The Zen of Ultra Running

Towpath half marathon is in the books. After our 5-miler race on St Patrick's day in St Louis, P. wanted to run another 5 miler. I found that the Towpath Half had 2 distances - 5 miles and a half marathon. So, I signed him up for the 5 miler and I did the half marathon (of course).  The morning of the race was reallyyyyy cold. We got there about 1 hour before the race to get the parking spot and use the porta potty. Then, we stayed in our EV until 5 minutes before the start because it was too cold to stand outside.  The first half of the race was nice. I saw a couple of friends at the start and ran with them for a couple of miles. The half marathon started about 10 minutes before the 5 miler. We ran north to the turn-around point (about 2.5 miles) then turned around and ran south where the 5 miler finished but the half marathoners kept going.  The second part of the race was very windy as we were out in the open area. I had to slow down and walk up the bridges but I was a...

 This year Forget the PR is back to in-person. Yayyyy.  I signed up for the 25K because of pure FOMO. I like the race, the location, and the people. I hadn't been trail running in a couple of months so I knew that the race would be slooowww and probably mainly hiking for me.  The race is named "Forget the PR" for a reason. They threw in as many hills as they could find at Mohican State Park to the course including the famous "Big Ass Hill".  We drove down to Mohican in the morning because my race (25K) did not start until 9am. I missed this race in 2019 (before COVID) because I had a conference on that day. At the packet pick-up, it was very nice to see many people I knew and caught up with them since COVID. The trail running community is amazing and everyone is so friendly and laid back.  The start was quite uneventful. The RDs talked about the flag colors and how the course was marked. I have not been to Mohican since last year. I think the last time I went do...