+FillUs

Oswald Chambers: Mountains and valleys by Zen Pencils The illustration above is the work of Zen Pencils, an illustrator who adapts famous quotes into cartoons. The quote he picked this time is by Oswald Chambers. Head over to his website to read it. Aside from being beautifully drawn, the quote is a good summary of a lesson I'm learning in all spheres of my life, especially running and working. Rabid Squirrel at Hanging Rock Training for WV Trilogy has been going well. I had some great runs in the past weekends, exploring new trails, mountains, and meeting new people. Two runs come immediately to mind: one at Hanging Rock State Park for the Rabid Squirrel and the other at Iron Mountain in Damascus, VA. However, with training, I've withheld myself from signing up for races to stick to a schedule and just doing the work -- "the ordinary things" as Oswald Chambers says in the quote. I've great respect for those who might never sign up for a race, not bei...

If you've read/heard many glowing reports of the Scream! Half Marathon, mine is going to be less-enthusiastic. It is definitely a race of its own kind and it's worth doing it at least once. After all, this is the only -2700'+ downhill half marathon that I know of. The whole course can be divided in three big chunks of downhills with flats / uphills in between them. I finished in 1:37:26, a time I'm unlikely to replicate in any other half marathon. As with most point-to-point race, the logistic is a little more complicated to begin with. This year, a fire has affected the campground where the finish area is and the park ranger made a last-minute order that parking at the finish was not allowed. That changed the whole plan. Hats off to RD David Lee for making quick adjustments which worked out smoothly. However, it still added another leg of shuttle for those who were shuttling to the start. We were fortunate that Kate was volunteering and she was able to drop us off at...

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...

Four months out from West Virginia Trilogy, I'm an official entrant and have officially put in my first back-to-back long run this weekend. As to why I'm running it, read here .

I have been tremendously blessed by the past two fun-and-adventure-filled running weekends: Calgary Marathon on May 27th and Chattooga River 50K on June 2nd. This is my second year to join Team eMi to run this fundraiser marathon. Together we raised over $11,000 for two of our projects, designing an orphanage in Tanzania and a senior home in Haiti. Going into the marathon, I didn't have much expectation. My estimate was a 3:45 marathon, if the altitude wouldn't affect me too much. In best case scenario, I might be able to run a 3:40. The dilemma was that there was no 3:40 pace bunny! It's either 3:45 or 3:30. When race morning came, my heart leaned towards 3:30 even though I wasn't confident that I could keep up the whole 26.2.  Yet, I wanted to see what I could do and that's what I did. Most of the first 22k (13 miles) was a gradual uphill, with a few short steeper hills. I followed the bunny as much as I could while keeping in check that I wasn't ...

If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it... –Rudyard Kipling Anne Dunivin How true that is for the last couple days. First, it was the USMS Nationals swim meet from Friday to Sunday at Greensboro. Long story short, I came in last in almost all my events. But I've learned that I just have to take it all in, whatever life, day, or the moment brings. There were anxiety, nervousness, pain, and breathlessness, but there were also thrill, joy, and satisfaction. The unforgiving minute(s) will pass. What matters at the end is what you've filled it with. With that thought, I dove in to swim my 200 & 500 Free, 200 IM, and a couple relays. The picture on the left is 95-year-old Anne Dunivin. She just set the 1000 freestyle record for her age group and she shall be my inspiration. Secondly, this week I'm doing three consecutive days of 2.5-hour treadmill run for the recovery supplem...

Bill Rodgers After reading so many people's blog on their experience of America's toughest road marathon, the Blue Ridge Marathon, I'm starting to lose my own chain of thought/memory. Bottom line is I had a lot of fun and surprised myself with a sub-4 finish. My estimate was around five hours, or maybe even 5:30 if condition was tough like last year's monsoon. Here's my account of it: Three and a half hour drive from Charlotte straight to packet pickup at Roanoke's Taubman Museum of Art, a modern and iconic building in contrast with the rest of the historical railroad downtown. It was Friday evening and the streets were lively. People were on the patio and on the street with live music playing. I strolled around a little but not too much since I wanted to save my legs. My hotel was only about a mile away. I contemplated on just walking there from the hotel, but ended up driving half a mile or so to park at the Civic Center. Half a mile could be a haul af...