In awe

Tag: trip

  • [681] July 4 Hike – BP (TWOT)

    I have been on the Twot loop, as it is known among us local runners but its real name is the Wild Oak Trail, many times either hiking, running, racing what not, except for biking and swimming boating or fishing.  

    It was the trail that I earned my backpacking badge.  It was my earliest known trail even before I hiked Signal Knob or Massanutten or Bull Run or the Seneca Creek trail. 

    I don’t write about it specifically, because the two races there the TWOT 100 or 200, and the Grindstone 100, I was not able to do yet to this day (to finish with an official time) even though I have run so many hundred mile races.  It does rub the wrong way for me to be on my home court and couldn’t finish it.  The trail is way harder than the Massanutten.

    But I have run, hiked, trained, and camped there many times.  Hone Quarry is near there and I visited it during the past late winter and spring this year.  (Hone Quarry 40, preview run, Grindstone 100).

    The Wild Oak Trail (TWOT) is located in Spokeville, VA, about 10-ish miles from Harrisonburg and Staunton.

    It is a place I prefer more than the Shenandoah, mostly to avoid the crowd since we are so close to the cities in east coast, primarily the DC area.  

    The AT is fine place to hike, camp and run, but the TWOT is my favorite place.  The views are just as good if not better than many places.

    Last weekend, just off the cuff, I wanted to go for camping. I did have an ulterior motive.  Since I DNF’d at the last Grindstone race, I wanted to go back to know and experience again why I did not do as well as I anticipated in it.  I knew already from my race report, but I wanted to walk back on the ground to see if there any stones I should uncover or memorize.  So it was going to be a holy experience for me.  I had intended to go back there several times after my race last September but whatever the reason I was not able to until the Fourth of July weekend.  I dragged my friend along for the fun of it. Misery loves company they say.

    I have not done a real backpack trip since summer 2021, when I visited the Smoky.  I don’t remember if I posted any about it.  Usually, I don’t like doing a write-up for things that are not running related.  If I find it, I will link it here in the future.

    I really wanted to get back into hiking/camping.   One of my big goals and always have been, is to backpack the one of the very long trails, like the AT, PCT, or CDT, or the one that goes from east to west of the country, for thousand of miles long.  The mountain is always calling me.  Except I just don’t have time.  Running have taken over my life the last few years.

    This year July 4th fell on a Friday and it was a great opportunity to do it for a long three day trip.

    I had in mind to check out or have refresher of the Grindstone 100 course, and the race is coming up in a month or so.  I would like to have a weekend on the course. 

    The short version was everything kind of worked out.

    Thursday night, Campsite unknown

    I left work a little later than I wanted.  We did not get on the road until after 8 pm.  I knew the campsite would be hard to find after dark.  Indeed, I could not find it, the one I camped at in November.  In the end it was already midnight, and we were tired. 

    We drove in the park over an hour turning at one wrong turn after another arriving at who know where.  I actually reached the place where we were supposed to leave our water around halfway through the course.  The original plan was to drive there in the morning to drop off water first before starting out. 

    We could have gone without leaving water since there is a creek nearby and a gas station too about a few miles away, but that would leave some uncertainties and extra hiking to seek water. 

    Since I had a friend with me, I did not want to cause an alarm about not having water.   (As luck would have it, we did run out of water, or due to poor planning on my part, we leave that later).

    At the moment we were in middle of the night without a camp, so the first order of business is still have a place to sleep.  We could sleep in our car until morning, which is kind of bad because we intended to do “real camping.  So I pulled the car into a place at a trailhead and dropped off the water jugs.  Then I decided to hike a little bit into the trail in the middle of the night, from memory there should be a place to camp.  I was unsure how far though.  We lugged all our packs along just in case we needed our things but I knew we would come back to the car in the morning to head to the real trailhead we original intended to go.

    We might have got to our camp after 1 am.  Then quickly set things up and went to bed.  First night was uneventful.  The night was hot.  Moon was out.  So were stars.  We just did a hike that got our blood flowing.  Now we needed to sleep.  I kept the canopy open, we slept under the stars, till it got colder and then I went out to close it.  First night usually is hard to fall asleep for me.

    Friday, the next day. A real hike.

    The next day was our first long day.  We had some decisions to make.  Since the course was a loop, we could actually start from where we camped.  However, the rest of our trip, and where we stay, and where we get water would need to be adjusted.  I felt that was too many things to change on the fly.  Again, if I were on my own, I don’t mind, but since I was with someone, we had filed a flight “plan”, we had to stick to it, you know in case something happened, people can search for us.

    We headed back to our car and drove to the orignal trailhead — the Twot Lot, and started from there. In broad daylight while driving back, we saw all the campsites we missed the night earlier.

    I signed in at the guestbook, noted other people on the trail that weekend.  Not too many maybe two other parties and we did not encounter them at all.  My friend later commented, that Frozen Ed (a famous runner in our community) checked in there a few weeks ago. It is interesting to know who has been there.

     We then prepared our breakfast in the Twot parking lot.  It seemed like cheating and not real camping experience, but we needed our calories.  The day would be long.

    A little past 8 o’clock, we started our hiking for real, going clockwise. As my convention, I gave my friend a choice of going either left or right.  I decided beforehand already of going “left”. This was to climb Lookout Mountain first instead of the Grindstone Mountain.  I have done in the counterclockwise many times but seldom hiked in the clockwise direction except for the Grindstone 100 race.  I actually like this direction because the camping and water points work out fine, as also more ways to change midway.

    The planned course was a 50 mile-ish trip.  Later, once on the trail, wisdom dictated to cut it down to half, which was part of the plan too, a plan B.  This course has several ways of making it shorter, such as heading to Camp Todd or to the start at Twot parking lot by road if needed to instead of on the trail.

    First, we went up onto Lookout Mnt, then crossed over on Hankey Mnt, was to descend to Doswells Draft, and to cross over to Chimley Hollow, then up on Crawford Mnt, down into Dry Branch, climb to Elliot Knob, to descend into Cold Springs, and hike on forest road back to Crawford to climb it second time, backtrack to Chimney Rock, up over Doswells Draft to Hankey again, (we skipped all those) but continued on the TWOT counterclockwise loop to Magic Moss, climbed up on Dividing Ridge to Grind Spring Ridge and passed over Big Bald, descended to Camp Todd, up Little Bald, and was to travel to Reddish Knob if time permits then find our way back to the Todd Lot either on Tilman Rd or through one of those trails like Reservor or Tower trail. It is a lot for the weekend.  Generally, would have to run it to cover everything on the Grindstone 100 course in 4 days instead of 2. For those who want the GPS file, they are available on the Grindstone 100 mile race website.  For future trip, if we want to make it longer, it could join up with the Hone Quarry 40 loop, to make it into 140+ mile adventure.

    So actuality, we stayed on the Twot loop our whole weekend, just 25 miles and cut out all the Crawford loop and Reddish Knob loop. 

    There were no rush for us since we had three days to do it, even out to about 9 miles a day.  I realized we couldn’t do 25 miles a day for three days straight.  I had on near 50 lbs pack.  So it was not going to happen to push the pace.

    By noon on Friday, we just reached the top of Lookout Mountain, maybe about 4-5 miles.  We decided to stop for lunch. I unpacked and had a proper hot meal. I calculated we likely reached our campsite by 4 pm. 

    After lunch we continued climbing up to up on Hankey Mountain.  By 3:00 pm we reached Doswells Draft Trail.  I was out of water by now.  I estimated it might be 3 miles to descend off the mountain to a water point (where I did the water drop the night before) or we could continue climbing up Hankey to a place I know there is a very nice campsite.  Valley always bring to mind flies, gnats, ants and other bugs.  And the place we stayed the night before seemed to have lot of ants.  I was trying to avoid it.

    After talking over with my friend, who had some water left, we went up the ridge to set camp.  There were about two liters of water shared between us.  We still had to cook plus over 16 hours left before we reached our next water source.

    There were no water to clean or wash anything.  The climb up was extremely hard but we were glad we made it. Yes, had to go to bed sticky and dirty.

    I was tired so the first thing of business was to set up camp (the tent) and then changed into dry/clean clothes.  Then I had a small meal since water was lacking, and everything I cook needed a lot of water.  I did not want to make a fire since there was no water to put it out if in an emergency we needed to (Yes, I was taught by others to pee into the fire to put it out if necessary, generally not an appealing task to do). 

    It just meant we headed to bed early.  A slight passing rain came through but nothing was really wet.  In a sense, I was hoping to refill our bottles from the rain, but it did not rain very hard.

    The next day, we headed off to an early start skipping breakfast.  I wanted to head to our water source first before having breakfast.  A side note, our mountain camp was full of spiders and ants, exactly the kinds of bugs I wanted to avoid in the first place.  The view though made it up. Plus the night was cooler. Air smelled better.  We were not disturbed up on the ridge.

    Saturday, 2nd full day.

    We descended back to where we left our water (2 Gal) Thursday night.   The water crisis was now resolved. The two water jugs were still there and in good condition.  I might have stayed two hours here to cook and rested.  The campsite actually did not have any bugs and we could have descended the night before and stayed here. It was a fairly big site for two of us and could have fit 4-5 people.

    After the big breakfast/lunch we headed up to Big Bald. This was our first hard climb of the day.  While climbing up we saw some race ribbons, likely from a past race or something.

    The afternoon was uneventful.  We friend pointed out the Bear Bog, called Bradley Pond (not the same one on Bradley Rd).  I never recalled there was a bear bog here, but I have not been this way for a long time since Grindstone course doesn’t go through here.  We took some photos and continued on.

    We reached over the other side, which was Camp Todd.  We filtered our water (actually a full gallon, 4L).  We probably needed 6L, but 4 L would do.  We then lugged the water upto Little Bald where would be camping for the night.

    It was 4:30 pm as we started off from Camp Todd.  I knew it would take a very long time to get up to the Ridge, and was hoping no more than 3 hours. 

    It was just constant climbing.  We arrived around 8 pm, backpacker midnight some call it.  We set up camp, cooked, cleaned, by the time I went to bed it was 9:30-10 pm.  It was very late and I was tired.  I think I immediately felt asleep.  This site though had very little insects, but we were drenched by the heavy dew.  So the tent was very wet the next morning.

    Sunday, last day of the trip

    Sunday, we had 7 (but felt like 8) miles remaining.  It would be all descending.  I estimated probably took us 4-5 hours to descend.  I had a lot of food left over, so instead of carrying them back down the mountain, it was good to eat them. I had a feast.  My friend had a meal package left (intended for me).  I had maybe 1.5-2 days of food myself, even after I had my big breakfast. 

    The descent was fast initially.  But the day wore on. Sun shone down. At the last part, it was not all descending but some climbling too.  Maybe we got to two miles at the end, we had to climb up maybe a mile.  That really worn us down.  We did reached the parking lot around noon and that was a good feeling we got the weekend wrapped up early. 

    We had plenty time to head home, then we cleaned up and then enjoyed a good Korean BBQ before the day was over.  There was nowhere better than home.

    Conclusion.  Backpacking doesn’t have the excitement of getting to the finish line like in a race.  It is something that takes a lot of time to plan, prepare and execute.  Like running, sometimes we have to make decisions on the fly, such as what to do when running out of water, or that we are carrying too much food, or what if we got lost. 

    Time seems to flow differently while on the trail. Like with running, a four day weekend seems like only one or two days, yes, I wish I would take a day or two off to make it into a 5 day weekend trip. 

    The TWOT loop was like my backyard kind of camping trip.  It provides just the right amount of challenge but also nearby. In no time we were home and back to the society.

    Afterward, another friend of mine reached out, asking if I be interested in backpacking in Colorado and if I have any backpacking experience.  Do I!? 

    I won’t claim myself to be an expert but I am all for going out to Colorado.  I have not done something like that, other than going to the Smoky, Patagonia or the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.  I am looking at 60,000 ft climbs and descents and 100+ miles, with the highest point at 15,000 ft. 

    We haven’t settled on how many days, we would do it in.  Likely 4-5 days or 6-7 days, plus couple days to get acclimated. (Location is the famous Silverton for the Hard Rock 100). If the trip is successful, I will do doing a lot more stuff out in the west.  Montanta, I’m looking at you and Grand Canyon.  I have plenty of trips I want to do in the high sierra, slot canyons, JMT, etc. Mt Elbert too. Until next time.

    I don’t think I ever did a proper twot write up, so I did it here for memory and reference. And indeed, some day, if I have a week time, to attempt a 140-150 mile backpacking trip at Twot.

  • [640] update

    I’ve been quiet lately.  Not much going on in term of running.

    My last race was Burning River.  Then I did a training run/club event MMB 50k.

    From that event, a friend, Robert, hooked me up to his friend in Salt Lake, who will be my pacer for Wasatch 100. I am blessed with a string of coincidents.

    I don’t consider that I have Wasatch ready.  I am actually very anxious about it. It is the same feeling as when I prepared for Old Dominion, Massanutten, Western States, Vermont, and Burning River.

    Some might think I have done so many 100s this year, it should be easy. No, Wasatch is like 10 times harder.

    Then there is Grindstone right after. I am concerned about that race too. I wish I could be on the course and do a few more laps.

    I said I was going to look into my fall schedule. I haven’t. Guess what? Fall is here!

    —-

    I was able to put a tiny bit of training last weekend.  I traveled down to Damascus (VA) to do course marking for the Iron Mountain race for the Labor Day weekend.

    It was such a fun course to run on.  I have been doing this last couple years.  This year, the trail condition is good. Trail is clear and dry. I tried to run my fastest while on the course. I love it. (I spoke too soon, it is forecasted to be terrible weather on race day).

    The drive down was long though.  I had to work late that Friday and did not start on my trip until almost 9 pm.  I got to Salem, which is like 2/3 of the way and I was too tired to continue.  I stopped at the hotel for the night. Slept for maybe an hour and had to get up. 

    I felt refresh though and continued down, arriving on time. The marking did not take too long.  I marked the same section as the previous year.  Finished a little over 3.5 hours. (I finished in 3 hours, but I went for a little more).

    Somehow, I used a bit less ribbon this year than before.  I only used a little over 1 roll.  Two years ago, we used 4 rolls to mark the same section.  I am praying that no runners would get lost on this segment.  It is the same prayer every year. They shouldn’t get lost since, three of the major turns should be heavily marked and one of them is an aid station.

    How I have so much left over ribbons?  I was given 3 rolls of 150 ft. I was estimating my section was about 13 miles (actual 11).  I cut 4 ft per ribbon. I figured I could mark 8 times per mile, so every 8th of a mile. At my pace, it would mean marking every 3 minutes.  I must have either run too fast or did not keep an accurate time, so my eighth of a mile might have been more like a quarter mile or 0.3 mile. So I had a lot of left over.  I should have marked at every tenth of a mile 🙂 Anyway, that is for next year, yes to mark every couple minutes.

    The rest of the Saturday, I rented a bike and biked up to White Top.  I only reached Green Cove.  It brought back memories from last year when I paced a friend in Yeti 100.  We spent the whole night, about 12 hours to travel up to White Top and Back.  Biking only took me like 4 hours. 

    It was so fun though.  Riding up was hard but coming down was all cruising.  The bike rental even gave me a discount since I showed up toward the afternoon. I think was a 25% off.  I ate lunch at the Wilson’s Grill next door. Biking and eating in Damascus is highly recommended. 

    Sunday, I stopped by the Grindstone 100 course on my way home and did a bit of out and back on the Crawford Knob and Chimney Hollow trail.  Apparently the mountain (on the former Grindstone 100 course) is a private property. I am not sure yet, because it could be I’ve gotten lost the Crawford Knob trail and wandered into someone else property.   I hope it was not so, since I love to run around those mountains. Anyway, I’d stay away from there now that I knew it is private (or assume it is).

    Damascus, near the swimming pool, I think is a mill
    I asked a biker to pose for me on the Virginia Creeper Trail, I rented a bike and did the same
    Highest point, I think.  Last year, I thought I reached at the highest point at the junction of Chimney Hollow, a mile more down (up) the trail, you get here with a sign of 3728 ft
    Visitor Center at Green Cove (an aid station during Yeti 100, not shown)
    The actual AS during Yeti (now in day time). I sat here and nap during Yeti while waiting for my runner to recover

    Running in Damascus always brought back memories, of my early trail running days. It is still a race I haven’t conquered. It gives me an incentive to go down here every year

  • Day496 Schedule

    It’s that time again, to pick what races will I be doing for next year. Scheduling is so hard. Since when I started running, I always wish I have an event coordinator because I hate making plans. I like planning (or having one), I just don’t like choices I need to make. I usually end up doing all! Have the cake and eat it too they say! I wish someone just give me a list of places of where to go next. Then I just wake up and go run.

    It is not because there are no races to run, but I want to run races that fit my goal and mean something to me (yes, kind of hard to define). Last few years, my goal was to “step it up” to the next level of running. Each year has been “better” in some way. Going into trail running was definitely satisfying.

    I am still searching for my goal for next year. A defining moment to make 2023 special, like MMT is for 2022.

    I am sure I will still run plenty of trails next year. There are certainly many interesting (and hard) races to do. I am seeking something different.

    I did Laurel Highland, Grayson Highland, MMT, Iron Mountain, Catoctin. Those were all my dream races. They are done and completed.

    I am still progressing my 50 states plan/goal. My usual approach is pick couple states I haven’t done and plan around those. Yesterday, I looked at the airfare. By golly, a couple races I want to go, the price has doubled or nearly so. No way am I paying $700 when in the past I could fly across the country for much cheaper. What is wrong with the inflation! 9 and 10% every month!? Or is this an annual rate? I don’t know econ but it is hurting my pocket. Anyway, traveling to races has become too costly.

    Air travel has gone up a lot. Maybe it is to a certain city at a certain time on a certain date.

    I am scraping my trip to Tulsa this fall and likely for next year as well. I will wait till things get cheaper again. Oklahoma City near there is a bit cheaper. Maybe that is the direction to go. I don’t like having to transfer, but I think I might have to suck it up. Not many people want to go to Tulsa.

    I am thinking not to run anywhere too far next year. There are plenty of local races or races I can drive myself to.

    Over the weekend, someone asked if I ran the Tunnel Hill before. Hmm, that’s an idea I need to look into.

    I have been thinking, instead of me picking races, I think they pick me. There are certain races, I just cannot get into, maybe it is my bad luck or something. And there were races that were not on my radar and then they popped in.

    Tulsa has been one of my early targets maybe even back in 2017, but somehow I am unable to get there to do it for one reason or another. The invisible hand seems to steer me toward OKC or some other place.

    Earlier in the year (summer) I tried to get into the race The Wild Oak Trail. I did not get accepted. I ran there on my own before, so no biggie that I did not get in. It is a race by invitation only. I could and might plan to do it on my own time.

    Similarly, I couldn’t get time off for the midstate trail (PA) 100k fatass this summer, so that is something I really want to do next summer.

    More bad lucks, Today, I received an email from a race I signed up just couple days ago. The race is canceled due to low demand. There were only 80 people signed up when they expected more than 400. It was also a race I have been wanting to do since the pandemic. It is rare to have a race canceled on me and it was not covid related. I am sad. I was so excited originally because it was going to fall on my blog anniversary weekend.

    Unfortunately, it is just not meant to be. I was so close to going there last year too, I remembered I sat in my car that evening (maybe just couple weeks after my mom had her stroke, read my last Halloween), at the last minute, I canceled it, but I was really worn and burnt out. Just not meant to be.

    Last night while at a bar after a happy hour run with my group, my friend David was telling me how he wanted to run the Las Vagas’ Rock n Roll. Me too! Please do it. Unfortunately, I can’t join him because I will have a race that weekend (Feb 25-26).

    He was deciding between it and Austin. I told him, I looked into Austin and wanted to run a marathon there. If he is going to go to Austin, let me know, I will sign up and join him. I have Cowtown at Dallas-Fortworth the following weekend but that is fine too, I can do both races and go to Texas twice. I want to do a race with someone!

    Another person, a work associate wrote me in reply to a work email, and in the signature block, the person snucked in a line about about the Army Ten Miler. Almost like psst, Army 10-Miler is coming up! He knows I run. I asked is he trying to get me to sign up! He said no, but he will be running it! I ran this when I was 18, eons ago. I want to go there to relive it now maybe 18 years later. Registration is still open! I really want to do it again. Psst, I signed up.

    So where will I go next year? I have some ideas. For now I just sit tight. I will let the next few months to shake my schedule around, and hopefully, by or near the start of 2023, I will officially reveal my schedule.

    My live schedule is always available in one of the pages here. For those who can’t wait, they can always visit the page. I think the page is race-schedule, but I am too lazy to look up the link.

  • Day433 brain dump2

    I had some ideas earlier this morning how I should write. Unfortunately, I can’t recall them.

    I enjoyed my runs. I have been doing some big runs/walks to finish the Virtual Race (Back) Across Tennessee. There are about 250 miles left, and I’m kind of on target to finish (ETA 9/5). I have to finish by 8/31 for it to be counted. So I try to run about 90-100 miles each week. So far, I am on target though it will be hard.

    Long story short is I spent a lot time on the road running the last few weeks and I was usually doing some late night runs. Safety stand point is not good but I enjoy the cooler runs and kind of like being alone.

    Was it tiring? Yes but I am better at it than last year. Not complaining much. The weather was generally more cooler this summer than last year. This week we had couple days of near 100F – hot. Even at midnight, it still felt extremely hot (hovering near 90F). Yes so hot I couldn’t run but only walked. It was only lasted couple days. Generally it was cooler. I got my miles in regardless. No rain so far on my run.

    The first week when I started to ramp up my miles, my feet were swollen after putting in 110 miles. I couldn’t wear my normal shoes. Just want to put it out there. Not complaining. Slowly, my feet adapted to the high mileage. There are nuggets of truth somewhere.

    Why I am doing this? Hard to explain. Those who are not in it can’t relate. We who are running the GVRAT are like fanatics. We love the race. We love going back out every day and get the miles in. Many did finish already and we are excited for each other. A few like me are still struggling.

    What is next? Summer is drawing to a close. Time flies. I am happy even though I was not racing much this month. I did a 5K – the Birthday Bash (Potomac River Running – Shoes store’s birthday). But my long runs have mostly filled up my racing craving! I wrote some about running to the Airport one night, or being chase by a storm on another, or this week – I had a close encounter with death to run right after a storm (by going through a fallen tree with a downed wire underneath). Sorry no space to write about that.

    Oh what’s next? I will be doing the midnight (moonlight) marathon in West Virginia in two weeks. I am hyped! Also hoping to finish the GVRAT by then! After that on Labor Day weekend, I will be running the Iron Mountain Trail Run (40 mile race). I have been waiting to run this race for 3 years. It is happening. With all the training and anticipation, oh I am giddy. Did I mention I signed up for the Devil Dog Ultra – I think I did. Wow, it means much.

    What does this mean? I look toward races like going to a retreat. It is a religious experience for me. I am shaken in a religious sense. I get goose bumps and electric feeling running down my back whenever I go for these long runs. I wish I can really explain or show how that is. Yes, probably I am a fanatic/maniac. I’m just somebody who enjoys running a lot.

    Presently, I am on a trip – a training run for the Iron Mountain Trail. I wish I can share all the high points! Yes, I feel I am on top of the mountain. Literally I was on one. Emotionally too.

    I don’t know how to close this entry without writing more. I looked into my Rim to River 100 Race. And I looked into the Annapurna Trek. All within this week. Basically I did the research that I said I should be doing. I am at a point in life – I wanted to do something big – like how am I different this year compare to before – and I am in a holding pattern at the same time. I need to push myself to the ‘next’ level. I can’t be comfortable at where I am. These trips are kind of like that pushing me higher.

    I have been trying to readjust my blog for transitioning to this new ‘phase’ such as posting only once a week. I changed blog name. I had a new tag (almost is my vision statement). I had a new mission statement. I kind of know what I want to be. Soon I will renumber my blog (starting from Day1 again but Vol 2) – still debating on to do it or not. Obviously I like numbering. I am very anal, but I also seek a new start.

    So I have been day dreaming on what it will take to hike the Annapurna (in Nepal). Who is with me?

  • Day413

    This week, I made plans to do the Atlanta 100 over July 4th weekend while piggy back off a family vacation to the Smoky Mountains. In the end, it was not practical. So the plan was scraped. Vacation though will still be on. I will go to the Smokies but will have several days where I will backpack on the Appalachian Trail alone.

    The plan was great though. eh, kind of. I had to go to Atlanta some point this summer to complete the (V-)GSER because it was something I didn’t do last year. I want another crack at this.

    My family wanted to go to the smokies at the end of June. The time kind of line up with GSER. I could do the GSER before the trip or after the trip, because Atlanta is only 4 hours away from the Smokies, and I am like 2/3 of the way there.

    I could spend 4-5 days in Atlanta and I also have support during the run, which would ease up a lot especially toward the end of the race.

    In the end it was not meant to be. First, driving to Atlanta is at least 12 hours and I prefer to have a day to two days of rest before starting this. I felt it was very rush, to spend the weekend driving down, and I would have started the run immediately once arrive, which I don’t like. My family of course think I could do it. The race would last for 36 hours. And immediately after beeline to the Smokies. It is all very rushed.

    I prefer rather to go the Smokies first and then leave early like in the middle of the week and then make my run Thursday-Friday, Saturday would be sleeping in and spend Sunday and Monday driving back. but this would leave only three days at Smokies and was not ideal either.

    It was a hasty decision, but in the end I decided not to go for the GSER at this time. Glad it was so because, later I looked at my planner, and I saw I would be doing the Laurel Highland in June and my body likely would not be ready for it.

    However, this would leave me a lot time at Smokies. I plan to do all the hikes there, at least as many as possible (mostly the Appalachian Trail section). To be continue…

  • Day403 update

    I’m still here. Just have been goofing off on twitch. I wish I can tell you all the weird stuffs I found there. I mostly watch music streams though, but a lot of IRL chats (in real life) are quite entertaining. I watched like 8 hours of a guy biking in Japan (Robcdee). If you want to waste time go on stream. It is not just for gamers. anyway…

    Just want to let my readers/followers (twitch uses followers) know that in about 30 hours I will be going to Texas. I am excited and pumped.

    Yes it is for a race/run. A 100 miler. The race will last around 30-32 hours. If I run it under 30 hours I can have my name entered in a drawing for the Western States, which is like the crown race for Ultras.

    I have semi packed my suitcase. It is a bummer because I hate packing. I want to bring everything and half of my stuffs do not fit. I will have to repack it tomorrow night. Now I just chill and go to bed.

    I booked my hotel and car rental today. Yes the trip is on unless for any last minute change, which I don’t expect any. I handed off the stuff needed to do at work. Anything should be taken care of. As I know this trip is a go.

    One last thing is food. I will figure that part out once I land. Orignally I wanted to shop here and bring what I need there so I don’t have to go to the supermarket to reduce the risk of exposure of the coronavirus. It cant’t be help.

    Also I will be staying Houston instead at the race location, figuring first it is cheaper and second, everything is more readily available in Houston. The airport is nearer and some good restaurants too.

    The race site though is an hour away, so I will probably get up at 3 in the morning. Race is at 7 but check in is at 5. Then it is 30 hours.

    I hope there will be phone signal so I can update the world my progress during the race. If it is not available, then people just have to wait until next week when I am back.

  • Day343 Atlanta here I come

    Ready or not here I come!

    I am not ready, but I am going. About 7 weeks ago (July 1/2), I was in Atlanta to run the Great Southern Endurance Run (GSER). I was only able to do it halfway and vowed I will be back to finish it.

    Here goes, this weekend I will be there to redo the run. However, I feel totally under-prepared.

    I am not as frantic as the last trip there. I don’t know why. I am even less prepared than the last time. I reread my blog of my trip last time…and I said I will do better in term of preparation, like taking the week off before the trip…change my sleep time to adjust for overnight running, pack the stuff I need for the runs (last time was last minute packing and I forgot certain things like lipbalm, sunblock lotion), get a better map and turnsheet, laminate the turnsheet, and many other things.

    I have done none of that. I am just showing up to wing it! I told my friend I probably give up at the 13th mile this time around.

    Any way, I will be flying out soon in couple hours. My run will probably be tomorrow. I could start at any time (it is a virtual race), but once it is started, I have to stay to finish. I am picking for the best day to start…Thursday or Friday? I am also thinking for a day time start instead of a night time.

    I want to lean toward a Friday start. I will check the weather tomorrow and then decide.

    It is sad to see an empty airport here at Dulles International! Just like last time. I bet though Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International will be crowded.

    Worries? I have a lot. Mainly it is the D*** poison ivy. I am much better. The blisters have stopped oozing. I am using a type of soap that basically said take 2 days to heal. I am on the 2nd day. They still itch but much less (90% less). The itch drove me crazy before the medication. But still, yesterday, a whole bunch of blisters/boils popped up on my other foot. I applied the medication. They have not started oozing yet. It might take two more days for this foot to heal. However, I will be in the middle of the run by then…so the blisters might get infected during the run. Right now they are about to pop, so I am very nervous to run with a bunch of those. It is very uncomfortable. I would take a picture, but it will gross you out! That is my worry.

    I had a history of bad allergic reaction to poison ivy. This time the overcounter medication seems to be able to suppress it. However, I hope it won’t break out while I am in Atlanta…ya, the last couple times I had poison ivy, I had to go see my family doctor for antibiotic to stop it. I won’t able to do that while in Atlanta.

    Coronavirus: Virginia number is half of that of Atlanta (Georgia). It has come down a bit but the number is like last time when I went to Atlanta (on July 1). Riskwise should be the same as last time.

    How do I feel? Not stressed. I felt I have to do it, like an obligation. So I will face all kind of ‘adversities’ and get worked up, and interfere with many other people (coworkers) to have this trip done. The truth is its not. This is a pleasure trip.

    On a happy note…for me at least, is when I get back I will start the next wild thing. We will run across the world! (virtually). I am really looking forward to that. For a week (3 weeks actually) I thought no one would want to run with me, but I found 9 random people yesterday (well not me, they found me) and we are doing it! We are running as a team, and we need 10 people because that was a requirement. They are from all over the places, some from Texas, Florida, England, etc. I couldn’t keep track of all their names.

  • Day341 reality

    I have to accept the reality that to run back across Tennessee (virtually) within two weeks is out of reach for me in my condition.

    I had the ambitious goal of doing 250 miles this week and another 250 miles the next. I have ‘slowly’ trying to bring my miles up from 5 miles to 30 miles. My body still prefers running 5 miles. Beyond the 5 miles it bonkers. So I splitted my run into two. 5 miles during lunch and 15 miles in the evening. Doing 5 miles are great. 15 miles not so great.

    After 4 nights of running 15 miles, yesterday, the body relented. I walked most of the 15 miles.

    It reminded me back at the time I was in Atlanta when I was trying to run a hundred miles. It came to a point where the body can’t run any more and running is no longer fun. I felt I was 10 miles away from my home and couldn’t get back.

    I had blisters on my feet. I don’t mind the pain or the discomfort. It is just all my muscles are so tight. I don’t think I could squeeze any more out of it.

    Also I am suspecting my cardio has taken a hit. Last year I had Lyme disease and I know how that feel. I felt something similar. My performance is really poor. At least I am not yet fainting. Last year when I overexerted I fainted. I am also questioning whether I might contracted the corona virus. It is a respitory disease. My breathing is fine, just couldn’t run. Maybe it is really over exertion.

    Anyway for the GRVAT. I am at mile 901 and I need to get to mile 1270 to be considered ‘finished’. I have about 10 days left to do it. I could try to get mile 1000, there is an award for that. 10 miles each day is doable. 370 miles is too much to ask of.

    Weekend is here. Originally, I planned to put in 100 miles, 50 on Saturday and 50 on Sunday. Now scratch that plan. The body just couldn’t handle it.

    This weekend I will go down to Virginia Border to Buffalo State Park for a family camping trip. I don’t have children of my own, but I will join my brother-in-law and he will bring his wife and kids. My mom will be there too.

    Personally this kind of camping is not my kind of thing. I don’t like sitting around at a camp with nothing to do. There are the kids. I rather be hiking all day (or run) and only get to camp when we can’t go on further. Survival kind of camping is what I like.

    My mom will like it. It is her kind of camping. We don’t do it often enough. As I was growing up, money was tight and going camping was not our family thing. I really didn’t get on the camping stuff until a few years ago when I started running and discovered this whole world.

    My mom and brother-in-law though took the kids out for camping a few times every years. As for me, I think this is the first time joining them.

    Any way, it will be like a party. Indeed, my niece I think is turning 5 today, so we will celebrate her birthday at the camp. My mom’s birthday too is over this weekend. Obligatory I have to show up 🙂

    I know the kids will enjoy the trip. They are leaving for the camp today. I have work and so will join them tomorrow. Still debating if I should drive down after work…I’m afraid I might fall asleep behind the wheel.

  • Going places

    Day 205

    This post is hard for me to write. For some people (like my hiking friend), they love traveling. For me, I have such a fear, stressful/worrying kind of fear of going to places, no matter if it is local or is far away. I am content to stay at home. I know a coworker of mine too who shares my view and she is happy just by staying at home for her vacation. I like to tease her about it. Really, I was teasing myself too.

    However, I have been going to many places recently due to backpacking and running. They do help me to build up a higher tolerant of fear.

    I am an immigrant and came to the US when I was a child. Traveling shouldn’t be strange to me. However, I remember I did not want to come to the US back then. At the time, I did understand why we had to or how much better for us to move. I had to go where my mom was taking me. It was silly of me to have wanted to stay back at my home country than to go, now thinking back. Now I really love the US, having grown up here, there is no other home for me.

    I had similar occasions while growing up during my teen years, when we would have to move to a different place. Looking back, it was not that many times, but each times were like a life changing event. Luckily in the recent years, I have not had to move. I have been staying put at the same place for a long time.

    Last few years were kind of stressful, when I started running. Running let me to explore places around my neighborhood, to places where I normally don’t get to. I usually just drove/walked from my house to the bus/train station and to the grocery shop, which would be the extend of my travel. However, with running, I needed to put in the miles and it forced me to go to new places. I had to run a little farther to places I normally would not go.

    Pretty soon, I was not just running just around my neighborhood, but running in other parts of our county/city. I would take my car to a new place and ‘explore’ it on foot. Pretty soon after, I was doing races in my neighboring states. I don’t have to, but one of my goals is to run in all 50 states kind of make me have to travel outside my area. I have traveled to about five states now (not including the state I am in). I wish I can add, pretty soon I will go run marathons in another country. Not yet for now.

    Backpacking kind of get me through my fear of traveling the last couple of years. I am still much afraid, but I have been doing it with a friend, and I was not afraid when I was with her…unless she herself becomes afraid as once time she was. I have hardly done any backpacking just by myself.

    Having a companion definitely helps. My trips for my races to Delaware, Pennsylvania, Washington, and West Virginia were all done with my mom. Haha! I went to Maryland to race (NCR and Baltimore Marathon) by myself (though the first half marathon in Maryland, my mom came with me, but subsequent trips to Maryland were all done alone by myself). I have become a pro now! I mentioned a one of previous entries, that Maryland is no longer a ‘foreign country’ to me.

    Now next week, I will be out of the country. Really get out. This is my fourth times in my life. I have my passport and documents ready. Yes, my hiking friend will be going with me, but I have still been terrified about it. I have spent many sleepless nights staying up or awaking in the middle of the night and unable to get back to sleep because of it.

    No one made me to go some would say, but I am going to go. I am taking it as a dare. I am not a globe trotter. Sorry I probably won’t blog about my travel – I wish I could. I am gritting my teeth and will get on the airplane next week with butterfly in my stomach.

  • game on

    Day 181

    Though I don’t have much to say, this weekend instead of running the High Bridge Ultra (50k) I will be heading south and west for a backpacking trip. I will probably the last one until Patagonia.

    I will be packing tonight once I get home. I have a bit of running to do beforehand. The weather has turned cooler now, and we might face near freezing temperature up on the mountain. I will have to dig through my stuff to pull out the winter/fall gear for the trip. Also the food situation is not good. My mountain house dehydrated food packs won’t arrive until Friday. I am thinking I might have to run to Walmart tonight to get some food otherwise I might be hanged high and dry.

    I hiked the the McAffee, Tinker Cliff, and Dragon Tooth loop previously but that time I was a completely noobie. This time around I should know what to pack and have a little bit more sense of direction.

    For the trip, we are leaving from Arlington around 6:30pm. I think it is a 4 hour drive. We have to hike couple of miles into camp, so we probably won’t arrive until midnight.

    The next day, I heard we are planning to do 18-20 miles, to the other side (North Mountain). On the last day we might skip Dragon Tooth, but still there will be something close to 15 miles before we are out of the woods. It will be 30+ miles total.

    I am ready.