+FillUs

My last-minute decision to run the Georgia Jewel 35-miler last weekend turns out to be a good one. A group of friends had made plans and arrangements to go, running all distances: 35, 50, and 100! Everything was in place, I couldn't pass up the fun to run with old friends and meet new ones, and see Sully running a difficult 100! A storm was passing through on Saturday and it was torrential downpour from the start at 5 a.m.! The first 10 miles through the "rock garden" was difficult for me. It was hard to see through the heavy rain and fog in the dark with my glasses and crappy headlamp (Lesson learned: I'm investing in a better headlamp - it's worth it). Sky lightened up after the first 10 miles and we also got to run on smoother single-tracks. I was able to pick up my pace a bit and caught up with a few that passed me during the Rock Garden. Unlike the point-to-point 50-miler, the 35-miler was an out-and-back. During the return trip, some sections of the tra...

This summer has proven to be eventful. June kicked off with a mission trip in Haiti and onward to spending the rest of June with eMi in Calgary, AB. I even had a taste of Big Horn, which resulted in agonizing headache and a DNF. July was marked with adjusting back to normal, but pierced with excitements like the Grandfather Mountain marathon and family visiting & a road trip. Comes August, the first event was the Annihilator 50K at South Mountain. The Annihilator 50K was put on by Mark Connolly and Tim Woden from Bigfoot Trail Runners . On its Facebook event site, there's only one description: "If quads could cry this course will draw many tears." The race boasts its 9000+' gain and equal amount of loss, plus the heat and humidity of Carolina summer. Despite knowing how hard it was going to be, I was looking forward to a day - like an eight-hour work day - in the woods and mountains. The past two months of travelling and extroverted activities had their toll ...

Nose Hill The month of June thus far... May 31 - June 9 : Port-au-Prince, Haiti with eMi - read report here . June 11 : Fly to Calgary June 13-17 : Calgary > Big Horn Mountains, Wyoming > Lethbirdge, AB > Calgary June 17 - July : Calgary The torrential rain in the past week flooded a couple towns, including Canmore, Banff, and downtown Calgary. Hence, I'm staying put for the first time in awhile, sipping coffee and organizing my thoughts and experiences. While travelling and seeing new things are always exciting, this is really why I am here: to find solitude, to listen, and to reflect in order to become a better servant.  In the past week, my daily routine has been getting up early, go for a run (more on that later), get to the eMi office, work on the Haiti project, and come home. Sounds just like what I do at home in Charlotte, right? It is. With the difference being I have the orphans, Bethany , and Pastor Jean on my mind all day while at "work." I...

Design by Derek Cernak I finished my first Boston marathon two weeks ago. A prestige, perhaps the most well-known marathon in the world. The marathon itself was great and the crowd support was unparalleled to anything I had experienced. I suffered the last couple miles and was reduced to a walk multiple times during the last two miles. While I wasn't happy about that, I could honestly say I had left everything on the course. The four-months journey, as mentioned in the last post , was great. Frankly, even more memorable than the race itself.  An hour after I crossed the finis line was when everything changed. By the time I walked through the shoot to get my medal, space blanket, food, and drop bag, I was almost at my hotel. I waited in the room for my friends, Emily and Anji to come back. And they did. Not too long after their return, we started hearing sirens and that was when Anji got a phone call. She picked up and I heard, "What!?" My heart sank. That...

Over the past few months of training for Boston, I've learned a lot about running, training, and racing. It's not my first time running a marathon, obviously, but it's my first time to "properly" train for one. By properly I mean having a plan, following a plan, and sticking to each specific workouts like intervals, tempo, long, and recovery runs. As I'm writing this (4.10), the result of my training is unknown. What I do know is that it has been a wonderful journey with equally wonderful people. I've learned to be (somewhat) disciplined, to run with less fear, and to trust my coach. Let me unpack each one. Jamey Yon CONSISTENCY It all begins with having Jamey Yon as my coach. He's a former pro, a humble athlete with tremendous talent and achievement, hardworking, a father of five, a faithful Christian, a knowledgeable and caring coach ...all in all a great human being. When he started to write my training plan for Boston, the first thing h...

Tour de Lake Norman State Park Crew After Mill Stone 50k, I'm back on track with training for Boston, which essentially means no more races. However, I've managed to find good people and places to run with. Feb. 16: Paced Maggie for all 26.2 at Myrtle Beach Marathon. The course itself was...bleh. But the pre- and post-race festivities were fun with the Vac & Dash peeps. I fine pacing parallels walking with others in life - to carry other's burden (or water bottle and gels), to be by his/her side (also means walking/running in their pace), and to put other's needs first. Since I didn't decide to pace the whole distance till the last week, I paid a steep price to run the race. While this was entirely bad planning on my part, walking with others does require us to make sacrifices sometimes... Feb. 23: Emily recruited me to man an aid station at Charlotte 10 miler. With guaranteed rain in the morning of the race, I agreed only reluctantly. Standing in the r...

Humourous sign by Trish Photo Credit: Andrew Swistak The most memorable runs are always the ones you had to suffer the most and fight the hardest. Up till I moved a couple months ago, I had saved most of my race bibs from the last two to three years of running. Moving 20-30 pieces of paper wasn't hard; however, I realized many of them weren't worth saving. While packing and going through the race-related pile, I ended up only saving a self-made trail map with the Looking Glass Look Around route, the West Virginia Trilogy bib, and a bib with my trail name on it from Rabid Squirrel (which technically was not a race). Those races/runs have a special place in my heart for the lessons I learned from them, the people I met/ran with, and the struggles I had to overcome. Adding to the list of memorable races is the Mill Stone 50k . Photo credit: Andrew Swistak When I signed up for the race while still recovering from my calf & shin injuries, I wasn't even sure I...