The Zen of Ultra Running

Freezing rain, strong wind, numb hands/fingers. These pretty much sum my race experience at the 20 Mile Drop in Fairport Harbour today. This race was part of the Lake health running series. I was looking for a marathon on this weekend (April 13/14) but I could not find one close to home. So, I signed up for this race as it's at least a 20 miler, which I wanted to do as part of my long run. The day before the race I went out and ran 19 miles on the trail with D. (aimed for 4 hours and we ended up doing 4.5 hours). My legs felt fine but tired. I thought this would be a good back-to-back long run weekend after missing 2 weekends in a row due to work. The race started at 7:15am. It's a point-to-point race where the runners got shuttled to another town and ran back to the finish line where we parked. The buses left the finish line at 6:30. We had to wait at the start line about 30 minutes. Some waited in line for the porta potty. Luckily, someone opened a building in the mid...

Two words - Mud Fest The first year I ran the Buzzard Day Trail races was in 2017 as the 2nd 50K race. I was still very new to trail running. Last year I dropped to the 25K as the distance fit with my training plan. I started early and helped out in the kitchen after my run. The week of the race this year I was debating if I should switch to the 100K distance because I just ran Olde Girdled Grit 50K last month and that was manageable for me. I talked to my coach (she was also the co-race director this year) and the race director (R.) about the possibility to switch and they said I just had to tell them before the race day if I wanted to switch. Then, a series of bad events happened at work throughout the week and I was really stressed out and too busy with work. So, the idea of running the 100K was put on hold. My coach (C.) told me to see how I felt on Friday then make the decision. On Friday, I was too exhausted to even think about the race. So, I decided to stick...

The first race and first ultra marathon of the year - Olde Girdled Grit 50K. After coming back from the long vacation in Thailand, I started to look for a race in February and found this one. I've seen many people ran OGG in the past but never thought about doing it until this year. I signed up for the race not knowing any information about the elevation, aid stations, or even location. All I knew was it was in the driving distance somewhere near Cleveland. The week before the race was hectic. I was trying to meet a work deadline but still had to teach and had meetings all day on Friday. It was the first time I was still working on Friday night before the race. I did not get a good sleep that night and partly due to stress and anxiety. Morning of the race I woke up and had my pre-race routine. Drove to the race with the mindset that it's going to be a long, happy day in the woods. The forecast said it was going to be in the high 40s during the day so I did not wear enough l...

Last weekend we had a chance to get out on a beautiful, (less) cold Saturday morning. It was my first run in five days and I was looking forward to it. In the blog last week, I talked about negativity and no motivation to do anything. Let alone exercising or running. I found that I was not alone in feeling that way. Many people also felt down on the very cold days that we had in NE Ohio. We visited Twin Sisters Falls, which were completely frozen. The trails leading to the falls were....pretty icy. We had to walk on a frozen stream, which we were not sure if it's completely frozen. However, once we got there, they were completely breathtaking. Due to the polar vortex the week before, the waterfalls were frozen and it created the most beautiful effect I'd ever seen. On that day, we ran about 12 miles, which was enough for me and enough to make me feel good about myself again. Then we went to Columbus on Saturday afternoon to buy some furniture at IKEA. It turned out tha...

*Warning: Depressing content alert. Please skip to the next blog if you want to.* This blog is not about a race or any of my workout, ultramarathon, or triathlon accomplishment. It's more about my current mental health and (no) workout motivation. Since getting back from Thailand, I've been sluggish and had no motivation to do anything. It might be because of the weather (?). The sudden change in the temperature from 90F to 20F hit me pretty hard. I had to catch up on a lot of things that I intentionally put off while I was on the vacation and constantly feel like I'm trying NOT to drown. Luckily, I still have my Saturday group runs to motivate me to get out. Two weekends ago we had a snowmageddon in NE Ohio, which trapped us in the house for 3 days. This week (yesterday and today) we have Polar Vortex, which makes the temperature drop really low (-31F with wind chill) and schools had to cancel classes (including my university). I should take it as an opportunity to wor...

Thailand International Half Marathon is always on the 3rd week of December. Last year I ran the race for the first time. Actually, I was not quite impressed with the race and its organization but the timing and distance fit my schedule. This year I asked my extended family if anyone would be interested in running the half marathon (or any distance) with me at this race. One of my cousins has recently started running and done 2 half marathons this year. She wanted to run another one especially when she knew I was going to run with her. Another cousin decided to run her first half at this race. We also persuaded her brother to join us. I had always wanted to run with my family for AGES. Tried to persuade my sisters to start running but none of them was interested. When my cousins (who grew up with me) decided to run this race, I was very excited. We started a group chat called "Happy Running" and used it as our team name when we signed up for the race. Since this race was...

My last ultra marathon of the year - Regal Beagle 50K. I ran the inaugural race last year and really liked it. Last year course was flat and fast. I PRed the 50K at this race. This year they had to re-route the course due to heavy rain on Saturday. Some part of the course was flooded and not runnable. The new course had more paved trail but more hilly. I did not go to the training run a week ago but heard from someone who went. After multiple late arrivals at the races this year, I figured it would be better to get there super early (due to limited parking space). The race was only 7 minutes from my house. I got there about 7 - an hour before the race started. Picked up my race packet, ate my pre-race breakfast, and went to the bathroom. Darn, I was so prepared this time. The weather was nice - 50 degrees and sunny when we started. Could not have asked for the better weather. Then, it got warmer during the day so I had to switch from long sleeves to short sleeves t-shirt. I saw...