The Zen of Ultra Running

There was an organized training run for the Akron marathon called "Blue line training run". You have to follow the blue line on the road as that's the Akron marathon course. I am not signed up for the Akron marathon because I already signed up for the Run with scissors marathon in October. Plus, I did not want to do any long road race. This is what the blue line looks like on the road. It's faded in some sections but some said they are going to re-paint it soon. Trail running is much more relaxing for me. I can go at my own pace, walk up the hills, and pay full attention to the trail. However, I do enjoy good company and don't mind running the road if I have friends to run with. Many people I know were running the Blue Line training run. Some did 12 and some did 20 miles. So, that's an incentive for me to do this training run even though I don't need 20 miles at this point. However, since I already did 16 last week and wanted to try the first 20 mi...

Last Saturday someone posted on the MRTT (Moms run this town) Akron group that she needed to do her first 10 miler on Saturday starting at 7am. Since I needed to run 15 miles on Saturday but I did not want to run alone and would prefer to finish the run early, I thought I would join her for the first 10. Then, run on my own the rest of the distance. Another person posted that some people would start earlier (coz they needed to go home to their kids) at 5.45am. That was perfect for me as I might be able to cover all the distance with the groups. So, I forced myself to wake up at 5am, prepared for the run, and went to meet with other ladies at 5.45. Luckily, another runner (B.) had to run 18 miles and be done by 8.30am. She ran a bit faster pace (9-10 min/mile). I haven't run that pace since I moved to OH and started more trail running but I thought I would try. B and I ran together for 6 miles before we came back and met with other ladies at 7am. On that day, I ran 16 miles (more ...

We were on a mid-year vacation last week in Napa Valley, California. The original plan was to take a weekend off and tasted as many red wines as possible. We also made a reservation at The French Laundry, which is a 3 michelin-star restaurant in Napa. So, our vacation was supposed to be the eating-and-drinking weekend. However, because I am training for the first marathon in October, I still needed to get the long run in. On the first day we checked in at the farm (booked through Air BnB), I looked for a place to run around the house but seemed like it would be too dangerous to run on the road due to a lot of traffic. I was desperate. Then, another idea came up. Why didn't I look for a race nearby? On Friday night, I found a race only 10 minutes away from where we stayed. It's " Water to Wine Half Marathon 10K ". The online registration had already been closed. So, we had to go to the pre-race packet pick up on Saturday afternoon to register on site. The packet ...