why I didn’t choose the Detroit one. I said because I did not like the cold. Plus, I was really over with the big marathons. I like the flexible low key races offer. Did you know, you could still register for the race on the morning of the race? I never heard of a recent marathon that allows you to do that! And you can pick up your package on the race day morning too! You couldn’t do such thing in any bigger marathon. Even several smaller races I did in my city, they wouldn’t allow a race day bib pick up.

    My impression is it was well run. Crowd support was tame, but they had volunteers almost at every block and I was never alone. Most of the crowd was at the start and finishing area (and at the park, mile 8-ish, and 21-22).

    They had buses to take spectators to the park (Gallup Park). Hence, there were more crowd support there a little past midway. It was also the relay exchange point.

    The course was well marked. Signs were at ever mile for the half and the full too! I noticed they replaced signs for the first loop and put up signs for the second loop (not sure how they did it)! That is attention to detail. Since the course is lap course, they really did not need signs on for the second lap (both laps should be 13.1 miles), but they did. Usually in many events, marathon is a second class citizen compares to the half marathon (nobody cares for the full once the half is done). I have been to races, where mile markers for the second half of the course were not provided (not naming which one).

    The first six miles, we followed the roads out of town. We passed through the University of Michigan. I have been through some big campuses, but this was on another level. It is a big campus. I imagined myself being on a quest in the game Final Fantasy. I already ran on the course the day before so as not be distracted by the sights on race day. I have a particular attraction toward big tall buildings and such.

    The other six miles, we were on some kind of rail to trail (I’m guessing) called the B2B (Border to Border) trail. It is paved. Nice and smooth. My first time running on a trail paved with concrete. Yes, it is same as running on the sidewalk. We were on it for maybe three miles before we reached the Arboretum. It is just a short section, maybe half a mile but there was a tough climb (I think about couple hundred feet). Later, I found out this was called the Arb Hill. Most walked up the hill. I tried to run it. On the first loop, I did it well, but on the second loop, it almost broke me. I made use of a relay team person to pace me up the hill. She was the only other person running up on the hill. Then we were back at the university and back at the start. Marathon runners were diverted to the back streets to run around the block and back out.

    The half marathon started with the full. There were many more running the Half than the full. My goal was to run fast enough so that the first place runner doesn’t lap me and that I could lap some half marathoners. I thought it might be impossible for me because I was expecting the first place to come in between 2:15-2:30. I didn’t see the first place runner passing me nor was I able to catch up to some who walked the half.

    The course was not crowded nor was the street dead empty. I have been in races where I was the only one running. Being alone doesn’t bother me, but when I do marathons, I like having some crowd around, maybe to witness me and fan my pride. I ran a 4:30-ish finishing time, so there were always people around me. Honest truth, I didn’t run slower just to be with people.

    I came to the race not sure what pace to run in or time I would get. I got a fast time back at a marathon in June. I did not feel I would be able to repeat it at this race. Any time around 5 hours would be good and was an acceptable goal for me. I lined up with the 5:00 hour pace group. Erwin, one of the pacers was pretty fun to talk to. We had done the Marine Corps the same year a while back. I didn’t know him before, but his races tied us together. By mile 2, I felt I could start pushing my pace a bit harder. I felt great and left the pace group. I was on my own. Usually this could spell disaster because I would have gone out too early and too fast and could suffer by the second half.

    The day before, I checked out the course and ran about 15 miles of it. (Not really advisable, because part of the course had no sidewalks, and required sharing the road with cars, which can be scary; this was before the race, during the race, they closed the roads, so no danger). I was a bit tired after a few miles in but not too much. In the back of my mind, I was thinking whether that “long” run I did was a smart idea, because now I started with tired legs. However, I was glad for the pre-run because I knew every turns and everything what to expect for the course. I could be more aggressively tackling the hills because I know how long they would last. Indeed, I will boast a bit, after doing trail racing, no hills in a marathon really scare me.

    By halfway, 13.1 miles, my time was around 2:18. (first place finished at 2:48).

    My feet felt a bit stiffer and heavier but miles still flew by under me. Little did I know, I was faster on the second lap than the first. My goal was to break it down by 5k, knowing recently I did 20 5k in one day, so 5k distance was fresh on my brain and easy to see in my head.

    Normally in the past, I didn’t focus much on calories. Today, I brought couple candy bars (those sticky granola bars). It was something I learned from the MMT race to be prepared for the bonking. I ate a bar for breakfast just right before the race. I did not want a heavy breakfast this time and I was too lazy to go for a real breakfast. I had another one by mile 8-ish when I was hungry. I was originally saving it for mile 13. I figured I need another bar by mile 20. Then I had a gel left for the final hill climb.

    I started hitting the wall at mile 20. So I popped my last granola bar. My strength came back and I could get to mile 23. Before mile 23, the aid station offered me gels. I took one. It kept me going to the big hill at Mile 24. By then, I lost track of the 4:30 pace team (they out ran me). According to plan, I then used my last remaining gel. Going up the hill was tough. I was able to pass some people because most were walking except the relay team people.

    There were about two more miles to go and pretty soon it was down to one mile. I love running through the school. It gave me some extra boost when I could see people around.

    I might have pushed a bit harder here. The bonking was completely out of my system. My legs felt great. No longer was I fake running. You know when you are tired, you kind of gingerly tapping you feet with each step (I called that fake running because you are in the motion of a run but you are not going anywhere fast). Real running is when you pound the pavement hard. Probably the gel kicked in by now. At this time, I knew no matter what, I would finish. Always in a race I doubted my ability to get to the end, but there is always a turning point. This was my turning point. It came kind of late, but I felt a rush of power. I reached Hill St. Basically the end is in sight, just down the road and make a right to the chute. I crossed the finish around 4:31. (The actual bib time was 4:30:01).

    Because I had a flight to catch at 4:00 pm, I did not linger long. I figured I had to absolutely leave by 2 pm in order to make it. I normally would like to wait till the race is closed before leaving. It is part of the fun. This time, I left by 1 pm (at the 5 hr mark) after my pace group came in.

    It was a small race, so I think by 5 hours, many already finished. There was no post race celebration for me. I took couple water bottles and a cookie and a banana. I was not sure if there were free beers given out like in many other marathons. I just tried to leave as quickly as possible, since I needed to return the rental car, get gas for it, and take a bus from the car rental to the airport, go through security and get to my gate. There were many unknowns that could ruin my trip home. Luckily everything worked out smoothly, I still had about an hour left before boarding when I arrive at the airport and I finally could relax. To me that was the real finish. I celebrated it at the airport and I grabbed lunch.

    Compared this to my other marathons, I enjoyed it just as much. We had great weather, and that like 75% making the race better. It was a repeated (double) loop course. I generally do not like doing a marathon of this format (because it’s boring), but the plus side was there were plenty of aid stations. My finish time was decent. I did not finish with cramping like in some of previous marathons. I think I ran at a relaxed pace, and it was alnost like a morning stroll or a training run. Weird for me to say that. My 10th state in my 50 states quest was easily completed.

    The race course and various sights

    Milesflyby also ran in the Ann Arbor (Half) Marathon. Her report is way better at describing the course. Congrats to her for a fast finish.

  • Day494 IMTR 50 Race (report)

    TLDR – I finished the IMTR 50 mile race in 12:23:00 unofficially. As to why or how read on. (or to read my last year race, IMTR (40) for comparison)

    Part I: why I did this race

    The exact finish time was not recorded because the race closed exactly at 12 hours. I came in 20 mins after. I had no regret that I did not reach my goal to finish it under the official closing time.

    I felt I used every tricks I had to get this “fast” time. I was happy that it was not too late in the day but was light enough for me to continue on all the way to the actual finish. They were going to pull me off the trail.

    My mom came along to accompany me on this trip. 12 hours was way too long for her to wait at the finish line, so she waited at the hotel for me.

    The next day, I took her up to see part of the trails I ran on and to see some of the views I saw. Unless one walks on it, it is hard to convey the joy in me. We hiked a baby section, maybe a quarter or even an eighth of a mile around Skull Gap, which was a significant point in the race.

    My point was not to impress her or anyone how difficult the trail was, but to show how much fun it was for me to it. At the end of the last blog, I mentioned about the sharing my glory. Walking on the trail I did, is like walking on a piece of history. Similarly, at the end of the race, I got to experience a friend’s making history (more on this below).

    I think readers have similar questions as to why I did it in the first place, especially knowing likely I wouldn’t finish it. It was for the fun. Running is fun.

    It is hard to justify my hobby as fun. To most people it seems like suffering.

    The question usually comes why waste the time, money, risking my health for this sport. My mom thinks each time I run, my knees get worse, and my health declines, as well as many other dangers and that I shorten my lifespan. She likes to ask: for what? There are definitely some dangers and risks and it is not an easy thing to do (say to run a 50 mile), but I believe the risks are low enough and rewards are worth it.

    Rewards for me are not a medal or even being counted as a finish. Those are good, but I prefer the friends I made, and the time I spent and experiences related to this trip. There might be one or two unexpected lessons along the way.

    Sorry, I am preachy. For this trip, I like the challenge of doing something impossible. I like the aspect of planning it and then executing it. I did not quite get what I wanted, but I am pleased with my performance overall. They were within my expectation. It was a nice try. This is the report of what happened.

    Timewise, for me, as I looked back at couple 50 mile races I did last year, my previous finishes were around this time of 12:20-ish, but they were either easier or shorter than this one (Grayson Highlands was I believe to be 5 miles short, and I think Stone Mill was much easier). So I felt I am quite good this time to run a full and hard 50 mile race, meaning I am either on par or better than before (by my own standard).

    A few posts back, I mentioned I only was able to run a 50 miler under 12 hours once and that was at the JFK in 2019, three years ago (ancient history now). I knew going in, it would be hard to achieve this feat again. Plus lately, I realized I am a much slower runner for reasons still unexplained maybe other than aging.

    I had to run it to know my true fitness level and as well how I am measuring up to my peers. Based on last year 40-mile pace, I should come in around 12:06, granted that I wouldn’t slow down the last 10 miles. Pace usually gets slower as the distance increases.

    All my training runs leading up to the race, gave an estimated finishing time of over 14 hours.

    My first and third training run on a 20 mile loop from Skull Gap out (don’t worry if the place doesn’t mean anything) took over 6 hours.

    My second training run on the 30 mile loop, from Damascus to Skull Gap and back, was 8 hours long. Combining both runs would give the entire race course.

    However, I hope usually on race day, I could find some super human effort or a miracle to push me to run faster, farther and help me to last longer. I usually do.

    I secretly was hoping to get near 12:15:00 finish time, with maybe even get it under 12 hours, but everything had to be more than perfect to reach it. It is the unknown that drove me to sign up. Likely, this will motivate me to run it again.

    Part II: The Race Plan

    For me, there were only about four cut offs I needed to care about, Skull Gap, Hurricane Gap (two here) and FS90.

    Skull Gap is geographically in the middle. Listing the cut offs/AS in order would be FS90, Skull Gap, and Huricane Gap, and for coming back I would encounter them in reverse.

    There is the start/finish and Rowland Creek Trail at either end, but we don’t have to worry about that since no one could drop at those places. They didn’t want anyone to drop at all, since most of the stations are remote. This race basically you decided how far you want to go before turning around and make it back to the start in a reasonable time. We can turn around at any of those stations. The lesson is go only as far as you are able to.

    My plan was to base my pace on the AS (Aid Station) cutoffs. This race was helpful by providing a very reasonable pace for each of the cut offs. The overall pace was 14:20 min per mile. I knew I needed to run faster in the beginning to bank on time at the end or else hold off the body from slowing down, by having plenty of calories. My strategy was built around keeping my body from slowing down by running an evenly pace.

    Part III: The Race execution

    I reached all those cut offs but the last one on the way back. However, I was able to continue running back to the finish even after missing the cut off.

    The first half of the out-and-back trail is longer, which is about 15-16 miles (one way) and thus requires about 7 hours for the round trip. The second half is a 20 mile loop, and is estimated to take about 5 hours. For me, I did the second loop in the 5:05:00, almost perfect (with only 5 min over). Also the first half of the first loop, I did well. It took me 3:35:00, also almost perfect as well (with 5 mins over). The only part I did not do so well was the way back on the last 15 miles. I did it in 3:40:00 (a 10 min slow down). I lost about 20 mins from running as far as know. There were a few remaining mins unaccounted for, and they were probably due to aid station transitioning, likely at the last aid station.

    In total, I was 22-23 minutes too slow. I need to improve my pace about 30 seconds faster per mile if I want to run it under the time next time (14:20 instead of 14:50).

    This might sound boring to some because of a lot of numbers being thrown about, however, it is necessary for me for a next year attempt. I consider them as a note to self.

    What the numbers tell me is I was probably very good at keeping a steady pace. What I need next time is to run a bit faster and work on better at running uphills (my report will show this).

    IV. The race

    Now onto the race, I felt great the morning of the race. Unlike on my training runs, I felt light on my feet. As the race started, I ran an easy pace on the Virginia Creeper Trail. It was a five mile stretch. This year unlike the previous year, I was not jostling for position with other runners. Maybe because there were less runners. We don’t really fight for position but you know, a lot of time I am competitive to keep pace with someone to the detriment of being out of breath and ruin my race.

    I was wiser this year to run at my own pace. Pretty soon, many people left me. There were maybe 20 of us in the tail end bunch. I was not worried. Everyone had to focus on their own race. I knew I got this. Win/lose does not determined by this early segment.

    We, the 50 mile runners started with the 40 mile runners. So it is not always obvious without checking the bib to know who is the 40 miler or 50 miler. I think there were 70-80 runners between the two groups.

    The 50 mile runners could drop down to a shorter distance during the race such as 40 mile, 30 mile or 16 mile event. My point is, unlike in other races, you couldn’t rely on the runners around to judge if you are going too fast (or too slow) or use them to get the psychological push to run faster. This could be a problem for me who like to stay with someone because I might follow the wrong crowd who might end up going for the shorter distance. I had to run by feel regardless if those around me were running fast or slow.

    Note I told myself to go light, by not carrying too much water. On training, I carried the full 2L and I drank it all within the first 9 miles. I only filled 1 L and I drank probably a quarter of that even before the start of the race. I wanted it to last me until FS90, 9 miles in. This strategy was working well to allow myself to run faster in the beginning. Note, I could have gone even lighter still. And note, I shouldn’t have refilled water at every single station.

    After the 5 miles, we reached first aid station before Straight Branch climb. I stopped at the Aid Station for some liquid (sodas) and I took a gel as well, and ate a candy bar. The strategy was to get calories in me for the long climb.

    This is a mile of serious climb of 1000+ ft. Last year, I did not feel good after the climb. This year, I made sure I had pretty of energy in me before the ascent and to go at a slower pace. The trail was clear before me, totally unlike last year, where runners were blocking my way and I was frustrated with the slower runners. I ate again (a candy bar).

    I believed I made it up the hill in a short time. We reached the Iron Mountain trail. I passed couple ladies in front of me. They were strong while climbing up but now exhausted. I previously resolved myself not to pass anyone until halfway (mile 22) or at least till FS 90 (mile 9). The two ladies (also doing the 50 miler) were walking and I had to pass them. A 40 miler (her bib was 4010, Rene), caught up to me. She was going at a good pace and I tried to keep up. We passed a guy together. I was betting she would finish under 10 hours and she did (later I checked). I wanted to kept at her pace to get to Hurricane Gap, knowing that would put me in a good chance to finish on time. I chased after her.

    She and I arrived at FS 90, I don’t remember my time but I felt great. This was the first full service aid station with food and all. I told myself I had no time to lose, meaning I had to priorize the tasks, water, snacks and things I needed under a short time. No waiting around doing nothing. I filled my water bag. Took a cup of Gatorade/soda and grabbed some fruits and sandwiches and headed back out. It had to be boom boom boom. Usually many runners waited around checking to see what food they like or not. I learn, if I don’t know what to get, grab something and go. Don’t stand and stare and be asked what do I need. As good as I was in going through the station this time, I know I still need to work on getting my time down to less than a minute.

    I had to keep moving. Rene was still pretty fast and I did not catch up to her again until Skull Gap.

    The next Aid Station, Skull Gap, was about 5 miles away. I had to get there by 10:30 AM (I told myself, and I think the soft cut off was also 10:30). I was a bit slower than my “plan” pace, but I reached it by 10:35. I told myself too I had to be quick. This aid station had our drop bags.

    My plan was to grab my drop bag and took my snacks prepared in advance in a ziplock (with a bottle of milk). It was supposed to be a grab and go. I then went to the food and drink table. I filled my water bag. I did the same like the last Aid Station, got some fruits, sandwiches, soda. All in all, this only took 2 minutes. I headed out at 10:37. In my mind it was already kind of late (7 mins late that I have to make up for). Note, I should have checked what I grabbed, and not go to the Aid table.

    I saw Rene in the distance up on a hill, and she was soon out of view.

    I tried to check on my snack bag I brought. Oh to my surprise, it was not food but an extra pair of socks I put in a ziplock. I cursed myself for not checking of what I grabbed out of bag at the Aid Station. A mistake is a mistake, I had to continue on without my snack bag. Later on, this pair of sock turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Lesson to-self also, Keep a pair of socks on you.

    In this race, every minute counts and I seemed to be losing them. I wanted to run back and swap out for the correct bag, but decided against it. I couldn’t lose more time.

    Up next, we had another mile of climb but this time on a service road. I knew I should eat something, but I could not find the appetite. I stuffed myself with couple sandwich “quads” I took earlier at the station. I pretty much had enough of it. My stomach was about to turn. I drank some gatorade to hold it down.

    Calorie-wise, I should be fine. as for my subway sandwich, I told myself, I had to get rid of it if I don’t eat it by the next station at Hurricane Gap. Looking back, I should have tossed my sandwich out earlier at Skull Gap. It was just an extra weight.

    So far, everything was still kind of on track as I planned. Plan: Eat and Drink before a big climb. Get the energy to do it quicky. I did just that. The plan though was also to finish a footlong Subway I had in my runner vest but I just couldn’t make myself eat it. Maybe it was a day old and/or it did not have veggies and dressings, so it was hard to me to swallow. It was also more salty than what I like. I managed only eat a small piece. Normally, I love having a hoggie on the trail, which had been my signature – the guy with the footlong. Not this time.

    After the mile service road climb, we got back onto the trail at the old 84. I was able to find energy to sprint down this trail (as planned). It was about 5 miles. I caught up to 4-5 40 milers, including Rene, and it was my last time seeing them. They all finished, later I checked the time sheet. They let me passed them. I caught up to a 50 miler, bib 521. He was the first 50 miler I caught up. However, he was walking. He seemed to be done. Indeed, later he dropped from the race, but I salute him for attempting. I am sure he has his story.

    If I wanted, I could drop to the 40 mile distance, and be an official finisher. This would be my decision at the next aid station at Hurricane Gap. My hope was get to the station by 12:20 before the cut off.

    I reached Hurricane Gap at 11:57, with 20 mins to spare. It was close but I knew whole race would be like that. Last year, I believe I was here around this time.

    I told myself to be quick. Since I am ahead of the cut off, I decided to continue on and not drop down to the shorter distance.

    There were sand in my right shoe. Sand seemed to be inside the sock. I had another decision to make, to replace the sock or kept it as is in order to save time. I decided to replace the sock since the next section had a long 7 miles on mostly running on a service road and sand would would destroy the feet. Changing one sock (just one, right foot) to get the sand out of that foot was a smart move. I had saved the other dry sock for later (and guess what for the same foot). I was not even had this plan in mind, and it was just lucky I did what I did. *Note, for future reference, no need to change both socks or shoes at the same time to save time. Treat them independently.

    All in all, my time in the station even with a sock change was only 3 minutes. I was out by 12:00. I am proud of this – since being too long at the aid station was my downfall in a previous race (MMT). I learned to hustle.

    There at the station also I met Eileen, a runner who marked the course the week before, and in this race she was unofficially my pacer for the rest of the race from here on. She is fast, and has my respect. I did not expect to catch up to her at all. She is at least couple minutes faster per mile pace than me. I had expected her to finish this race in 10 hours or so, but here she was. She had some kind of hip and knee pain issue. I don’t think she would give up, she seemed to determine to go on. Out we went together. I said I would pace her for now.

    We caught up to a runner not long from the station. As usual, people we passed, were struggling. We left the person. I did not take time to note the bib, but I felt like we likely the last ones in this race (I called myself the unofficial sweeper position). We had to go fast to catch up with the bulk of runners, or else. I dare not think.

    The plan here was to run as fast as possible down the service road. It was about a mile when we reached Barton Gap Trail. We had a nice pace going. We took the turn and that followed by a mile long climb and maybe a mile descend. It was slow going. I don’t know if I were by myself would I be able to do it any faster. I eased my pace a bit for Eileen. She was not slow per se, but was going at a gentler pace. I let her lead for a time until I felt she was too slow for me.

    We had 5 more miles mile of downhill after Barton Gap. I know we had to run our heart out to Rowland Creek. I would not blame Eileen for holding me back here. As far as I know, I was moving faster with her than I did by myself during training. She also thanked me for helping her move at that pace. I know if she had been in 100% perfect condition, she would have left me in the dust. It was not a break neck pace this time, but was fast.

    We got to Rowland Creek by 1:30. Note, I need to run this section even faster next time. This was half hour faster than on my training run. I believed I moved through the station fast, maybe again 2 minutes off the clock, just enough time to refill water and grab some food and a sport drink. Eileen took a popsicle.

    I needed to reach back at Hurricane Gap by 2:45 pm. This 3 mile section was to me the hardest section in the entire race. If I am going pinpoint where my race plan fell apart, it was here. It is supposingly a 3 mile climb back up to the top at Hurricane Gap. A quick climb really. And this took me an hour when it should have been 40 mins or 45 mins, which though I think was faster than on my training, but still I used up too much time. To tell the truth I bonked badly here (being low in energy).

    Eileen was leading. I am sorry for Eileen, if I had slowed her down and costed her the race here as well, since I promised to get her through to the end within the 12 hour (I was too bold). I believe, it might have been not enough calories in me and also not adaquately prepared for the long hill climb.

    I had my subway footlong still in my pack but I was unable to bring myself to eat it like before. I don’t remember, but I might have eaten a snack bar here. I carried some from the start. I tried all ways to get calories in me to overcome my slowness.

    Eileen started recovering well and she was moving well up this trail with ease, unlike earlier in the day. I was happy to have her accompany me – but looking back, I should have told her to leave me.

    We reached Hurricane Gap by 2:30 PM, which is still a good news to me since we held off from losing more time, but it was less than ideal. I needed to bank on my time and I did not do so here. I knew the race would only get harder. I pushed the negative thoughts out my mind.

    I finally trashed my subway sandwich. It was no longer useful to me. I hate to waste food but it had become a deadweight. I changed sock again for the same right foot. I believed I went through the station fast, maybe using up only 3 minutes.

    The next part was to get back to Skull Gap by 3:45 PM. We had maybe 3 miles of service road. Eileen did better than me in the first couple miles. She decided not to hold herself back because of me. I don’t blame her. I told her, the goal is get to the station before the cut and I wanted her to succeed. I really didn’t know if I could make it.

    I think I had some kind of stomach bug. I couldn’t eat, and felt like wanted to poop. I was still bonking and couldn’t run. Eileen was doing small steps, she looked like she was bonking too but she could at least bring herself to “run” (fake running). I was just walking. Pretty soon, she was out of sight. She actually said good bye to me before going. I understood, not to delay her.

    I carried a Gatorade bottle on me that I refilled at the station, I drank the whole bottle. Maybe 15 minutes later, my strength returned. I sprinted downhill and caught up to Eileen. We made the turn together onto Iron Mountain Trail. It was two miles to Rt 600 Skull Gap. Eileen exploded away. Note, if I do this race again, I should run fast here like Eileen. It was exactly like on our training run. This trail was her stomping ground and she was in her element. We were so close now to it (“a pyschological finish” at Skull Gap). I did the best to keep her in sight but to no avail.

    I stopped to pee. Through out these two miles I was by myself. I arrived at Skull Gap at 3:40. Five minutes left before the cut off. I went to my drop bag again, this time, I reached for the correct snack bag I packed, because it was only thing that was left there. Since I don’t need anything except for water, I was able to be out of the station in two minutes. Still it was not enough. We were playing with fire with the next cut off, I just knew.

    The next cut off was 5:15 pm at FS90. We had 5 miles to go like in the last section except this time, we had two big hills to climb and all 5 miles were on trail and not like a nice downhill service road as our last segment, and we had to do this in the same amount of time as before. An hour and half to cover 5 miles, normally should be enough time, but I knew I was not able to do it. It was tough to ask my body to run.

    These five miles were hard fought. I went through repeated cramps, my quads were hurting, and I had a stomach upset, and I pooped in my pants a bit (diarrhea), just like in my training run. Yet the race was still on, we had to try to reach the Aid Station before the cutoff. No matter what mess I was in, I had to get there. I held myself together. There were times when I could run, and I ran, but most of the time, I was walking. My pace was slow.

    Eileen and I leap-frogged each other. I stopped talking to her and focused on my run. She was same. She was getting stronger by the minute. When 5:12 came around, she passed me one last time. I told her to hurrying up, even if I couldn’t make it to the station before the cut, but if she runs down the hill (I believed the station was just at the bottom of the hill) she might reach it within three minutes and not be cut. Ran indeed. She flew down to the Aid Station. Little did I know the Station was a mile away. I arrived at 5:33. I was cut.

    Eileen was still there. There were some misunderstandings between her and the station captain. We both knew the Station Captain (who is the RD wife), who were at the training runs also, so there shouldn’t come to a point where we would be “grounded” so to speak and be banned from the race. We were told to call for our rides back to town. Both Eileen and I wanted to continue on and refused. Ann, the Station Captain said something that regardless, we were both dropped from the race. I pulled my bib off and handed it to her to show I understood her (as required in most races to hand in the bib to the station’s captain to indicate dropping from the race), but we wanted to continue on the trail instead of getting a ride back. The aid station’s captain relented.

    There was another runner there, I think he was dropped as well. I did not interact with him, but busy myself prepping to go back out. He was handed a cell phone to make a phone call. Eileen and I left the station. I believed I might use up 3 mins at the station, I didn’t check or remember. They stocked me up with food and water (Eileen didn’t get anything, she was waiting for me). I took a bag of grapes since likely we were the last ones arriving there, and all the food would be tossed out. (I was surprised the sweepers had not caught up to us yet — later we learned the sweeper was carrying a cat found on the trail, and carried it for 10 miles, and she didn’t arrive to the finish until 8 PM).

    We had 8 miles to go and 1.5 hours to do it. I knew the race was over for me. I wanted my 50 miles in regardless it being considered as a finish. I went easier now. The pressure was off. Eileen after a quick goodbye was gone. She said her ride was waiting for her back in town and they didn’t know what was going on if she didn’t show up. She had a reason to get there fast. Her pace was too fast for me to keep up. She was running up the hill. This section though is mostly on downhills for rest of the way. I went with a walk run pace that I was comfortable in.

    By 6:15 PM I reached the split at Beech Grove Trail (or something), meaning it took me 45 mins to cover the last four miles, which was really good. There were only 4 miles remained. They (race org) left water and Gatorade at the intersection for us. I helped myself with some Gatorade. I probably lost couple minutes by drinking (not that I needed to drink). There was no doubt, I would be in town while it was still light. The setting sun ray shown through the trees. Beautiful. Cloud was gone. I no longer felt sorry for myself.

    I continued to go at a pace I could manage. I had some more cramps in different places. but I walked it off each time. I saw on my watch when 7 PM arrived, and I was still in the woods. But soon I reached town. There were passerby cheering me as I crossed the road into town. A hero welcome! Cars stopped for me to cross the road. I had a mile left. I never felt happier. I made the turn onto the Virginia Creeper Trail. I knew there was maybe half mile to the end now. There wouldn’t be any finish line, but I hoped to run up the lawn in the Damascus City Park as my finish where the actual finish line had been.

    Eileen’s two sons made a finish line for me by each standing on each side and with their hands out for me to run through. It was a thrilling finish. Note, I didn’t know Eileen or her family before this race, and hadn’t expect for her to wait for me. We ran together a week before but that was it. I collapsed (sat down) onto the steps of the town picnic area Gazebo. The race director called out my name and some of runners gathered in. I met them before in this race, they were cheering for me. Greg, my friend who ran this race 6 times, who probably finished at 4 pm was waiting for me to finish. He came up and as well as a few others to say some good words. Adrian too, a guy I met a month ago during training, he and I have similar running goals/projectory, he stayed with me for a long time and we talked, catching up on stuff.

    Eileen told me she made it back under 12 hours (unofficially).

    She just wanted to prove she could run 8 miles under 90 minutes, and finish it under 12 hours, when others said it was not possible. She did it, even after putting in a 42 miles earlier. She deserves all my praises, and it is the reason mentioning her in my blog. As for me, it was totally a “fun” run. I do not mind the “not finishing”. A run is a win in my book. I got my training time in. Note, I was sore for the whole next week.

    Some had said, why this race does not open longer than 12 hours like other 50 milers. This is one of their requirements/conditions, we had to finish under 12. Naturally, some (and many) wouldn’t make it. When we signed up to run, and we had to abide by its rules (and/or quirks). My only choice is train to run faster. Actually, 12 hours are not fast, 10 hours is. I knew people who could do it in 10. I had no regrets nor complaints for a race being the way it was.

    Timewise, my personal time was not bad when compares to previous 50 events. I made it in at 12:22, I rounded up to 12:23:00 and used that as my completion time for this race. I am happy. I might not be as fast as others in this IMTR, but when looking at my past races, it was not bad. To me, making it under 12 hours would be a dream comes true, but not doing it, was not a big lost. I felt lucky, and a miracle, to finish it way under 14 hours (a time my training runs seemed to indicate) and with that I felt very pleased.

    So in conclusion, I did it as a challenge to myself to run faster. I believe I reached my challenge (not exactly under 12 hours), but who’s counting? In a handwaving way, I did it. It was fun. I had expected to be alone on the trail, but having a companion with me for most of the course was rare. It was like having a pacer. I couldn’t ask for more. Finally, toward the end, it was like being with celebrities, to witness Eileen put on a show, by sprinting to the finish. I did not get to accompany her to the finish, but I was only 20 mins (maybe 2 mile away), which is close enough. I can say I was there and shared the joy of her fast run. Probably only I in the whole field knew/experienced how hard for Eileen to accomplish that. I think she recognized that and waited for me in return. (This was parallel to my last year, IMTR finish, when I waited for my runner).

  • Day483 Grandmas Marathon

    TL;DR a long post of I had a good race but I can’t say exactly why it was so good after I finished. I finally put together various tips and my thoughts for this race. Enjoy!

    What makes a race great? I guess everything just clicks in a good race. Many reasons have to do with the host organization but also on a personal level how I receive it (I could list out many external and the internal factors).

    I think it is really about controlling one’s expectation. I just love running and so I see everything through that len. I could run a race without supports after doing ultras. We learn to do with very little (even with no bathrooms, food or sleep). I mean having good supports and cheers from family and friends is good and they motivate/enable me to run faster but they are not essential for me to enjoy a race. Even if it is one or two people, I think I can enjoy a race. I think what I like is the unique experience and the challenge of the course itself. For marathons, it is no longer an impossiblilty and there is never a risk (yet) of me not finishing a marathon as long as I am healthy.

    That’s a long opening for what make Grandmas Marathon a good race. I could list many things how this race did it better than other races. Logistically it was a phenomenon. They were able to host 20,000+ athletes in the three events combined. It went smoothly. They are proud of their small town is able to deliver a top city size marathon. Personally, I think it is compatible or even better than the Marine Corps Marathon (one which I had a strong impression). They made my weekend so much more enjoyable.

    Why I like it is not so much the mega marathon hype. In fact, because I live in a moderately big city, I try to avoid crowds. Usually crowds mean delay and scracity of stuff and restrictions (from crowd control measures). Sometimes you could lost yourselves in the sea of crowd and feel less validated (or fulfilled). I experienced some of those at Grandmas. However, they were not the race’s fault.

    Grandmas Marathon held in Duluth, Minnesota, was my 9th state in my 50 states marathon quest. It was one of the reasons I went there. I could have chosen some other races in the state, but Grandmas attracted me because of the town Duluth. I first heard of it last year while going to the Eau Claire Marathon. Mostly why I run a race is to see new places and have new experiences, and plus I had not seen Lake Superior.

    I did it as a runcation (vacation as an excuse to run). It is more expensive compares to doing a local marathon and to spend that much money for just a 2-3 day trip does not make sense to most people. I know I should and could have stayed a bit longer but I am one of those who is mission focused, fly in, run, get out.

    It was not tough like the other races I recently did (ahem MMT 100, in which I failed to finish). In fact, it was comparable to the last two states I did, Carlsbad Marathon in California, in 2020 and Eau Claire Marathon, Wiscousin, in 2021. Each of those races is held in an awesome and beautiful town.

    Training for marathons now requires very little effort, maybe a week of fear/anxiety prior to the event, but once I get going usually it becomes as easy as walking – I’d compare it as water flowing down the stream. Still of course, I wanted to do well.

    I did two local marathons this year for comparison: Newport News Marathon and Salisbury. I use the word local loosely. They were great too but nothing compares to when you get to travel on an airplane. It makes the trip so much more memorable.

    Leaving from the airport (MSP)

    Performance wise, Newport News I finished a little beyond the 5 hour. Salisbury, I had an amazing time to run with a guy and (and other friends) I finished it around 4:52, an improvement. This race, I was not aiming for a particular finishing time, but I picked up a 4:35 pace band and I was kind of dreaming would it be nice to reach it, since ultra training makes me a very slow runner. I wrote how I became fat and unmotivated during my training. I finished (*spoiler alert*) around 4:20. It is not my fastest time, but it is the fastest in the recent years. It is just thrilling to finish fast. They say it is a fast course and indeed I felt happy to be able to reach that expectation.

    With a big race like this, logistics is a bit of a challenge, especially with accomodations. I did not book my accommodation early so I did not have a room in Duluth. I stayed in Minneapolis which is two+ hours away. I thought making two and half hour drive to the race course is not too bad even if I have to drive it back and forth twice (first pick up the bib and second for the race itself).

    Another slight hiccup was they overbooked my rental car. Though I got my car early after landing in Minneapolis, but my car was also claimed by another driver (he was going to Duluth to run in the marathon — we finished together). Instead of getting into an argument with the person, I yielded the car to him because it was totally the rental company’s fault that created this conflict. This costed me an extra 4 hr delay until they found another car for me.

    Overall, I like their highways. While driving out to Duluth, there were not much to see. The land is flat. We have young pine trees on both sides and occasionally we have big fields. It is a boring drive if not for public reststops along the way. A few times, I needed to stop to refresh myself or take a nap. It was very boring and I was falling asleep. One of the trips was during the wee hours.

    On my first trip out, I was stuck in traffic with all other runners. It was trafficky when 20,000 athletes not including their friends and families and volunteers driving to Duluth using the same two lane road and going into the same parking lot at the same time! There were bounded some contruction delays added in couple of accidents that made the road impassible for the afternoon, plus it was a Friday weekend, and first weekend after the school is out for a lot of families, and we were stuck in the middle of nowhere. I arrived at Duluth when the 5K was about to start. Road closures were already happening around the event area. One can imagine the traffic. The nightmare. Bad things kept compounding and spiraling out of control. All this could have been prevented if I had planned better or had better luck.

    So I said now what? Knowing I would face the same traffic the next day for the marathon do I drive back to Minneapolis or do I stay in Duluth for the evening? I felt I had no choice but to take on this ordeal one more.

    I was hungry and I was late getting back to my hotel, which was still 2-3 hours away. I had been out all day in the car. I landed 8 am in the morning and was up since 4 am (3 am local time), the convention hall was packed, they had all you can eat spagetti dinner hapenning. Gosh, if I had planned it better, it would have been a blast. There I was tired and exhausted, knowing I had a marathon still to run the next morning.

    The place I stayed in Minneapolis was not in a “nice” neighborhood, though it might have been nice by their standard. I did not do sufficient research before booking. It might have looked good from thousand feet above but once on the street level, it was not that great. I didn’t spend too much time there to make a generalization but from the feeling of it, I wish I stayed in a better neighborhood, maybe by paying a bit more. Maybe I am just naive that any places where the hotel had to lock their front door as an indicator that it was not a good place. Our hotels back home do not need to lock their front entrances. However, they might have lock the door maybe to prevent beggars other desireable guests from coming it. The two nights I stayed there, some kind of loud arguments were happening outside the hotel’s parking lot. I was like what!? Why are people shouting. It makes me wonder why the city is so bad. A few times I had to stop in the city to buy gas for my car, my experience was the same, to quickly fill it up and get me out of there. Unlike in DC, there is no revitalization or gentrification I can see. Maybe there is, but their city is just huge! I can’t see an obvious break from the city proper and the surounding suburbs. I lived like on the 97th st or something and still felt I was in the city and that is like 5 miles from the city center. But I think it is better than Baltimore or Richmond, at least some other bad places I stayed at.

    Remember how handling the logistics ruined my experience at the Worlds End event a couple weeks back (one of my favorite races to go to and aspiring to run it), I wanted to focus on just the positive. I needed a good sleep. Luckily I did, though maybe for about 3 hours before leaving for the race.

    Was the race good? It was out of this world. How can I say? I ran almost 40 “big” races so far in my last six years. I can say I’ve seen it all, the good, bad, and ugly. Most if not all of my races were A+ good. Actually any organization that is able to hold a big race year after year usually puts up a good race. I avoid those that can’t seem to able to measure the course correctly but wanted to make money off you (names unsaid) and I am not talking about trail races. I do my research.

    If I compare this race to my other 40 races, I got to say this one is maybe at the top 3 or higher. Not that other races are bad, they are sometimes different. The pampering of a 100 mile race is different from the pampering from a marathon. But if I want to compare apple to apple, this was a very good race.

    What went well? A lot! We had a perfect racing weather. It was cold around 50F (45 F at night), but sunny. The temperature went up a bit during the race, I think might have gotten to near 60F or higher. They were offering ice to cool is off. Heck, in 60 degree temp! They said we have tail winds coming in from the Lake of North-North-East, and it helped a lot whatever that means. By late afternoon the temperature dropped to 45 F, and that is winter temperature where I live. I was already in my car on my way back to Minneapolis where it was a balmy 80 F.

    The race was well organized. We had water stations at every two miles ish and well managed. It was more than enough. I was in the end of the pack after 15000 runners had gone through them and the volunteers were just as enthusiastic and crowds were just as excited to see us. I saw how quickly they cleaned up the cups dropped. 15,000+ cups tossed at each station and they still managed to keep the road / running lane clear of them. This is one of my irritations after doing trail racing of why people need to toss their cups on the ground after drinking! Not cool. Throw them in the bins and save the volunteers the trouble! And it is why I found running in mega merathons undesireable.

    It was well stock with water and gatorade, plus sponges and ice. The course was well marked and roads were blocked off completely for us. There was a high security presence. The course was flat but some would disagree with me and call it rolling hills. For me, the couple of inclines we had were nothing at all to be considered as hills.

    Super friendly aid station volunteers (I just noticed the stroller/walker). I saw a lot of elderly volunteers speak to passiom of the residents

    The half marathon started an hour before us, unlike some of marathons I did, where they started the Half either concurrently or an hour or two later (e.g. Baltimore or Morgantown). They were finished by the time we went out the starting line. The race organization did well to transport all the runners to their respective start locations and it was a challenge because this was a point to point course (ending is different from the start). 9000+ runners for marathons and another 9000 for the Half marathoners. There are 6000 marathon finishers and 7000 half marathon finishers. I have been in marathons where the runners from the Half just cleaned out the table and nothing (water) was left for us who were running the Full (e.g., The Moonlight Marathon, given that was their inaugural year)

    To get to the start, I took the train rather than the bus for the experience. The train ride took longer to get to the start, but to me it was the calm before the storm and worth the ride. It is like playing the violin on the sinking Titanic. Weird metaphor but I like the relaxation as well as the nervousness. To the people who were sitting with me, on the train, I enjoyed your company even though I forgot your names by now! Maybe some did not like the restlessness and chose the bus instead. I recommend the train and feel it is an integral experience of this race. This was free. If I had to pay for the train ride, maybe I would have taken the bus instead.

    We had a lot of bathrooms at the start. Note, I ran the Marine Corps marathon before, which had maybe twice as many runners but I felt Grandmas Marathon had more bathrooms than the Marine Corps Marathon.

    Massive crowd waiting for restrooms. This is only a portion

    I started about 7-8 minutes after the official gun time because I had to use the bathroom at the last minute. It was bib timed so, it was not a big deal not to start exactly at the gun time. It was actually better to let the crowd go first and let them spread out before I give chase. Some may want to follow me with this strategy of delaying the start so as to be able to run faster after the crowd disperses (because as usual a lot of slower people put themselves further up at the line up, and I don’t blame them, I did that too when I was young/imexperienced).

    About to cross the starting line. Crowd already thinned a bit but it was still a lot of runners

    Another strategy which might be obvious to many seasoned runners, but I did not see many people do in this marathon (maybe because I was in the tail end of the pack, and many might be their first marathon), is running the tangent, which is to run the shortest distance possible around a curve, so it requires looking up and get yourself into position. In many smaller marathons, the race path is narrow (like two person wide) and roads are straight, running the tangent doesn’t matter much, but for this race, we had both sides of a wide road (like a four lane wide), plus wide shoulders, and it is winding left and right for most of the race course along the Lake, heck, run the tangent! However, most people (including the front runners, I rewatched the race on youtube, the commentators were commenting on this) stuck to one side or the other the whole time. Well maybe they thought it was too curvy to do a tangent. I don’t know. I felt it saved me some extra miles. Don’t do it early on, I understand that, when the crowd is on the left, right, front and back, all around because you could trip someone when weaving in and out, but take advantage of the tangent whenever you can. It might save half a mile to a mile on this course and this could mean saving 20-30 minutes or more for the walkers! Imagine if I had to walk the last mile, the saving from running the tangent would have made a big difference!

    I used the same strategy as in my last half marathon race a week before, that is, to imagine myself in a desperate situation. I told myself I was back at the MMT 100 race, the morning had dawned, I just descended from Kern Mountain, and now this would be the last stretch and some serious running required to seal the race as long as I could run a marathon by 1 pm (of course, I couldn’t do it during the MMT and so I DNF). Since MMT was fresh on my mind, all the desperation to do one more marathon after just running 70 miles unleashed, when everything is on the line, the world on your shoulders, the raw emotions of being defeated by the course, the feeling of impossibility of the task but I still needed to try. It was a weird mixed of emotions of exactly how I felt at a point in time with the emotion afterward overlapped and layered on top because now I have a perspective of the past as well as the future of running the MMT. It may be why I love running, is for the insanity. I felt like I was a time traveller. I think this is what is like standing between the living and the dead (I like to be dramatic). I wanted that win/finish of the MMT so bad, if only I can redo it. At least treated it as a training run so I can do it in the actual MMT. I told myself I can redo it at this race. All I had to do was to run it again and let my feet fall where they needed to fall. Of course I could do it, but I imagined I can’t and needed to struggle for it. It was a controlled panic.

    Going back a bit, the first several miles were crowded. I learned not to be frustrated by that from the Rock n Roll Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon, but just be patience. I took my time to take some pictures, and enjoyed the race. I found someone who did the 50 states thing like me (he was in his 70) and also someone came from near my state (MD). We were happy to see each other. I chatted with a lady in a raccoon/fox outfit. They posed for me to take their pictures.

    At Mile 4 marker, course is still crowded but runnable now. Note, every mile is marked with a balloon (yellow for marathon and blue for the half)

    By mile 4, it was still crowded but I could run now and I could weave in and out the crowd. Everyone was now a few strides apart. I told myself to get serious and put away my phone.

    Also by now I felt a bit exhausted, maybe from the lack of sleep, I felt a bit out of breath because I pushed a bit too early to escape from the crowd and my legs were dragging, so I decided to take my first gel early. I only had three packages on me. Note, I did not see aid stations offering gels. Gels are expensive. Eating them so early might get me into trouble later when I definitely needed them. From experience, I usually need all the gels I can get my hand on around mile 20 and onward. Normally, I save them till that point. I chose to risk it this time by taking it early so to get myself into a good early pace. I didn’t have time for breakfast earlier as I was driving and no shops were in sight and so I was a little hungry now. I had been up since 2 am. Also no restaurants open at that time unlike back home. Now as the race was underway, my body started reminding me various things, such as I was actually hungry. Note, some experienced runners packed sandwiches for the morning and ate them before the start.

    I reached halfway, mile 13, without further trouble. The gel carried me. If I remember correctly, I ingested my second gel of sugar here at this point. My pace did hamper a bit even after having the gel, but I believe I passed the 4:35 pace group and the 4:20 pace group. It was hard keeping up with the 4:20 group because they kept escaping from me. I followed them for a few miles. I remember the pace leader shouted out we are in “single digit” – meaning we have less than 9 miles to go (at mile 17 marker). We are in the single digit territory! Woohoo! I think that gave me a boost to pass the pace group. Here my memory is a bit cloudy. I’m not sure if the group passed me back or I kept in front of them. They probably passed me back at some point. I was at a breaking point.

    We ran along Lake Superior. At halfway we had a wide open view. The Lake is breathtaking. Some whitcaps can be seen, indicating breezes from the lake.

    A little afterward, I struggled with a big bonk maybe around mile 18 ish or even be at mile 19. They say the worse is to come at mile 20 because of the “hill”. They called this the lemon drop.

    I ingested my last gel package, trying to keep my legs in motion. Still I knew the gels I had were not enough for me and I was sputtering. There was nothing I could do. I ate all my gels. Apparently I put a big package of gummy bears in my pack the night before but I have forgotten about them — I was angry at myself hours later when I open the pack and saw them and found out why my pack was heavier than normal during the race. Stupid gummies. It was my first time carrying them in a race. I was a noob.

    Preparation of the night before the race. I carried a lot of things on me. I ate the Kind bar while on the train as breakfast but totally forgotten about the big pack of gummy bears until well after the race

    I knew I needed supports from the crowd. As we got near the city more and more people cheered us on. Not only cheers, but also the citizens set up their own “fun” aid stations. The official stations were plenty and enough but there were special menu items you only could get at a private support station. I appreciated the grapes and strawberries and oranges offered me at several of the private stations. These are items ultra runners need and familiar with. I was given pancakes too. Jolly ranchers and lollypops were a big help to me in this race because they were long lasting, slowly releasing the sugar. What got me going again was at one of the private stops, someone offered me a jello shot and a beer! Usually and maybe never do I drink and run but this shot of jello, whatever in it (tongue in cheek), made all my pain go away and I was reborn as new, so it was time for me chase the 4:20 pace group again!

    I pressed the Lemon Drop. It is not the last hill but it is the most famous one with 4.1 mile from the finish. Most people walked this hill but no way would I be walking this. Full speed ahead! I told myself I ran a 18,000 ft race (elevation) not long ago, this tiny 50 ft (guessing here) was nothing to me.

    Three miles later, we were in the city. I was sputtering again. Now I was out of gel and had no more jello shots, only way to get to the finish was to endure.

    I tucked my chin in (they say don’t do that), put my chin down and digged deep. I stopped counting the miles. Many people passed me but I also passed all the walkers. I told myself I can’t let the 4:35 pace group pass me. Not sure if I ever caught back up with the 4:20 pace team, but I felt the devil was on my back. At the last mile, I could hear the finish line music. Unlike at a lot of races, this one set up loud speakers miles out. So we could kind of know what was going on at the finish of who is coming in as well as having rave music beats going. It gave me a bit more motivation to stay on pace.

    Many people walked in the last couple miles and many surged on ahead. About 65 runners (a lot) passed me on this stretch (and think the most during the whole race). My pace was somewhat in between. I was not strong enough to surge but I held onto my pace. I don’t know how I did it looking back, yet I crossed the finish line. I had my tempo back at the final hundred of feet and kind of coasted in nicely. I did not need to be fast, I just needed not to stop or slow down. You know many times I had the kick, a final burst of energy that allows me to run fast at the end. This time I just coasted in. They say near the city, the run is tricky because you know the finish is near but you can’t see it. Having done Newport News where you could see the last two miles ahead compares to this one, where the finish is unknown, I think I prefer this.

    Finish chute of the last few runners

    One thing I like about this race was they gave us wet sponges and ice at many of the aid stations. Having learned from MMT 100, I put ice inside my hat and put it over my head and let the slowly melt over me. I probably one of the few who used ice this way. I think many put them in their mouth. In ultras, I would pour ice in my hydration pack too, but I felt this was not needed. I used the sponges to clean my face, neck and arms (I hate having salt on my face and body during running, but in many races, I just have to ignore the salt on me). The sponges were a godsent. I like my skin being smooth. Sponges were nice. The temperature was 50 F and I was sweating a lot! The ice was also so good.

    Finish line food. I did not feel hungry after finishing. They offered us bagels and granola bars. I took a chocolate milk. I understand feeding 20000 runners is a hard task and I appreciate any food for us. There was no free food at the Baltimore Marathon if I remembered right. This race was above and beyond my expectation. For comparison, Newport News Marathon had the best finishing food (I wrote about that)! Bagels and bananas are nice too, can’t complain.

    Then it got very cold in the afternoon. Luckily I had a jacket and a long sleeve. Yes, put a jacket in your drop bag! Though the parking lot is not too far away. Prepare for the stair climb though! I put on my shirts and I stayed at the race to cheer other runners until near closing time. I stayed till 7.5 hour mark. I think the race closed at either 7.75 or by 8 hour. A couple of us tried to stir up the runners who were near finishing to encourage them to surge. It was fun to see runners actually responded to our cheers. During that three hours, a lot of runners came through. If readers recalled I did the same at the Newport News Marathon. This was way better, because the crowd stayed.

    I was really strong in this race and ran beyond my own expectation. Of the three marathons I did this year, this was the fastest. I beat last year time (Eau Claire Marathon) too by a hair. Not bad after doing the MMT. I guess the strategy worked. Also I think my spring training got me to a peak condition.

    How do I close this? After running so many races, do I get tired of doing the same thing? To me sometimes yes. I can see how similar it is to my previous races, and yes I do get tired of doing the same thing. I have been asking myself why I do it again and again. But as to why I like it, is I sometimes learn new things unexpectedly. Who would have thought jello shots helped? Also each time, my feeling while running is different. This time, it was so good, I was completely speechless after the race. I don’t remember if any races where I was speechless like this time. My mind was silence for a few days. Completely quiet! It was so good to have nothing to say. And so much so I could not find the ability to write this report. I got back to Minneapolis in the evening. At first I wanted to go to the pool at my hotel. It seemed to be a decent pool, but I was too tired. I slept not long after. The next morning I had an early flight back, so I woke up at around 5:30. I slept some more once I landed. Monday, I was still very much tired. This race, unlike previous races, I couldn’t bounce back after a nice sleep. The race sapped everything from me in a good way. I also mentally spent, also in a good way, not like when I ran a 100 miler, and I couldn’t find words to say why this race was so good. I only know I was satisfied with it. It was my A-goal race and I was able to run it as I envisioned and in the end, I surprised myself of having done it. It is the feeling after each marathon, you did it.

  • Day482 Bishop’s Half

    I ran with them once some years back maybe in 2018 or 2019. I might have a post on it. I will need to search back at the older entries (I think I found it, day 136). Bishop is I think the name of the race director. Last time I ran was to do it with couple friends.

    As the weekend approached, I realized I had no plans of going any where because I had no race scheduled. By Friday, my itchyness of wanting to run a fast simple race reached its fever peak, so I Googled for a 5k, 10k, marathon, or half marathons, any that are within my driving distance for me to do. It was my fault that the plan for weekend has slipped my mind since I originally wanted to run in the OSS/CIA race, but I missed its sign-up, which closed a week prior.

    I found Bishop Half from one of the running websites. It was a perfect distance. I needed a fast, flat, normal half marathon to test myself. It was long enough to keep me out for a good part of the day but short enough as not to sap my strength too much, since I have a full marathon (my A+ goal race) coming up the following weekend. Maybe that was the reason I didn’t sign up the OSS/CIA race in the first place. I think OSS was a 50 mile race. I had done too many of the long races already. I wanted to go back to the fun little ones. Not that big races are not fun but big races take so much out of me. I wanted to know how fast I can run as of today too. I used to call this a limit test. It is like taking a car onto the track and run it as fast as it can. All the ultra marathon training for the past six months had made me very slow. I need something opposite.

    The previous time when I ran the Bishop’s Half, I was on a verge of or was recovering from being very sick due to having caught the Lyme disease. My pace then was terrible. I think I pulled a 2.5 hrs half, which normally I run it sub 2:00 time. This time around my body was in a much better shape. I was near my peak of my condition if not at the very peak, since I just ran the MMT (a 100 miler) not long ago.

    The race was what I expected and remembered. This was a contrast to my last post about WEU, where a lot other things dominated my experience of being part of it. I had a lot out of the Bishop Half and it scratched my running itch. It was on an out and back course with a 6.5 miles going out on the C&O Canal and 6.5 miles back. There was a .1 mile somewhere to make it a true half marathon.

    I struggled more at finding a parking spot than at running the race itself. Though the race was pretty interesting for me. In this post, I won’t spend 5000 words on how I slept the night before or what time I woke up and my drive to the course and circle around for half an hour to find the best spot to park. All those of course was a drama. I didn’t sleep well. I woke up super early and parking in downtown was a love-hate relationship.

    The race was in the city on the C&O towpath in Georgetown.

    It was really fun and lowkey. Sometimes I really need to run more of local races instead of all the big names cookie-cutter races. We had a shirt and many water stations, I think 9 in total. Stations 3 and 4 were very close together (like half mile or less). They were also same as stations 6 and 7. There were maybe about 100 of us, but it felt more like around 50 ish. It was bib timed. Bless the director of doing the start in two waves. The first wave was for those who can/think they can run under 1:30. I started in the middle of the second wave. So I think I placed myself at near the rear pack. But truly, I hadn’t run this fast for so long.

    It took me about 1:10 hour:mins going out, which according to my own standard was slow. I became tired at the turn around point. While going out I found a buddy to follow. He had a steady pace and we passed maybe 10-20 people during the first couple miles then we stayed steady. JP, a friend I later met, stayed a few steps ahead of us. By mile 4, JP pulled ahead and I followed JP, but by mile 5 I couldn’t keep his pace and dialed back on my pacing. Then there was two ladies, I wanted to follow. I passed one of them and caught up with the other at the turn around. Unfortunately, I spent too much energy catching her and I was not doing well after reaching halfway.

    With my recent knowledge on bonking, I quickly identified I was not doing well and I needed to get energy quickly into my body and I took my first gel package. I could then get back into pace but I fell far behind the lady I was trying to chase. By about mile 9, I had my second bonk. So opened my second gel and tempo came back up a bit. I think I was running at 11 minute pace. I wasn’t wearing my watch so did not know my exact pace. I can kind of guess. My goal was to pretend it was the last 5 miles of my MMT race and I wanted to “revenge” it by trying to run it under an hour. As readers might know I did not finish the MMT for failing to get to the final 5 miles to make the cutoff during my MMT race a month ago. I don’t feel bad about that but I felt I need to be able to do it. It was a motivation for me to run fast. If that is a pace to run after running 90 miles then I have better to do it now that I have fresh legs.

    As I reached 1 mile from the finish, I felt the energy from the last gel fully kicked in. I also had what is called a runner kick and usually I get a speed boost near the finish. I finished it under 2:10. Supposingly, I might have run a negative split but there was no way to be sure.

    The race reminded me the joy of running a fast simple race. With ultra or even marathon, we normally try to hold back our pace. But with a half marathon I could be riskier by running fast early. In my mind, the thought was to let my feet do their things. There was a feeling of letting them fall into steps. It is also a lot simpler in term of planning, unlike MMT or WEU last weekend where fretted on many things. This race I just put on my shoes and ran. This race was a blast.

    Another thought I had while out on the course was the idea of hitting a comfortable pace. I actually wanted to reject that, unlike in longer races, a comfortable pace usually the one that will get you to the finish. What I mean is over time we developed a pace we love to stick at. I use the same pace foe short, long or any length course. It gives a comfortable feeling when we reach it. I called it hammering. You just keep them pounding. It is a pace we could run and fall asleep on. I tried to remind myself in this half marathon that a comfortable pace is not what I seek. If my body feels comfortable, it means I am not pushing myself hard enough. I want to be off balanced and uncomfortable.

    A race should give that discomfortness. I am not in training any more. So I pushed myself. I wanted to feel as if I was about to choke and I needed breath. My muscle and lung should be screaming. In my mind I told myself I want to be broken by my pace. Let it rip. Break me! Peel the layer off me. Yes it is like breaking a blister or peeling a layer of skin. I felt only in a race like this can I run fast.

    MMT broke me mentally but I wanted this half marathon to break me physically. It felt good when I reached the finish line.

    Next week, I will be going to MN for a marathon. It has been couple months since I last ran one. I hope I can still remember the pacing and get to the finish. It is weird to hear myself say this, but sometimes running a marathon makes me nervous. I do hope I will have as much fun as this half marathon.

    P.S. Grandmas Marathon happened over the weekend. I hope I will write a report on it. Bishop Half was a good preview. I ran till my tank was empty. And I ran fast

  • Day477 MMT conclusion

    This was one of those goals I was trying to reach and ended up failing. I have been telling myself, I picked too many safe goals in the past where failures are almost impossible and I needed to try some of those goals where success is not guaranteed. So, I am not sad about not completing the race. It was where I challenged myself. This race pushed my boundary, for that I am happy regardless of the result. I can only become a stronger runner by facing tough resistance.

    It doesn’t mean MMT is or was unreachable for me. It is just that I have to do better next time. I think I know how to do it. I now have one extra tool for my toolbox, experience. I need to do better. This is what this post is.

    Briefly: My biggest struggle was over staying at Aid Stations (AS). I stayed at Elizabeth Furnace, mile 35 ish for over 10 minutes. It should have been a quick in and quick out. I stayed at Habron, mile 55, for over 20 minutes, which was too long and I knew it. It was the same later at most later stations. My plan unraveled at mile 65, 70, 78 (of subsequent aid stations). I won’t go into too much detail to not be tired out my readers. But if I try to redo this again, try to keep the AS stop to one minute or less.

    Second, I did not pack enough dry socks and the wet trail damaged my feet by mile 55 and I had to spend a significant amount of time to fix them. It had rained the night of the race and the trail was wet besides numerous water crossings we had to cross.

    Third, was food or the lack thereof. I was good with fluid and food till mile 55. I arrived there at the Habron Station, and retrieved my drop bag. Most of the time was spent on bandaging my feet. By the time I left the station, I forgot to eat and bring along food. This was my downfall at this and later stations — of not eating enough. In the end I was caloric deficient. It cut into my performance. This happened repeatedly for the remainder of the race.

    Fourth, my fire and passion was diminished during the night as was expected. Later on I found the importance of having a companion/pacer who could keep one on pace and to keep up the morale. My pace during the night segment slowed dramatically. It was hard to catch up when morning came. I wish I had arranged a pacer.

    Fifth, of being better prepared to face the course. The final 20 miles were harder than expected. There is a steep 6 mile climb near the end. I should have expected the climb and be able to close out the race, meaning I should have learned to climb it so well I can do it in any conditions. Lastly, I came into the race with a recovered of a pulled hamstring and I did not truly train until a month before the race. Lack of adequate training contributed to being not totally ready to tackle the harder sections later in the race.

    Really, the race was going well up to mile 55. I had various issues but nothing was a race ending event. I woke up late as the race was about to get started. I missed the opportunity to have breakfast. Luckily, I woke up and ran to the start just in time as the wave of runners set off. This is not the first time I overslept though. Throughout the whole day, I kept my speed in check. I remembered how I bonked in Devil Dog (a previous race) by mile 26, so I celebrated when I crossed mile 26, then mile 33, and then mile 55 and then mile 65 and 70 (these were aid station mile points), knowing I reached a milestone each time. Also, the day was hot and humid, but a volunteer saved me by recommending to put ice inside my hat. Cool ice was so good. Many were not as lucky as I and dropped from the race early on due to the heat. I also had minor sunburn, but luckily I had my neck covered most of the time.

    What really went wrong? I think it started at mile 55. By then I ran out food. This was one thing I did not pack because I ran out of time the day of! Waking up late didn’t help. While I was in the aid station, my attention was to focus on my feet to get them taped. By the time I left the station, I forgot to eat! The stretch from Habron AS to Roosevelt AS was the hardest and longest climb in the whole race (besides the finishing climb to Scothorn). At the time, I thought I could power through but I burned more calories than I thought.

    I arrived at mile 65 by 11:30 pm, Camp Roosevelt exhausted, but was on pace. I did not recognize how tired I was. I also over stayed at the station. I flopped down on a chair and aid station volunteers were bringing me various food, however, they were too little and came in small portion and I was too tired to ask for more. I might have sat there for 15 minutes (fixing my foot), but again did not eat much before leaving, and did not pack extras to take with me and that led to my downfall at the following section. Note, sitting down usually is a bad thing in a race.

    The next section, time (and the race) was really slipping a little by little, and I didn’t know I was in trouble of not finishing until by mid morning the next day, maybe 8 hours later. This was the wettest section. True to its name Gap Creek, we literally, hiked on a creek up the mountain and down another one to Gap Creek Aid Station. I was hungry, tired, sleepy, wet and cold, everything. I remembered clearly people passed me going twice my speed. I knew something was not right. I asked for coffee once I arrived. I didn’t know coffee on an empty stomach caused me a slight stomach ache for the rest of the night. The theme was the same, I couldn’t and didn’t take in enough calories for the next section.

    As I climbed Kern Mountain to Visitor Center at mile 78, I was moving but slowly. This was one of the hardest sections in my opinion due to technical climb over rocks and I often had to use my hands to steady myself (and getting down on my hands and feet). Some, though could move fast here and passed me. Having trekking poles might help here. I was behind on my pace chart table for the first time in the race, but I was still ahead of the cutoff. The race should have been salvageable.

    We climbed Bird Knob next. There were 28 miles left of the course. I was alone. Bird Knob, in the past, was runnable. I was hobbling through it this time. I encountered Bruce, a volunteer at the Aid Station, mile 82, and he encouraged me to get to the next Aid Station by 11 AM. I think I had two hours left at that time and we had 6.5 miles to go.

    I reached Picnic Area (mile 88) by 10:30 am, half an hour before the cutoff. At that point, I wanted to pull out from the race. Tracy, someone I trained with passed me. Tracy was one whom I used to gauge my pace because the previous year she dropped at mile 95. Having Tracy passing me was not a good sign because I wanted to be ahead of Tracy to have a shot of finishing. Having Tracy passing me means I was slower than her and it was the nail on the coffin that I was not going to finish. The volunteers there were most knowledgeable and experienced. The one helping me said he will pack me with all the milk cartons I could take on the go. They urged me saying I could do it. Tracy and her team also urged me on. By this time, panic has set in and it was a mad scramble to the finish, with 13 miles left and 4 hours to do it.

    I ran and power hiked to mile 90 (Rt 211) and arrived by 11:30, pretty much on pace. I wished I had a crew there, because after mile 90, we had 9 miles of climbing. Note my math doesn’t add up, it was likely 5 miles. I was in my lowest state. The first time in a race I felt helpless. Countless thoughts went through my head on how I could quit. I prayed to the God of the universe for extra strength. I need any help I could get to be out of here. I knew I was stuck. He sent me an angel to guide me through. In my delusional state, Elaina and her husband found me. They could have helped anyone but they chose me. Elaina paced me to Gap Creek II (to mile 95). She offered me a salt tablet and crackers. She constantly reminded me to sip my water. She also made sure if we crossed streams, I would pour water on my head to cool off. Surprisingly those things revitalized me. Small things but made a huge difference. She actually believed I had a shot of finishing the race before the 3 pm cutoff. She encouraged me to run whenever I could. We reached Gap Creek II by 2:15 pm, just 15 min after the AS cutoff. This in itself was a miracle. I did not expect to arrive until 5pm or later, really, because I was beyond tired at this stage. All I wanted was to lay down and sleep. I felt joy instead of disappointment. I turned in my bib to the Aid Station’s manager, as required since I was cut. My race was over. This was only mile 95, there was still about a 10K distance left on the course. The course was longer than 100 miles.

    I salute those who were cut here, but still continued on. Elaina offered to still pace me to the finish if I wanted to, even though it wouldn’t officially be counted as one who finished. Not that it is pointless to keep on suffering, but I couldn’t summon the strength to go on. I saw a runner, probably the last unofficial finisher, coming in around 5:30 pm, 2 and half hours after the race was over. I’d salute her.

    I did surprisingly well beyond my own expectations in many ways. A few weeks before the race, I had expected to only be able to last about 26 miles when I DNF’d on the 3rd training run (TR3) and here I was so close to actually doing the whole 100. Of course, I wanted to finish. In my last post, while preparing my race pacing table, I knew to finish it depended a lot on how well I could manage the time spent at the aid stations. In the end, it did come down to the wire. The ability to quickly recover after a bonk is what sets an ultra runner apart. That’s something I needed to work on by next year. I was bonking for a long time before I recovered and rescued. I saw a dude, who bonked and a reset a few times during the race (and he finished) while for me I bonked around 8:30am and never reset until around 1:30 pm, thus jeopardized the race. I will write more on bonking and what I learned from this race in another post. Nutrition is the key to break out from it.

    But what I could do better is to manage my nutrition, like carrying candy bars to sustain during low periods. Also having a good pacer made a difference between finishing and not. I wish I had pushed a bit harder at night.

    There is always a next year. MMT was tough. Now I did it, kind of, I have a blueprint on how to do it again next year, and to do it better. Though there was no buckle in the end, the friends I made and the experience gained is worth attempting this race.

    P.S. if I could get Tracy race report on how her race went since I believe she was a stronger runner than me and how she ended behind me until mile 88.

  • Day470 Salisbury Marathon (RunSBY)

    After running the Newport News Marathon last month, I came into the Salisbury Marathon, thinking it would be about the same. While it is easy to compare and contrast the two because they were still fresh on mind, but that is not what will do. I enjoyed running them. This race allowed me just to focus on my running and all the logistics and everything else were handled seamlessly. They did a phenomenal job.

    Salibury Marathon occurred on Saturday, so the timeframe for the prerace preparation was much compressed, unlike the Newport News one. I rushed to Salisbury after work. Though I am not easily stressed, but we came close to the point I wouldn’t be able to make it in time to pick up my bib. It is not race org’s fault since they offered a mailing option but I just didn’t pick it. I preferred facing the afterwork traffic. The two hour drive became a four hour one. I left around 3ish in the afternoon but for some reason only known to my gps, I was rerouted into downtown Washington, DC. And there I sat in my car forever until I got out of there. We had to pick up our bibs on Friday because there was no Saturday pickup. If I didn’t make it to the convention, it would mean no race for me. I made it to the convention by closing and got my bib. Then I went to check into my hotel. When all said and done it was around 9-9:30 pm.

    Next was dinner or sleep. Honestly I wasn’t that hungry, but chose food over sleep. There is no shortage of eateries in Salisbury. Many restaurants (outside of downtown) open late, past 11. The downtown was kind of dark and scary (on my first night there), so I avoided it after picking up my bib. There are a bunch of chain restaurants plus some local ones. I stuck to my usual prerace meal, being unwilling to try new stuff. I googled for a cheap chinese buffet. I found one that was pretty good.

    I got back to my hotel late with a full stomach. I was a bit too excited to sleep and didn’t do so until around 2 am. I set my alarm for 5 am. I have done this many times so I was not worried if I would get enough sleep. I am usually fine with 3-4 hours of sleep. I woke up before my alarm went off, feeling great as if I have slept for a full night.

    The race was at 7. I got to the course before 6. The temperature was quite fine around 40 F (5-7 C) and I believed it got up to around 60s (12-15 C). The start line was half a mile away from our car. The start and finish were not at the same place, but they were not too far apart. There was a shuttling option available, but I chose to walk. We parked at the finish and walked to the start as recommended. A few parked at the start. To me, that is the harder option.

    Race starts near the park where we gathered

    We had a beautiful morning and course.

    A friend from DC saw my social media post about the race and so he reached out to me, saying he would see me on the course. He and several of his friends were running it too. We met up at the start. They were much faster than me (1 hr faster). I told them to go ahead. I was able to run at his pace in the past, but today it was obvious I was not able to keep up. I gained much weight during the interim since I last ran with him. I blame it on the Covid weight (Covid 10).

    Also I came into the race with a pulled hamstring that has been bothering me for the past several weeks now. While with each passing week, my condition improved but I wasn’t sure if I can run at my full strength yet. I was judging that I was at 90-95% well. I still felt some slight pulling from the injury, but I was no longer in pain. This was a whole level better than the week before.

    Based on my last official marathon time, I finished at 5:15 and I was healthy at the time. I was hoping to at least be able to match it or somewhere close, but if I get 5:30, 5:45 or even finish by 6:00, I would consider myself lucky. Last weekend, I ran a marathon distance on the trails with a time of over 8 hours, and its time splits were still fresh on my mind. I tried to run like the week before during the race, and was happy I hit each of my mental checkpoint well before the clock, given this week I was running on the road and my injured leg was much better. I was generally feeling pleased. I didn’t compare my feelings during the race, but looking back I was feeling much better than when I was running at Newport News. I didn’t feel stressed by the clock.

    Miles flew by. By mile 4, I met a friendly guy (Alex) and we chatted our way to mile 12. The course was beautiful. He was aiming for a 5:30 finish. So by halfway he dialed back his pace. I thought I was aiming for 5:30 finish pace too but I was running stronger, so I pulled ahead. We knew we were ahead of pace since the 5:00 and 5:30 pacers were still (far) behind us. I was trying to bank on my time. I reviewed my run pacing profile afterward, and it was decaying the way it should.

    There was a woman around us and she snapped over hundreds of photos during her race, and we were in some of them too. We saw a beautiful sunrise. The temperature went up a bit but it was never too hot. I love running through the countryside and seeing farms and horses. At one point we passed a chicken farm and we could smell the chicken poops. Salisbury is known for chicken farms supplying chickens to our Washington area.

    Alex and I were having a good time running (photo taken by a fellow runner Maureen Y.)

    The half marathoners started with us. It was good to have them around until mile 11 when the courses separated. I heard there were a thousand of the half marathoners but only about 300 of us. They went to their finishes and we went the other way for a 13 mile loop before rejoining them again. We had aid stations about every 2 miles. Aid stations all have gels and chewy bars. Unlike the last race, I didn’t have to search for food or gels. I was happy. I had a couple chewy bars. They sure provided the energy needed at halfway. We had mile markers for every mile, even for the full marathon course. Course marking was good, at least for me, but I heard someone almost went the wrong way. There were course marshalls and road signs as well as arrows taped on the ground pointing the direction on all the turns. It is beyond me how anyone could get lost. Security was good. I don’t think it was needed because Salibury is a safe city, but they were out in full force. We had police officers stationed on most intersections. There was plenty of cheering from spectators, so we were not alone running in the middle of a farmland/countryside.

    Pacewise, I ran around a 10-11 min mile pace. I held it steady until 6 miles and then it slowly decayed to a 12 min mile. My pace crashed at around mile 24-25. It was not a hard crash, but definitely it was pretty tough to maintain a steady pace. I walked more in the final two miles. This was exactly how I wanted. I didn’t want a hard crash like hitting the wall as I had on during the Newport News Marathon. I’d rather prefer slowly tapering down. I finished it in under 5 hours. This was better than expected. My hamstring did not bother me a bit.

    In all these we were more than conquerors through him who loved us, from a verse I recalled during the race. I was happy. Sometimes we got sidelined for no reason at all (like me for the last few weeks) and today I felt like a million dollar to be able to run. I was thrilled.

    My friend waited for me at the finish and we went out for lunch afterward. We spent the lazy afternoon kicking back and relaxed with good food. We all had a long drive home. We were talking about visiting the shipping container boat Ever Forward that got strained near the Bay Bridge. Unfortunately, I was too tired and too late in the day to pay a visit, otherwise I could have addd a little national news to my marathon trip and provide a picture! I love things like this. And what with this shipping company Evergreen keep having their boats being stuck around the world?! Wondering if it was piloted by the same captain as the last boat that was stuck? Who knew the Potomac is so shallow.

    The day after, I felt I could still go out to run more. This is a good sign. I didn’t want to finish a marathon and feel exhausted. It should be tired enough but a good sleep would help me recover.

    RunSBY (Salisbury) was a gem to me. My friend joining me was like a cherry on top.

  • Day466 Newport News Marathon

    With 77F / 25C, strong winds, I couldn’t have asked for a better running condition. Ideally 40-50F might be better suited for me in breaking any personal records. It was hot by any standard, but I was ready to leave winter behind, the heat was not a problem for me. No more long sleeves and coats. Give me heat and beaches!

    Friday night, I drove down to Newport News. It is about three and half hours away from Washington, DC. I avoided the traffic by leaving late, after dinner, otherwise, I would have sat in the traffic for probably an extra hour or two.

    Preface, I have nothing much to write about this race, I went there, ran it, was happy and went home. You could skip all the way to the end if you like and won’t miss much.

    My original plan was to go down on Saturday, but I found out Friday morning that I booked a hotel for Friday night too. Not sure why I did that knowing myself I want to spend as little money as possible because hotels are expensive. An extra night meant an extra day of fun. I packed quickly in the morning, went to work, then traveled down. Before leaving work, my mom called, hey, come over for dinner. Dinner wasn’t part of my plan but I made a detour for dinner. I just wanted to get there as quickly as possible, didn’t realize you just couldn’t go anywhere on a weekend in our area due to traffic. Dinner saved me the time of sitting in the traffic.

    The drive was quiet and uneventful, since it was late at night after rush hours. I made a second detour to my house, which was kind of on the way, but I didn’t really have to stop. I stopped to use the restroom and pack away some food in the fridge, so they wouldn’t spoil over the weekend. I was in a good spirit. It has been a long time since I last traveled. Afterward, no more stops. I could only describe the trip as a meditative or worshipful time.

    The next day I went to pick up my bib at the race convention. There was nothing much to do there. It was a typical race pickup with a couple shops, some tables, bibs, shirts, beer id check, info desk, a race late signup area, etc. I studied the maps, both for the half and full with other people. No problem to be expected. The course seemed simple. They said it would be well marked and we wouldn’t get lost. Indeed, the course was good. Unlike trail marathons, this one no one could get lost.

    Leaving the convention, I spent the rest of the day at First Landing State Park, where I had my first 50k ultra a few years back. I chose to go there especially to relive my old race. It was satisfying to step back on the course, that was one of the races I don’t mind doing again. I ran about 8 miles, about halfway through the park before getting too tired. When evening came, I went for a chinese buffet restaurant, a tradition for me. Not much to say, except I carb-loaded. By the way, the host hotel offered unlimited spaghetti for $13, but I didn’t take up on their offer. And I was shy, not wanting to meet anyone.

    I was not a bit worried about the race the next day. I ran many marathons and this was just another. Not that it is not special, each one is unique. There are things that I have become familiar with, and you just flow with it.

    On the other hand, I have been anticipating this race. I have waited for the Newport News Marathon for maybe 3 or even 4 years, with the last two years being during the pandemic, and cancellations, and not much racing going on. And I have been checking the race website throughout the pandemic to see when the race registration would open. This year it finally had an in-person race. I believed I signed up in October. Yes, pandemic is over. Wohoo. We were advised to wear masks still, but only a few of us did when we picked up our race packages.

    I was up by 4 and by 4:30 I was out the hotel. The morning was pretty warm already. There were heavy condensation on the roads as if it rained during the night. It was going to get hotter. I went in T-shirt and shorts.

    I went to bed early since I had to be up early. We were going to take the shuttle at the finish line to the start line. It would have been nice to see the course in reverse, but the bus was using a different route than the one we would run on. I believe they might have closed the roads by then. We had an hour for the bus. I slept a bit while on the bus, because the night before I only managed maybe 2 hours of sleep. I blame the hotel. My neighbors from upstairs were making a lot of noise, not sure what they were doing, but it sounded like some HIIT, some people #$#&.

    The shuttle dropped us off at 6 at the start. We waited around until 7, when the race would start. I had no drop bag. Having run ultras, preparing a drop bag for a marathon seems silly. And I am lazy. in other years, I can see why the dropbags would be useful, because you can put your jacket in it before the race and hand it in to the staff to be picked up at the end. This year, the temperature was so mild, it was not necessary.

    The race was like other races I did. There was nothing much stood out. Sorry. Everything was just a blur to me except the start and finish. Mind you I had my glasses on, at least most of the race. We ran was all I remembered. There are some hills, but nothing too bad. I don’t remember much.

    I started slower than in other races. Most people sprinted out the gate, which was expected given the small race size (~350 runners), meaning we have on average faster runners, probably the average finishing time was around 4:00. Unlike many other races, there was no jostling with other runners. I was one of the slower ones and soon I settled into pace. The course was mostly empty around me and would remain like so till the end. I don’t know if I were in the first hundred, maybe it would feel crowded. There were plenty of room where I at for the whole race. I was hoping to catch the half marathoners since they started at the halfway point and an hour later, I was hoping I would be fast enough to have some company maybe at the remaining couple miles. I did that before in other marathons. I used to run marathons where we had a lot of people around. However in the end, I was not able to catch up. In theory, I passed some half marathoners, but during the race, I didn’t notice I caught up to any. I am sure the front runners were able to run into the half marathoners at halfway and it was probably likely they would be in the way. At some races I did, they would keep a small lane open for the marathoners to go through, so that the half marathoners would not block as the marathoners are running through.

    The race was well run and we had good support throughout. It could match any big city race. One thing that bothered me a little bit was no mile markers posted for the first thirteen miles. Not that I needed them. If that is a thing for you, it could be a make-or-break moment. Aid stations kind of served as mile markers because they were roughly spaced at every two miles. This assumes you have studied the course to know where they are to get an accurate timing.

    Having run many ultras, I forgot that the aid stations for marathons only have water and gatorade. This happened to me before. And seeing just water only was a bit disappointing. We had two early stations that had gels (mile 7 and 10 I think). Later, I went from station to station looking for more gels, and didn’t find any. I am spoiled by ultra races. Yes they published what aid stations of what each one had, but I didn’t keep them in mind. I missed the ultra style aid stations (food, real food, plus candies, sodas and all possible good stuff). I know, I should have carried my own goodies.

    At the start, I was trying to gauge which pacing group I should join so as to keep my pace steady. The 4:45 finish was the slowest one available. I had a feeling that 4:30 would be too fast, even though that what the 4:45 pacer recommended me. I know I had run and finished at 4:15 before. However, I did not expect or plan to go for a PR (personal record breaking). I’d be lucky if I could finish under 5. The pacer asked me what is my expected time, and I told her possibly 6 hours. I really had no idea. I felt my body could only run this pace but logically I had run much faster in previous marathons. As the race started, I felt the 4:45 was even a bit rushed for me, so I decided to slow down. It seemed to be fine initially and soon I sped up and passed the 4:45 pace group and was on my way, hoping maybe I might be able to catch up to the 4:30 group as I had many times in other marathons.

    Two miles in, I needed to use the bathroom. I felt I could probably hold it till the end, but then I wouldn’t like running with the constant urge to pee. Exactly why I didn’t go before the race start was beyond me. Runner curse, I tell you. I didn’t need to at the start is my excuse. I stopped at the first potta johns available. Luckily there was no line outside, so no waiting for me. I felt better afterward. Looking back, this little stop might have caused me to miss the 5 hour finish and I missed it by just 2 minutes, exactly the amount of time I used up.

    I struggled by the time I got to the stations that had gels, maybe around mile 6. I carried some juicy fruit packages on me but didn’t bring gels. They were left in my car, because I didn’t think that I would need them. My game plan was off. The rest of the race was slow going. I had two ladies (never met before) as companions. At times I was ahead, but from time to time, they would catch back up. Looking back, my pace was slowing though during the race, I felt I kept it steady. The ladies, though can’t blame them, gave me a false sense that we were moving faster. Originally, the first 4-5 miles, I might have been on track for a 4:30 finish. By halfway, my pace was slipped to 4:45 finish. At the end, it came down to 5:00 finish. One of the two ladies passed me on the last mile. I was mostly walking by then. She was able to shuffle step to finish. I believed she must have finished under 5:00. I had initially thought I was way ahead of her.

    I was not disappointed with my time. I felt grateful. At the start of the race, I had no clue if I could even finish around 5 hours. I felt it might be a 6 hour marathon or longer because two weeks before the race, I went out and did a 26 mile run and it took me 8 hours, granted that was on trails. If any are wondering as to why I did such a long run just before a marathon, I am training for a 100 mile, so we run long. Then after, I had almost two weeks with little to no running due to some personal issue (I think it was one of the side effects from the COVID vaccine, making me to be fatigued all the time). Having finished the race by noon was not bad. I felt like it was a win. Only that it took way more effort out of me to get there than anticipated. Actually it needed all my effort to get to the finish. I originally did not really want to go all out, because I need my body to recover fast for the next event.

    I enjoyed some sightseeing as I ran. There were no skyscrapers or tall monuments (there was some historical stuff), not like in DC. The funny thing is I told my mom I was going to Newport News, and she initially thought I said Virginia Beach (which was nearby). She said she would attend my race if it was at Virginia Beach, since she could walk along the seashore, but Newport News, nope. She did not come. I wouldn’t blame her. There is nothing to see while waiting for me. Also because of her health, it would have worried me had she come along. Personally, I think this location is better than in Virginia Beach (we leave that other race unmentioned until in the future, if I happen to run it next year).

    As for sightseeing, there are the shipbuilding yard and ports. It is just like any other industrial areas – warehouses and parking lots. Concrete. Sleepy town. Newport News is not a place people go for vacation. Some tourist areas I came across are CNU and the Mariner Museum. I like the lion bridge too and I think it is called something else. I like seeing the bay and bridges. That part probably my best portion of the course — granted that I was hitting the wall then, so I slowed down a whole lot to look around. I think it was around mile 15-16.

    Things I liked the most during the race were DQ, Bojangles and McDonalds. Seriously. One volunteer later called me out at the finish and teased me as the guy who wanted a Dairy Queen ice cream. She said she remembered me because during the race I wanted to run into one of the fastfoods and get myself something refreshing, like a slurpy and ice cream. However, I feared though by leaving the course I would be disqualified. Everyone was looking at me, since the course was mostly empty but me. I would make the evening news if I get caught running to a McDonalds in the middle of a marathon. Free promotion, right? But it was not like I could sneak off course and come back. By the way, I did that before in some other marathons and got myself a breakfast (I won’t say which race), and that was before I knew the finer rules of racing. You just don’t run off to do your own thing because it would give the race director a heart attack if one of the runners is “missing”. Trail running are usually less strict in that you could run off (a bit) as long as you get back on where you exited, and without aids (like going to a gas station for food or bathroom is ok, as long as you don’t get in a car etc, though some races don’t allow outside aid or unplanned crew support), but still I shouldn’t do this kind of things.

    We had plenty of crowd support given the small size of the race. It couldn’t be compared to DC or Baltimore or other big marathons. This was not a big city race, even though the stuff, swags, everything were as good or better than a big city race. Most of the time, the course felt empty, but I was a back end runner. Many times there was no one ahead and no one behind. Not many people kept at my pace, even the two companions. They had their own pace and kept to themselves whenever we passed each other. We probably only passed about four times in total. It was subdued and quiet. Roads were closed, and many times the whole one side of the streets was for us. There were no distractions. It felt luxurious. We technically could have run on the sidewalks. They could have reopened the roads after bulk of runners came through.

    The day became hotter and the winds were stronger. Thanks to the winds, I was not overheating. I poured water on me whenever I remembered. At one station, they handed out ice soaked water towels and it was amazing. I wiped away the salt on me. Who knew it would get this hot in March. It was crazy weather, couple weeks ago, we had snow, and now it was summer weather, but I can’t complain. Normally, this time of year we would be running at near freezing temperatures. In fact we are going back to the snow season after (it is forecasted that we would have snow this week). I’d rather run when is hot than in the cold. I know many prefer the other way. If I was going for the record, I would prefer cooler weather.

    We had neighbors coming out and watching the race. It was not much a crowd but enough to feel we were not running alone through empty streets. I felt special they were cheering just for me because I was the only one there at that point in time. Occasionally we passed a school and band students would play for us. Some neighbors set up their own aid stations in front of their yards. I loved them all. It was one buffet to the next. One even had a lazy chair for quitters only! That’s it, I’m staying I said. This was around mile 20. They saved me several times because I was too tired but their stations with fruits, snacks, beer and pepsi gave me a second life. I think they did it specifically for us tail-end runners. Imagine if they set them out earlier, the horde of the half marathoners and most of the marathoners would have cleared the tables and nothing would be left for us. There were at least a thousand runners ahead of me. Good aid stations were the sort of stuff I missed in a race. I was able to pull another mile before hitting the slump again.

    The last couple miles though, no stations could revive me again. They were the hardest miles I had (I always say that in each marathon). A marathon takes everything out of you. Why did I sign up for this again, I asked? My feet were heavy. I passed the permanent street signs marking mile 25 and mile 26. I didn’t expect that. I would if I had remembered others race reports mentioned them. I think that was interesting the town makes it permanent that there will be a marathon here for the foreseeable future. Even though I know there was only a mile left, I was at 47th St and I needed to get to 25th St, the road seemed to go on forever. Someone joked that they didn’t know Newport News is this “long” (or big). Indeed all 26 miles long. A volunteer called to me, that the finish is just at the end of street, round the corner. I’d believe when I see it. At no point was I doubting that I wouldn’t finish but it was hard to will myself onward. That round the corner finish got me good — I didn’t start running again until I saw it, by then it was just a couple steps more.

    Nothing felt better than crossing the finish line. I stayed a couple more hours longer, first to get food and then to watch the race for the 6th hour and 7th hour people. This is one of the races that gave out food. They gave us coupons that we redeemed at the food trucks. I loved everything even though I didn’t feel like eating. A banana is the usual stuff they give you at the finish, but good food is rare. I couldn’t eat much but it was still satisfying. Someone recommended the mac and cheese eggroll, and that was tasty. I’ve never eaten an eggroll filled with mac and cheese! Not a bad fusion.

    I was inspired to see the last few runners came in. After I arrived, there were not many left on the course. Runners came in at an interval of 10-15 minutes apart. Then there was one who ran fast, and I thought it must be weird he came in near at the 7th hour. The announcer explained the guy had a medical emergency earlier and left the course but later he was able to come back and finish it in time. Normally, I believe this was considered to be a DQ (disqualified). He was allowed to continue. He was originally part of the top 5 runners. I was lucky to see how fast he could run.

    When the last runner came in and all the race volunteers and staff lined up at the side of the road waiting and cheering. I think someone had called in ahead so everyone gathered along the road. We waited and I strained my eyes looking a mile down the street. Then I saw the truck convoy. I knew that they were the sweep vehicles, the sag wagon. Then I didn’t see any runners on the road. I though they would let the runners off the sag wagon so they would run the remaining .2 mile, but that wasn’t the case. Then I saw a runner walking on the sidewalk, I guess having the bus following behind her was too intimidating. She reached to chute area and everyone was directing her to walked back onto the road and we cheered. We all walked proudly together to the finish along side of her. It was like a standing ovation. Everyone was happy. I have been to many races and watched a few closings, but none compared to this one. Actually, out of 20 marathon races this was one was the best because I stayed to the very end. It was very moving. I felt the respect of the race organization and all those around paid to runners from the first to the last. It was uplifting. 26.2 miles no matter if it were a 2:20 marathon (race course record) or 7:20, the distance speaks for itself. Got to respect the distance.

    Aftermath. As expected, I could hardly move afterward. Going up and down the stairs was painful. It would mean a few days off running. Originally, I wanted to head to Richmond immediately after the race for some good vietnamese food, my soul food. Because of the soreness, I didn’t want to walk to my car, so that side trip to Richmond was canceled. The drive back was tiring and I wished my car was a self-driving vehicle. The rest of the evening, was to get to bed as quickly as possible. I had a quick dinner, I was still much hungry when I went to bed, but I was too tired to eat more.

    Here am I thinking, what is the point of me doing marathons. I know ultimately I run because I enjoy doing so. What do my readers want to know from me? I can’t tell any secrets or tips I learned from this race. Running is a private affair. Many thoughts went between my head during the race, but they are gone now. I don’t feel bad about that. To me that time alone is like in a state of joy (worship). Even I finished and tired and felt it was time well spent. Countless people and volunteers made it possible. I spent that 5 hours on the course and countless hours months before in training. It’s all worth it. Today, I got something clearer. Sometimes, we do it because we only know to keep one foot ahead of another and that is the only thing we need to do. In a marathon when I don’t want to go on and things are going south, the only way we can get to the finish line is to keep on walking forward. This I think is the lesson I have to relearn.

    Bringing it home, I have been planning a trip for next year and some big goals like walking across the US. Life is many times messier than a marathon. I wrote in the last post, I don’t want to do it any more, but maybe I just need to keep going, who knows how it will turn out. My friend messaged me, asking if I’ll be running the JFK50 this year because the signup has just opened, we will see. I can only take the steps currently in front of me.