Shanghai: first impression

After a long and gruesome flight, I am now in Shanghai. First impression? A slum on steroid. High-rises and Skyscrapers are going up everywhere, butting up against old two to three stories houses and housing compounds. Streets don’t follow a grid system, or even a pattern for that matter. The airport is about an hour away, connected through a network of highways. As we get closer to the city, we see massive new constructions underway. One development I saw was like a few stadium-sized space-framed spaceships landed randomly on the plain field. To be fair, all we did yesterday was just landing in Shanghai and drove to the airport. Perhaps my first impression will change after all. I look forward to getting out of the city today and see some organic old villages and towns in Suzhou. Oh, by the way, connecting to facebook and twitter is next to impossible (perhaps illegal as well). It took some maneuvering to even be on tumblr.

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WV Trilogy - Part 1

My experience at WV Trilogy is unimaginable. It wasn't just the run or the scenery, though both are spectacular - but more so my journey before and during the run, the emotions, the learning, and the tremendous love and support I get from friends and family. The last three days are not only a running adventure, but an opportunity of personal growth and defining moments which will outlast adrenaline or results.

Each of the journal entry is written after the run on each day. I want to share it chronologically and hopefully could take you through my experience as I have experience it.

(Thurs) Oct 11 at 8:19 pm -
In my dorm room, in bed. I'm still nervous about my shin splints and calf pain. Both legs were hurting this afternoon. There's nothing much I could at this point but just take everything as it is - pain, race, outcome... My job tomorrow is to simply show up and do what I can. I'm praying to open my heart and mind to whatever God has for me and remember that I'…

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OSS/CIA 50M

Three days after my first 50 miler, the OSS/CIA 50M held at Prince William Forest Park, my legs are feeling great while my body is still catching up in recovery. The funny thing is, even though I ran almost twice the distance of a marathon, I felt much better than how I was after my last two road marathons. The slower pace and the softness of trails is much more forgiving than the hard pounding on asphalt/concrete. I was even able to run a couple easy miles to test my legs yesterday.
The OSS/CIA 50M Night Run by Athletic Equation was held at Prince William Forest Park in Dumries, VA, about 1.5 hour north of Richmond. Two things lured me into signing up for my first miler: One is obviously to get at least one 50-miler in before my attempt at the WV Trilogy this fall. Two is the location of the run. The Park is the birth place of OSS, the predecessor to CIA in the 1930s. On the brink of war, U.S. intelligence operations needed a centralized effort. In response to the need, a team of un…

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Post-Race: HK-100

All along, even up till moments before the race, I was ambivalent about the Hong Kong-100(k). While I was stoked about the race itself, my training since getting into the race through lottery in September had been plagued by injuries. I was very much out of training for two months till November. The two months leading up to the race, I had but two weeks with weekly mileage above 50. Still building on base mileage, my shin splints poked up its nasty head last week. In spite of all that, I still had hopes to tough this thing out. For the first time, I even wrote a list of motivations to keep me moving and promised myself to go through the list before I would call quit. Part of my list includes:Running for Ellis: because I get to be alive and well to do it;How do I want to remember the race after tomorrow?"If you can take it, you can make it!" The more I thought about the race, however, the more pressure I put on myself. I am so glad that I schedule the race to be at the front…

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