The Zen of Ultra Running

Regal Beagle ultra (50K). Super cold and windy.  After I finished the Run with Scissors marathon, I came down with a cold and had to travel the week after the race. So, I was out for almost a week. The week after I got a booster shot on Monday (while still recovering from the cold) and felt pretty crappy for the rest of the week.  The week leading up to the race I was still feeling under the weather and was not sure if I would want to run the 50K at the race this year. I signed up for the 50K but the RD said we could drop to 25K if we wanted to. I picked up the packet on the race morning and was still unsure if I wanted to do the 50K or the 25K. The weather was very cold and windy (but at least it was not raining or snowing).  I saw K. and B. at the start line. K signed up for the 50K and B. signed up for the 25K. The RD said many people had switched from the 50K to the 25K due to the cold temperature. The weather did not really bother me as much because I had run in wors...

Wow. All I could say is that the past weekend was a pretty eventful weekend. On Saturday, I went out for a hike with friends (tapering for a 50K race on Sunday). It was good to catch up with my favorite people and get my mind off of work.  Then, we visited Purple Skies Farm. A participant in our cooking class referred us to the lady who owns the farm and she invited us to visit the farm on Saturday.  This pandemic year has been crazy for many of us including me and P. We had to cancel our trips and travel. But one good thing that happened to us during the pandemic was the #QuarantineCooking class that we started in April. The class has grown so much since we started. I was looking at the data last week and decided to create an infographic chart to summarize the statistics from our cooking class. It was fun to see the numbers (yes, we are nerds).  We taught the cooking class on Saturday evening (it's now offered once a month) and had a lot of fun (as usual). Many new peopl...

 Why do I feel like it has been forever since the last race and the last blog update?  That could be because September was not very kind to me. The new online live teaching format because of COVID changes what I do in classes quite a bit (e.g., in-class exercise, discussion, presentations, etc). We also had to deal with wifi issues and spotty internet (both my & students'), low motivation, attendance, participation, etc. It was quite a headache.  Back to racing and running stuff. In April, Forget the PR 50K was postponed to October but then later they decided to make it a virtual run (due to many reasons), which I totally understood. I then talked to C. and a couple of people. They said they were going to go down to Mohican and run the course (C. had the course map). Originally, we were going to go down on Oct 17 but then the University of Akron asked me if we could teach the cooking class on that Saturday because it's UA homecoming & family weekend. So, I asked C...

Happy New Year 2020! As usual, we spent our Christmas and New Year in Asia. We went to Sri Lanka during Christmas and came back to Bangkok, Thailand around New Year. Sri Lanka trip was really fun and it's a beautiful country to visit (especially if you are Buddhist). We spent 4 days in the mountain visiting different UNESCO World Heritage sites and 2 days surfing in the South. It was the first time that we'd been to South Asia and we totally fell in love with that part of the world. We will definitely go back. Maybe we will visit India next time. Picture: We took a beginner surfing course at Weligama Beach in Sri Lanka. Great way to spend Christmas. Then, we came back to Thailand 2 days before New Year and I went to a beach town with my family and spent the New Year with my family. In November, I found an ultramarathon in Bangkok called "Ultra Park Run Thailand 100" on January 5. For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to run an ultramarathon in Bang...

This was my 3rd Regal Beagle 50K. I have run this race (and the distance) every year since it's started. The good thing about this race is that it's in my backyard (only 10 minutes drive from my house). The race is also part of the Running Forward and Giving Back race series. So I have every reason to support the race. Regal Beagle course is fast and very runnable. Many people run this race to get a 50K PR. Last year I was running well but the course was really muddy so it slowed me down. However, this year the course and the weather were PERFECT. It was about 20 degrees at the start but it got warmer (up to 50 degrees) toward the end of the race. They also changed the direction of the course this year so I felt like we were running downhill most of the time (with only one big climb in each loop). The course is a 5-mile loop. The 50K runs it 6 times. They also have a 25K (3 loops) and a 5 miler (1 loop). The week leading up to the race day I was working on a couple of dea...

Great race. great course. great volunteers. Youngstown Ultra Trail Classic 50K is an old school ultra marathon event in Youngstown, OH. It's a club race put together by NEO trail running club. It's so old school that they only accept paper registration (you have to send in the paper registration form and a check). I wanted to run the race last year but I ended up in a boot after the CC100. This year I sent in my registration fee early as I did not want to miss the event. I know NEO trail club because they run one of the aid stations at the CC100. Great group of people. There are 2 distances - 25K and 50K. Of course, I signed up for the 50K. Who knew I would roll my ankle 2 weeks prior to the race? *sigh A week leading up to the race day, I did minimal running but instead did a lot of cross training to save my ankle. I was pretty bummed that no matter how much I tried to rest and do the ankle exercises, the bad ankle still hurt a bit when I walked. On the race day, I s...

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...

In 2016, when I first moved to NE Ohio, someone told me about Bills' Badass 50K. I also got to run with the race director and became friends with him and the group. I was only training for my first marathon at that time and ran the marathon at Run with Scissors 2 weeks before BBA50K. After considering all the factors involved, I decided NOT to run BBA that year but volunteer at the race instead (to get the feeling/experience of the trail community in NE Ohio). I fell in love with the community on that day.  Bills' Badass 50K started 10 years ago. It's a free race because the RD wanted to make the race accessible to everyone. However, they encourage runners to make donations and each year the money goes to one of the non-profit organizations in NE Ohio.  In 2017, I ran the double marathon at Run with Scissors and had enough of the muddy, wet, cold rain condition that I did not want to run another 50K two weeks later in the same weather condition. So, I again volunte...

Last week was very emotional in our family. Our dog, Tofu, who was 15 years old hadn't been drinking nor eating for a couple of days and she seemed "different" from her normal self. I decided to take her to the vet on Tuesday and we found out from her blood work that her kidney was failing. On Wednesday, the vet called and told me that she might only have 10 days or so left according to her blood results. We were heartbroken. We had 2 options 1) treat her with fluid right away, which might have prolonged her health for a couple of months to a year but we had to give her fluid daily with needle injection, etc. 2) put her to sleep. We researched the first option and talked to the vet. He said fluid treatment might also come with other complications such as high blood pressure, etc., which could result in more medication and pain. We went with the 2nd option and decided to spend as much time with her as possible. Tofu crossed Rainbow Bridge on Friday May 11 morning at 10.30a...

When I first heard about this race months ago, I thought this would be a nice race close to home. I was not sure about the terrain and knew nothing about the race besides it was a new ultra race in NE Ohio and it's only 10 minutes from my house. I was also training for the double marathon so I completely focused on how I would finish the big race of the year and did not think much about what I would do after the big race. After the double marathon at RWS, I began to look for other races. First, I considered BBA as another 50K but the condition was too similar to RWS so I did not run it. Then, I thought about Buckeye woods 50K, which I ran last year but decided to run the 25K instead. The day before Buckeye Woods 25K, I came out and ran on the Regal Beagle Ultra course (there was a training run on the course) and ran one loop with them. The course is a 5-mile loop. There were 3 distances - 5 miles, 25K (3 loops), and 50K (6 loops). The course was described as fast and great for ...