Mayapple 100K race report part 1

If you name something, can you still deny it ever happened? I attempted the Mayapple 100K last Saturday. After 12.5 hours of stomach pain, chafing, and endless hills, I did something I've never done in a race -- I quit. I did lie to myself enough to complete 51 miles of the course so I feel accomplished about that, at least. Still, I have this gnawing melancholy feeling inside me now. Runners call it the postrace blues. I keep wondering about Saturday, if I could have willed myself to press on and finish the last 10 miles.

After the race, my stomach felt so terrible, like times before when I suffered from food poisoning. 30 minutes later, I was vomiting on the side of the road. my dad had been driving me home and I felt that rush of saliva fill the corners of my mouth and told him to stop. Then I was finally expelling whatever had been tying knots in my stomach the whole day. Maybe that fat-laden buffalo chicken dinner I ate the night before was a little too much? It was filled with bars of cream cheese, two types of cheese, bacon, and mayonnaise. Bleh, that was a mistake alright.

Summer graduate classes have begun, so I'll finish up my report soon. It's filled with self-deception and unstoppable racers from around the globe. Goodnight y'all.

3 lessons learned from a long run

My long run today was great. I ran the Lenape Trail from South Mountain to Brookdale Park. 22 miles I estimate. It was hot, it was sweat-in-the-eyes, it was hardcore. I ran the same route in March through mud, snow, and ice. That was treacherous. That run took me 5:30. This run, with great surface conditions but hotter weather, took me 4:50. I learned three things from this run.
1. Do not chug 2 cans of pure coconut water on a long run. Little coconut devils will twist your intestines into knots.
2. When you get sick of drinking coconut water after 2 hours of running and finally come to a water fountain, do not chug water like it's the fountain of youth. This will have the same effect as lesson one.
3. Always say yes to free ice cream.

Spring Runs

So my training run today got ambitious. After my friend bailed out on a run this morning, I did something I've wanted to do for months. I ran a good chunk of the Lenape Trail in Essex County. I had been waiting for the snow to melt entirely, but I couldn't wait any longer. I ran through snow, into deep mud, slipping over ice, splashing through creeks, and climbing over mountains. For five and a half hours. It was a blast!

One funny part was when I passed by Verona's main street. I remembered my friend said there was a bakery there with the best donuts that I had to try. So I found the bakery (conveniently on the Lenape Trail), and went in for a donut. After waiting in line for a while, I asked the employee for a donut and a personal pizza pie. I showed the lady my credit card for payment and she said, "$5 limit for credit cards." This was confusing, and I said, "You mean minimum?" and she agreed that was the right word. So, grumbling, I ordered an oatmeal raisin cookie. She rang it up on the cash register. "$4.25. You need to buy something else." What a pain! I felt like I was in a Seinfeld episode. So I got a chocolate chip cookie. While the lady rang it up, the guy behind me said, "Watch, it'll be 4.99" and laughed.
$5.45 was my total. Finally!

Trail conditions: The trails were either flooded, still partially covered in ice, or muddy and hollow (I never knew when I would fall in suddenly). The worst conditions were in South Mountain Reservation.

Next, I'm excited to run the whole length of the Lenape Trail, from Millburn to Newark.

Trail Closure: After leaving South Mountain, the trail stops in some private community. You have to take a left, two rights, and follow the road out to Rt. 10. From there, I descended down and took a left on Mt. Pleasant Ave. where the trail rejoins the road again, originating from the direction of a power line trail. The trail website says PSE&G is still replacing their transmission towers since starting in 2012.

Happy trails everyone!
~Steve

Let it snow!

Discovery! I found an ultra running group on Meetup called New York Trail and Ultra-Running that's great fun! So far, I've joined them at Bear Mountain and Harriman State Park for runs along the North Face Bear Mtn. 50K course that I'll do this May. Here's a taste of what we've been up against in the woods with the snow and ice and freezing water:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y3lyCHzyDY

Happy trails!

Wintertime

Here's a few highlights from my winter and new year:

I earned straight A's my first semester at Montclair State. I've never done that in school.

I just started to learn to play the guitar. When I was a kid, I played the saxophone, clarinet, and drums. I've forgotten all that by now. In college, I loved watching others play their instruments at Open Mic's. I've written song lyrics over the years and soon I'll be able to play the songs too.

I've wanted to make beer for years. Today my dad and I started a batch of Whiskey Barrel Stout!

What are my New Year's Resolutions? 1) Maintain better mental health. 2) Become a better teacher. 3) Bring more peace into my relationships.

I wish everyone a great New Year, full of love, peace, and laughter!

Play!

A few days ago, there was a rainy, dark, and bitter cold evening. Now I had been trying to run every day, for my health and for my spirits. I was in the middle of final projects for grad school, and my strained muscles itched for movement. All this aside, I knew on this evening, if I went for a run, I was going to get wet, and I was going to get cold.

They say the hardest part of a training run is getting out the door.

I did get out the door. And if you know me, you know I don't plan much. In fact, I even decide where to run sometimes, while I'm running. I took a page out of my high school cross country team's playbook and went for a "scrambled eggs" run --an improvised run without a destination. I wound up at Brookdale Park in Montclair. I preferred the muddy paths to the concrete paths, and soon I was darting around the many trees in the park, blazing my own trail. This evolved into a game. Mimicking the orbital paths of planets shown in the TV show Cosmos I love right now, I slingshot myself around the "gravity" of the trees, dodging left and right and left again. It was so fun because I was running in the moment, and I rarely ran in the same direction for long. Of course, getting whipped by tree branches I couldn't see in the dark or sliding on muddy tree roots wasn't ideal. But it was exciting. What's my game called? Well, I know what I won't call it. I won't name it after one of the boring research papers I've read for my literature review project. No, this game will not be called, "Small-scale Kinesthetic Modeling of Planetary Orbits As a Coordination Building Exercise and Dopamine-inducing Event"
Maybe it can be called, simply, "Orbits!" It reminded me how necessary PLAY is in my life. Adding variety, and curiosity, and the space for discovery to all parts of my life is to invoke my inner child's playfulness, to enjoy life more.

Happy Trails everyone,
Steve

Quit Facebook

Hi again!

I forgot to share something. The reason I have the time now to post on my blog and CREATE (as opposed to just consume) online content, is very simple. A few days ago, I made the choice to quit Facebook. Here's the explanation. It was my last post on Facebook:

"Dear Friends,
I think I'm going to leave Facebook soon. Facebook can be a good tool for communicating with far-flung friends. And sharing pictures and memes and online article links. But it's got nothing on real face to face meetings. And posting protest images on your profile page isn't as effective as staging real protests and writing real letters to politicians and leaders. It feeds our desire for instant gratification. I can waste so much time on Facebook without realizing it. Lastly, I just don't need some group of strangers to organize my friendships.

I want to create a REAL sense of community. I think texting, social media, TV, and fast food can alienate people from each other, their surroundings, and their impact on other beings on this Earth. I think we would be so much healthier if we all lived in caring communities.

I want to stay in touch with all you friends out there, so here's how:

you can email me at humphreyss1@montclair.edu. And if you don't have my cell number, you can message or email me for it. Or visit my blog at spiritinmovement.blogspot.com. And let me know your blog, email, and phone if you don't think I have it yet.

I hope to see you in the real world!"

It's only been a week since I quit Facebook, but I feel slightly different. I've been calling friends and emailing them more frequently, and that's more satisfying and intimate to me. On Facebook, I was just perusing mass-publishings of social content that wasn't meant for me alone. Replacing the wasted time on FB is a focus on my self-growth. And I don't mean growing out my hair : ) I'm creating goals and priorities for myself, which is timely, since I'm in Finals Week for Grad School now. Of course, as you know, the most exciting goal for me right now is running the Western States 100 miler in 2016. It's strange...I've never been this excited about something so far in the future.

Keep dreaming y'all,
Steve