October 2014
I ran the wineglass marathon in minimalist trail running shoes which were size 13 (a size smaller than the Pureflows). I brought both my Pureflows and the Merrells with me I thought my form would be better in the minimalist Merrells shoes so I decided to wear them for the race. I aimed for a 4:20 marathon. With 10 miles as my longest run and no longer in these shoes, my feet swelled and the pain was great. I finished the marathon 11 minutes slower than Disney. I was so upset that I signed up for my third marathon - the Brooklyn marathon shortly after returning. I would jump back into training and get injured again - this time on the foot. One note on the return trip was that I was talking to a more experienced runner and he mentioned tempo run. I had no idea what he was talking about and he advised me to look at a beginner training plan. I still didn’t, I had my excuse on why I did bad - the shoes were too small.
November 2014
I ran the Brooklyn marathon with super cushioned shoes. Cautious about my foot I finished even slower - another 22 minutes slower than the second marathon. Frustrated, I decided that speed was not for me and that I will chase distance. I signed up for the North Face 50 Bear mountain.
March 2015
I finished my 4th marathon - continuing my trend of running marathons slower. I was now 50 minutes slower than my first marathon. I didn’t really train for this marathon like the others. It was an excuse to check out Virginia Beach.
May 2015
I finished the North Face Bear Mountain 50 miler in 13:55:17, less than 5 minutes from the 14 hour time limit. I quickly found myself towards the back of the pack by mile 18. I got a bit of a pickup at mile 21 and made the first cutoff at 29 minutes with 10 minutes to spare. I didn’t believe I could finish and told it to the volunteer who immediately tried to encourage me. It didn’t really stick and I struggled through the next few miles. Now I was alone, anyone I passed was already destroyed. I remember volunteering for the NYC marathon back in 2013 and being inspired by seeing how people pushed through pain. Here I saw the opposite. The back of the pack of ultras showed me people that tried and gave up. At mile 35ish I made it to an aid station that had ran out of water. A man had water in his car and he rushed to get some. A woman filled my bottles with ice while I waited. I was advised to not drink too much water. The volunteers took me I had to book the next 10k to make it to the cutoff at mile 41. Their encouragement got me and I started running hard and I entered a mode where I felt like I could sprint forever. I kept replaying their encouragements. I made it to another aid station and was advised by a lady to run what’s runnable. I ended up making it to that cutoff with 2 minutes to spare. Around mile 45 I made it to another aid station where I was stuffing my face with candy. The man told me to not linger too long. I wasn’t sure why till I started moving again and my legs felt like bricks. After a little bit I was able to run again and made it to the finish. Hugged some strangers who also were struggling since mile 41. I think this race showed me more than anything how important the mental game is - and how much the right words at the right time could make all the difference. (I wrote more about this race in my blog).
The rest of the year has me running 9+1 events. I don’t really race them, choosing to run with friends instead. At this point I made a handful of running - hiking friends that I got to do weekly weekend adventures with. I didn’t care about PRing but racing became a sort of an adventure.
Year 4
October 2015
Portland marathon - I finally beat my first marathon time and got a decent PR - 4:17:30. Still no training plan or anything that resembles training but the 9+1 helped with being more constant with running. The next week I did the Mount Desert marathon in a much slower 5:01:34. The race had a meal at the end which I enjoyed more so because of the chance to talk with other runners. Doing two marathons within 15 days got me into the marathon maniacs - my first running club. I never really got involved with the club, despite buying lifetime membership, but I looked at their challenges and their Facebook group with interest.
November 2015
I run my first trail marathon on my birthday weekend. The marathon is still one of my favorites due to how scenic Moab is.
January 2016
I ran the Mississippi Blues and First Light Marathons in the same weekend. I was a bit sad to miss the Blues crawl Saturday night since I had to drive immediately from Jackson to Mobile. Every running step of First Light hurt and I had to tell myself jokes 10k in to take my mind of the pain. This back to back - 2 marathon in one weekend only puts me mid rank on the marathon maniacs.
April 2016
I ran the Breakneck marathon in 10 hours and 15 minutes - my slowest marathon ever. The elevation gain with a crazy 10,000 feet but I mostly underestimated it. I have hiked breakneck so many times so I really should have known.
May 2016
I ran my second 50k once again in Bear Mountain. I finished strong this time around and finished with quite a bit crowd at the finish line (at least for trail running). This was my second race to buildup to the Ice Age 50. It was also the first time I started doing racing as buildups. However i didn’t really factor anything other than distances (Ice Age was a flat 50 miler so a moderately hilly 50k is a bit different). My second 50 miler was in Wisconsin, much less technical and flatter than Bear Mountain but the x-factor was a 12 hour cutoff. I finished in 11:13:35, I did not have to chase cutoffs this time around which was a big surprise to me. What I loved about the race was how chatty the people of Wisconsin were. I made some quick friends talking with people as they warmed up in the first 10 miles. I also started experimenting with hiking form for uphills and found ways to move quicker.
June 2016
To recover from my 50 miler I did the Cayuga trail marathon. I went into the race with no sleep whatsoever, I hung out with friends that night and then had to drive 4ish hours to arrive 5 minutes late and grab my bib. I also started off running the wrong way. The rest of the race wasn’t too fun but Itacha is gorgeous and I was able to do future trips there with friends thanks to learning about it’s beauty from the race.
August 2016
I traveled to Montana for a hard 50 miler - The Elkhorn endurance challenge near Helena, the capital of the state. It’s a beautiful area but I struggled with altitude during the race. I felt like I couldn’t run the easy uphills and missed the time cutoff for the 50k mark. I blame the altitude but it’s probably just not being fit. This was my first DNF.
September 2016
I took part of the Erie marathon as a final buildup to Mountain Lakes 100, my first attempt at the 100 mile distance. Here I DNFed as well. My quads burnt out around 30 miles in and I couldn’t run. It turned dark and I wasn’t able to keep warm. The sweepers caught up and kept me company. At mile 55 I had a choice, the hard cutoff was at mile 70 so I could keep going. It was a 15 mile loop but time wise I knew I couldn’t do it. My mind already gave up. Still I wanted someone- a volunteer or race official to tell me to quit. No one did, they left the choice to me. The sweepers even offered to run with me, saying it would be good company. I was tired and cold, I chose to quit. It was a choice that haunts me once in a while. You sort of have an image of yourself - that you’re not a quitter. That no matter how hard things get, it’s just one foot in front of the other - that you’re a fighter. After I quit, I went into the warming tent, put a sleeping bag type around me and I sat in front of a heating fan thing. I shivered every few minutes or so and wasn’t able to get warm. Eventually, after a few hours, a volunteer drive me back to the start, the heated seats finally got me warm. I still have a bit of aversion of running in cold nights.
Reflections: Years 3 and 4 had me go full in towards running races as an adventure. I think the foundation was sort of there from the beginning. While I made friends that were running for more than a bucket list item, I still wasn’t surrounded by people trying to run faster so I didn’t think about getting faster. I didn’t know anyone getting coaching or following training plans so I didn’t consider it either. I think my first two marathons ending up being destination races got me in the mindset that races could be adventures. An excuse to travel. Since I wasn’t really into speed, I sought to challenge myself in different ways - marathons and ultras in close approximation to each other, increasing my distances. However, as I started getting into harder 50 milers and 100 miles I found that winging it didn’t work and got my first DNFs. These DNF would hurt my motivation to run in the upcoming months.
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