The Zen of Ultra Running

“Considering what you have been through, doing an Ironman is a gift” - My coach  One month after the bike accident, I finished my 3rd Ironman at Ironman Ottawa this past weekend (Sunday, August 2).  I was supposed to do this race last year, but #life happened, so I deferred it to this year. Going into the race, I was not sure how it would turn out. Exactly one month before the race, I had a bike accident, broke my front teeth, and had multiple wounds on the face and body. I had to pause the Ironman training for more than a week. Considering that I was undertrained to begin with because I just got back from spending a month in France, I was not sure if I would even start the race.  Slowly and carefully, my coach and I worked together to rebuild my confidence on the bike. I tried to get as much open water swim practice as possible with two weeks left. Compared to the preparation going into IM Mont Tremblant and Chattanooga, I think the amount of training this time was not e...

Wow. I can't believe I have not updated this blog for almost a year. Time does fly when you are busy! Here is the recap of the first 7 months of 2026. After Portage Lake Triathlon in 2025, I ran the Akron marathon (#7!), the half marathon at Run with Scissors (which was officially canceled but we ran the course anyway), and the 50K at Regal Beagle. The 50K went well and I waited until the last minute to decide if I wanted to run the 25K or the 50K. I bit the bullet and signed up for the 50K because my training was kinda going well.  Half marathon in Brescia, Italy 2026 started off with a half marathon in Brescia, Italy, in March. We signed up for this race because we had Delta credits in the account due to the flight cancellation in December. We used the points to buy tickets to Milan then I found a half marathon in Brescia. So, it was a quick getaway Europe trip :)     Pleasant Valley Duathlon in May Four days before we left for France, I did a duathlon at Mohican State ...