November 2016
I run the NYC marathon and get over 5 hours due to not training. I start to relearn how to swim and sign up for my first triathlon - Lake Placid half ironman.
December 2016 - I DNF my third ultra in a row - TARC Fells ultra winter, a 40 hour - 4 x 10 mile loop race. I missed the time cutoff by quite a lot, I didn’t really try.
January 2017
After reading Finding Ultra by Rich Roll and then Whole by Dr. Campbell, I slowly adopt a vegan diet. My mom being vegetarian, I grew up not eating meat. Even as I started eating meat in late high school and the years after, I never really developed a taste for it. So giving up meat was easily, it wasn’t really in my diet anyway (I only ate it when going out). Giving up diary was much harder. I have a blog post on this if anyone wants to know more. The biggest effect of going vegan, which was really more of simply cutting dairy out - was the tremendous weight loss.
February 2017
I do the Sean O’Brien 50k as my first ultra to get back to trying Mountain Lakes 100 again. I use heart rate to slow me down in the first half and then force myself to speed up in the second half. During a recovery run in Alley Pond park, I ran with Michael who slows down to run with me. He encourages me to join a running club and tells me about Queens Distance runners, that they are a group of young and fast runners. I heard of QDR beforehand when a friend - Jianli ran with them. She also said they were fast runners and didn’t continue since she didn’t want to slow them down. I knew about running groups by this point - Alley Pond Park had the Alley Pond Striders but I was turned off by their yearly membership fees. My other hesitation to join a running group/club/team was that I felt I was too slow and that the desire to run faster would get me injured. I actually didn’t know many people that have gotten injured from running until I joined a running club. I signed up to join QDR that night. I couldn’t find any team runs however till springtime so it didn’t immediately change anything.
April 2017
I move to Sunnyside! The day after moving I find Woodside Sunnyside Runners on meetup and join them on their long run (back when their long runs were official). I do the Gorges 100k where I get to the halfway point completely exhausted. I use mediation and focus on my breath to beat the cutoffs and finish the race. I ran more with WSR!
May 2017
I take part in my first international marathon - the Vancouver marathon. I get 4:13 which makes the 4 hour mark within sight. I do my first run with QDR at Astoria track. The directions were to meet at the track which is pretty broad. I eventually, awkwardly made my way to Edwin and asked if it was QDR. It was my first track workout and I missed the drills. I didn’t care, I was ready to do the workout but Edwin encouraged me to warm up first. One thing that surprised me was that after this first event with QDR, I got quite a lot of friend requests on facebook, even with people I didn’t talk with.
I also finished the Devil’s Path this month, completing the DNF hike from 2014.
June 2017
I do the PA ragnar relay with some of my original Disney marathon gang. Then next day I DNF my first triathlon. Like everything else, I went into the race by trial by fire. It was my first time in a wetsuit, first time in open water, two weeks prior was the first time I was able to swim an entire pool length without stopping and the week prior was the first time I was able to two pool lengths. I had to get rescued 4 minutes into the swim.
July 2017
I take part in the Finger Lakes 50. I signed up for the 50 miler but hard rainfall caused me to drop down to the 50k. I do the SF marathon and finish the hilly course with a 4:04. I’m confident I could break 4 hours in the marathon now.
August 2017
Edwin asks me what my training plan for Mountain Lakes 100 is. I don’t have one but I decided to look into Hal Koerner's Field Guide to Ultrarunning, which has plans in the back of the book, and start from whatever week out I am in. I mostly focus on the double long runs on the weekend. My other runs at this point were mostly with WSR and QDR. I do the Volcanic 50k which I still think is the coolest race ever (you go around Mount Helens, exploring 4 different types of environment). In the race I meet a woman named Martha who would be volunteering in the Mountain Lakes 100.
September 2017
I DNF my Ironman 70.3 race. I immediately paniced in the open water but got guidance by a man on a kayak and was able to swim for an hour and 25 minutes before getting cut for not making the time cutoff. The next week I did the Spartan Beast in Killington and placed well (top 10% for my first Spartan race). I returned to Mountain Lakes 100 and after 29 hours and 43 minutes I finished 100 miles. Despite the training, the race did not go well. My stomach gave out before mile 30 forcing to depend on liquid calories, I struggled with running alone in the dark after from miles 55 to 70. My quads then gave out from there and I limp walked miles 88 to 97. I had no hope to finish within the 30 hours cutoff till a volunteer told me that Martha, who I met earlier volunteering in the race, wanted me to finish. I probably had recovered a bit physically in my long walk but coming back mentally was something I wouldn’t have been able to do alone. With that simple reason, the fire relighten in my body and I ran the last miles hard. I was the final finisher of the race and I cried hard after crossing the finish line. I have a very detailed account of my 100 mile journey in my blog.
Reflection:
My 5th year of running had me dealing with failure and finding the motivation to come back into running. Joining a QDR and WSR benefitted me quite a lot. After I moved out of my parent’s place, I lost a bit of my social life and was able to quickly find it again with the running community. Running wise, I learned about speed workouts and strength workouts which would get me a bit faster. I also think answering questions about ultras and my training plans when I didn’t give them any thoughts before forced me to start thinking of how I was progressing into races. I ran more consistent thanks to the two running groups as well. That combined with my huge weight lost got me to become a faster runner. I won’t really know it till the following year when I returned to running shorter distances. I also got to interact with running without running - I volunteered for QDR long runs, took photos and weakly cheered at races, and would volunteer at races.
Year Six October 2017 - September 2018 - The Year of PRs
October 2017
I ran the Chicago marathon only two weeks after Mountain Lakes and attempt to break 4 hours. Had I been there alone, I probably would have ran it easy but being there with QDR and hearing everyone talk about their goals got me to want to try. I hit the wall at mile 8 and walk ran my first road marathon from the 13 mile mark. Despite it not going well, I felt like it worked as a recovery run. The next week I ran the Brooklyn half and broke the two hour mark for the first time.
November 2017
I learn that I have earned 11/15 points to qualify for the UTMB lottery. I heard of UTMB and knew it to be the biggest trail race. I look for a race to get the remaining points before the January 2018 lottery - a 50 miler in December. I do the NCR marathon in an easy 4:23 as my longest run to the race.
December 2017
I do the McDowell Mountain Frenzy. A highlight was running a section with Jeff who taught me a bunch of the local plants (race was just outside of Phoenix) and how he trains in Phoenix. Also around this time I get into bouldering and especially use their bootcamp and yoga classes. This comes at a cost though and I start reducing my group runs with WSR (QDR didn’t have weekly neighbor runs at this point). Triathlon training also contributed to this.
January 2018
In a very controlled marathon, I sub 4 hours in the Houston marathon. Passing the 4 hour pace group (after losing them early in the race) in the last 400 meters is still my proudest moment in running.
March 2018
A storm delays my flight to New Orleans for the Rock and Roll New Orleans marathon to the next day so I decided to do my shakeout run in Alley Pond Park. Looking at how to climb over a fallen tree blocking the path, a man calling himself Fast Eddie tells me to follow him to a path around. We talk for a bunch and are later joined by a woman. Both are Alley Pond Striders and look old to me. I was pretty surprised that the woman talked about PR and training. Anyway, I probably shared too many details of my life with her. At the NOLA marathon the next day I got 3:54 in the marathon, PRing in about 5 minutes. The major difference this time around was that I didn’t want Julie who was going for 3:40 to wait too long for me so I went out at a faster pace. To my surprise I was able to hold it. Two weeks later I ran the Georgia marathon with a 3:47 in a hilly course. Same strategy as before.
April 2018
I do the NJ marathon after a long 5 week taper where I was afraid I was borderline on injury. I get a 3:35, cramping right before the finish line (first time cramping during a run ever).
June 2018
I finish the Ridgefield tri - the same tri I DNF the year before. I do my first ultra with a friend - the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 miler in MA with Rene. Rene being a much faster runner than me performs well. Two weeks later I do Maintou’s Revenge - a 54 miler in the catskills. Despite being in the last wave, I spend the entire day passing people and perform well. The next week I do the Pemi loop, a difficult but beautiful 30 miler in the white mountains with Michael. Looking back at this month, I was probably the most trained for UTMB.
July 2018
I do the Cayuga trails 50 miler with Rinchen. I catch up to Rinchen during the race and run with her till the last 47 miles. I think running with her helped me push the pace and I got a massive PR in the 50 mile distance.
September 2018
I complete the Lake Placid 70.3 half ironman. I also do the Bronx 10 miler at a 7:21 pace which is crazy to consider the year before.
Reflections:
Year 6 was a very successful year. Before this year, a sub 9 minute pace was considered fast and this year, 8 minute pace became my marathon pace. My 100 miler of the year - Eastern States got cancelled but I still got to challenge myself in both speed and with a crazy ultra season. Returning to shorter distances I PRed like crazy. This success had a downside to it however. I started racing for PRers and started letting results define what was a good or bad race. Before I didn’t have that need for that external validation. Year 7 would be about finding my way back, back to the love of running but it would require a bunch of lessons learned the hard way.
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