My last review (day550) was almost a year ago. Not much has changed since but definitely I am expecting something new going forward (wispering Western States, more on this).
Every 50 posts I do a review of what has happened to serve as a stopping point for myself to reflect and take note. Those who follow my weekly blog, there is nothing new, because this is just a summary. For those who pop in once every six months or a year, this serves as a quick catching up. Indeed. A year has passed. Soon a new year. As for myself, it serves more as a bookmark, or a bookend. To be honest, I don’t remember much of the last few years if I hadn’t written things down.
Life is hectic for me, always, because usually I tried to do too much. Even if life being dull and slow, a review helps to zero in a few instances of the good times. As they say, there is or should be never a dull moment.
I don’t remember much this past year either way. I ran a lot of races, almost as many if not even more than last year (stats, in 2022, I ran 21 races, in 2023, I ran 26, almost a race every other week). According to my memory, 2021 was awesome, when I truly finished my first 100 mile race. 2022 was a year of setbacks. I guess I reached my limit. This year, was a reversal of it, I ran five 100 milers and finished 3 of them. Maybe I trained harder but more likely my body adapted to the longer form and I also am more experience to avoid past mistakes and improved. This year I doubled the total 100 milers I did in 2021 and 2022 combined. I also ran 5 marathons. Traveled to 5 different states, with Idaho being the farest.
In my last update, I wrote that I finished my first Devil Dog 100 and then I ran Blackbeard Revenge 100 in the spring 2023. I was pretty hyped up to finish two incredible races when I wrote the post because compared to the year before, I could not finish any 100s. That was quite a feat to rebuilt my confident of being able to tackle this extremely long distance race.
Since then, I also ran the Devil Dog again, which I did just a few weeks ago and I also finally finished my first Massanutten 100 this year. I am proud of this one accomplishment alone. It was the hardest race I ever attempted. I finished a total 3 one hundred mile races! We won’t mention Grindstone or Burning River, the other two 100s I attempted over the summer at this time but did not complete them. I will try them again next year.
As for marathons, my main bread and butter, I ran the Toronto Marathon and many other races in 2023. Toronto was my goal race. It was a race of stepping out in faith because it was my first race outside of the US. It is though now seems less significant when compared to my bigger ones.
I visited 5 states. In Fort Worth, Texas in January, I ran the Cowtown 50K, then ran a Lake Hayden Marathon in Idaho, ran Blimbler Bluff 50K in Connecticut, Ran in the Philadelphia Marathon in November in Pennsylvania, and finally, ran the Space Coast Marathon in Cocoa, Florida. Connecticut, Idaho, Florida were all new states! Technically if counting only marathons, then Idaho and Florida were the two new (marathon) states added this year. Regardless, I am quite please. My goal is to do about 5 states a year. I consider this was reached. They were so fulfilling. Each of them was amazing in their own right. If I have to pick, definitely Toronto, not so much the race itself but the city.
I don’t have a plan for next year for which marathons to run because my head is still reeling from the WSER good news and also I will be traveling oversea, so there will be less fund and time available for marathons. I will try to squeeze a few in when I can. I signed up for Taiwan Marathon, which is pretty big I think. I am expecting a good time. My first race in 2024 will be the Clear Water Marathon, just outside of Tampa Florida.
As for Ultras, I am redoing most of this year races next year: Massanutten, Burning River, and Grindstone. The new race is definitely Western States, and possibly Old Dominion too. OD100 is on the fence, but I am itching to try it now. Some asked why not go for the full Grand Slam? My question is are you crazy or am I crazy. I have a sort of my own grand slam of running 5 x 100 mile races over the summer.
Yes, a year ago when I could not even finish a 100 mile race, because they seemed so tough, now we are talking as oh just another 100 mile race. Lets do five of them and maybe back to back such Vermont 100 and Burning River are on a back to back weekend.
The most challenging race for me will probably the Western States since I could not train directly on the course and the race is a big unknown. Whereas, other local races, I have done it or that they were in my area and I could go out to train. Old Dominion, I haven’t done it but the course is much similar to Massanutten and Grindstone.
People who know what Western States 100 is, I won’t say much more. For those who don’t Western States and Leadville 100 are two US 100 mile races where the best runners go to compete. Some compares them to the Boston Marathon. They are well known in the ultra marathon world. There are 100-ish 100 mile races in the US, but Western States being the oldest and having most fame, received tons of attention. I am setting my sight too do do most if not all the 100 mile races, plus maybe one day the grand slam, but not now.
I will be blogging my week to week training until race day for WSER. I don’t want it to define me for 2024, but it is and will be. It is difficult to process everything around this race.
I hope I haven’t lost my audience. I threw out a lot of names. To my audience they probably don’t mean much. Even to me, they might mean something for that week only when my focus is on just that one race, then a week later, a new race. I meet a guy, Paul, at a recent event, the Naked Nick 50k. He asked me if I really do a race every weekend. I guess so. It seems like it. I can’t tell you guys all about my 26+ races. If I have to pick one as a favorite, it would be hard! If I really have to,
I leave you guys my very first race this year, Blackbeard Revenge. Why? Because I ran a point to point from one end of Outer Banks to the other end (a bunch islands on the coast of North Carolina), and as I near the finish, I saw the sun rising. It was my first time to finish a 100 mile race as the sun was coming up. I had that fresh burst of energy. It was the most exciting and amazing feeling at the end of a 100 mile. It was just me and the road and the finish line. It sums up my experience of 2023. It is something that can’t be explained.
Of course not all my races are like that. A lot of them, it is really suffering and I don’t want to remember them. I still like to do them as a race. Back on topic, as for 2024, I know I again a lot of races. I will also difficulties. Nothing ever is smooth sailing.
Some challenges I face this year and next year are same as before. I don’t feel I have trained enough. At least not to the level I deem is acceptable, if we are judging at finishing time. I am still putting very low effort toward my races. I think mostly it is hard to wake up in the morning to train! Western States led to a change to be more consistent in doing my training runs. I hope it will change my life around in term of habits and how I eat.
-Managing time, money, resources, energy is a challenge. I am a bit better. I have a group of friends that kind of help me at races. This is the logistical stuff I always wanted a manager to oversee. I am also considering of hiring coach. The bottom line is I have to work smarter also harder.
-Scheduling. One of my goals is to go to Napal for trekking the Annapurna. It was supposed to be this year, 2024. This would have to be deferred for a few more years. Next year I am going to Taiwan and Sydney, plus Western States do requires a ton of resources, time, and energy, that there is nothing left for another trips. I want to remind myself, there are other things besides running.
-The challenging of keep trying harder stuff is reaching the Peak. After doing almost the same thing over 7 years, I come to a point of plateau-ing. It is harder and harder to go a bit more above what I just did. I know I am not at the peak yet, but I am asking myself, how much farther I can go. Maybe it is the law of diminishing return.
Another challenge I have from time to time is finding a Reason to do what I do. I struggle with defining myself. I don’t want things to define me. Yet I want the achievement. They seem to be opposite. I don’t want to underachieve either. These 7 years, I have pushed the envelop. I keep wondering where is the boundary. At times I thought I reached it, but now looking back, they were just a baby step. Part of defining myself is Looking forward, which is hard for me. I lack imagination. What’s next!
I came to a bit of understanding while writing this. It is not so much of pushing more boundary, but to see the freedom already available to me. Now, I could do so much more than before and having done some harder races, like 100 miler, I gained the confident in my body of being able to sustain me on some of tougher and longer runs.
Western States was a total surprise to me. But then after that what’s next? Anyway, we will know once we get there. I don’t have an answer.
Until next time, I think will be either summer or earlier fall (Day650). By then a lot of my goals will either have reached or else and I will get to write about them. I hope this report has been a good read to you and to me.
Yes, it is Christmas and New Year! I am not ready. Happy holidays!
In awe 