In awe

Tag: vacation

  • Run-cation (night before) [Day553]

    Niagara Falls – passed by during a night run

    I am having my International Debut at the Toronto Marathon.

    The trip has been short. I spent a night at Niagara on my way to Toronto. And two nights in the suburb of Toronto (Markam). It is maybe 45 mins north of Toronto. Traffic is pretty bad here but probably not as bad as back home in the Washington, DC area.

    It is a bit far from the marathon start and finish, but there is a large chinese population and many chinese stores. Some considered this the new china town(s). For me, the whole weekend have been tasting many chinese cuisines. They are low price and good food. People speak my native language. I can understand them but I can’t speak to them. I had dimsum for breakfast, Hong Kong beef noodle soup for lunch, and congee/soup for dinner.

    I had a bit of problem for the first couple days because of not able to connect to the canadian cellular network until I was able to sign up for a local data plan. I purchased a prepaid sim card at a supermarket. Many stores no longer sell sim cards because you could order them online. I didn’t know that before I arrived.

    Tomorrow would be the Marathon. I have been resting quite well. My mileage has been quite low. I started the GVRAT – and this year, I am aiming to run 10k (ish, 5-6 miles) everyday for 123 days.

    It adds a bit of challenge. Day 1 was good. Day 2 was a bit hard. Day 3 was very hard, especially with the trip to Canada. Day 4 and 5 were a bit better. The body started to adjust of being out there every morning. Tomorrow would be day 6 plus, the marathon. I don’t know if I could handle the day after tomorrow. I bet the body would be screaming for recovery.

    The Amory at Niagara

    One good thing about being able to run is exploring places on foot. I ran down either direction from my hotel, traveling 3 miles one way and then another three miles the other way. It doesn’t beat driving, but it does give a sense of accomplishment to cover the surrounding area of I am staying.

    It is not my first time visiting Niagara Falls or Toronto, but actually the first time to cover a lot of miles on foot. One reason I picked Toronto Marathon (May race instead of the September race) is the course being point to point.

    I think the race will be good. I will write more (hopefully).

  • 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…