The Zen of Ultra Running

What a fun long (run) weekend! It's time to get serious and train for the A race this year. On Saturday, a group of us went to down Mohican State Park to run the "short loop" of the Mohican 100. I forgot that it was also on the same day as the Medina Half Marathon (MHM) and I signed up to volunteer from 5 to 7:30am at the race. MHM is a club race and I wanted to support the race as much as I could. I blamed it on the ultramarathon training (and work) that I could only volunteer on Saturday morning. After volunteering, I drove to Mohican and met the rest of the group there. T. parked her car at the Covered Bridge so we could use her car as an aid station (CB is the halfway point of the course). The weather was nice at the beginning of the run and it got really hot and humid toward the end. After the run, I drove home and went to an Ethiopian dinner with P. On Sunday, there was a fat ass event put together by a local running group called "Trail Seekers" ...

"Almost heaven West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains Shenandoah River Life is old there older than the trees Younger than the mountains blowin' like a breeze. Country roads take me home To the place I belove West Virginia mountain momma Take me home country roads" I've never been to the west side of Virginia before. This weekend was the first time I experienced Massanutten mountain and its beauty. After seeing Shenandoah River, this song popped up in my head. My dad likes John Denver and we've sung this song (Take me home, Country roads) since I was young. It's good to be able to connect the song with the landmark. This weekend I, together with B. and T., had an honor of crewing and pacing R. (Master) on his 20th finish at Massanutten 100 (MMT100). It was also the first time he had crew and pacers at the race (the previous 19 times he ran it solo - no pacer, no crew). It started with R. telling me to enter this race when I was thinking about ...

I still have unfinished business with Outrun 24 (O24). I signed up for this race last year because 1) I wanted to try the 24-hour race format and see if I would like it or not (I knew I would end up either loving or hating this race format) 2) I needed a tune-up race for any 100 miler I signed up in the summer. The timing of this race was not ideal. It always falls around the end of the semester (esp. last week of instructions). So, I was reluctant to sign up. Then, I told myself if I gave myself enough time to prepare for the end of semester crisis, I could still do this race because it's local (only 40 minutes drive from home). I volunteered at this race last year and ran about 15 miles with G. (in the dark). I thought it was 'ok'. A week before the race I went out with Coach C. to run a couple of loops on the course. The picture below shows what the course looks like and then the song "Baby Shark" popped up in my head. The week leading to the race day ...