I decided to try an end of year blog post to remember all of the special moments and highlights of my year. I figured I would write the running section of the blog post first so I could post it on here for all of you to enjoy. Hoping I can finish my overall year review/recap before the end of the year, but I hope you all enjoy this part of it.

Winter/Spring

A Semester of Running (Partly)

The Spring 2023 semester was filled with running inconsistencies, but despite this running (or lack thereof) was still a large part of my semester. I had a lot of fun running, whether it was me running myself, or just sitting at Kehoe Track and watching others run.

The Preparation Phase

At the beginning of 2023 I was ready to have a huge season of running. Just a few days before the year began, I had made my return to consistent running after an extended hiatus to end off 2022. After only a couple weeks of the year starting, I was running big mileage (huge). I was cranking up to 40 miles in a singular week. Numbers I had never been able to hit consistently before.

The semester began and I continued hitting huge miles. I began my semester as I always do with a Lillian Hsu run where we talk about our excitement for the upcoming semester. Soon after this, I had the addition of (extremely) difficult workouts featuring my good friend and running colleague Caleb Holland. Caleb and I were running workouts at extremely fast paces for very long distances. Needless to say, we were two extremely fit lads. Once the track season began, our competitors were sure to be quaking in every race where we towed the line. Pictured below is Lillian and I on our traditional pre-semester duo run.

Track Begins: Happy Valley Invitational

It was time for track to begin. On February 10, 2023, I packed up my car with an overnight bag along with three friends (Jacob Bush, Gabe Worthington, and Sadou Sow), and headed to Pennsylvania State University for our first track meet of the semester. Despite being coerced by my carmates into stopping at one of the most vile establishments of all time (Subway) for dinner, it was a great ride. We arrived at our hotel in State College in time to get a great night’s rest and run quick the next day.

The next day was February 11, 2023, so obviously that meant it was time for the Happy Valley Invitational. I had a busy three events on my schedule: the 400m, the mixed 4x400m, and the men’s 4x200m. We arrived at the track and immediately began warming up for the mixed 4x400m. My team consisted of an extremely talented Andrew Scalese, Lillian Hsu, Brenna Henderson, and Andrew Cullen at the anchor. The gun went off and my teammates performed amazing, and I ran my leg and ended up with a split time of “extremely fast.” Our team finished in last place.

Shortly after the mixed 4x400m, I was approached by some sprinters to join their 4x200m relay team to fill in for a missing member. Luckily I agreed, and even more luckily, I was about to run extremely fast. This time, I was the leadoff leg. The gun went off, and I ran my leg so fast that I impaled my teammate Andrew Scalese’s foot with my spikes when I handed him the batton. Our team did not finish in last place.

After this event I received a call from my great friend Dawn/Stepfany Newkirk-Johnson saying she had arrived at the Happy Valley Invitational. Dawn/Stepfany is a current student at Pennsylvania State University and a North Point High School alumnus. We had planned to meetup at the track meet since we often don’t get to see each other much during the school year. Between the 4x200m and my individual 400m race, I hung out and caught up with Dawn/Stepfany. Pictured below is us taking an extremely wholesome selfie during our hangout.

After hanging out with Dawn/Stepfany, it was time for me to run the 400m, my bread and butter. I was very excited for this race, hoping to beat my time from the 2022 Happy Valley Invitational. Fully concentrated, I went up to the line and waited for the officials to send us off. The gun went off, and I was blazing, coming through the 200m mark in a blistering time of 25 seconds (extremely fast). I unfortunately started to die off a bit in the second half of the race and finished the race in a time of 56.1 seconds. I was very happy with the time, but unfortunately I lost to my 2022 self by less than 0.1 seconds. Pictured below is a photo of me running the 400m.

After the race, I spent some more time hanging out with Dawn/Stepfany, and said bye to her after she had to go off to a biology study session. After this, I finished watching the meet, being the number 1 fan of every single runner from UMD Club Running (yes I was indeed the loudest one cheering for all of them). Eventually after a long day the meet ended. I loaded my car with the exact same materials and people as the day prior and we headed home. It was a great day for running and an even better day for camaraderie, getting to spend the day with one of my best friends, and the amazing people of UMD Club Running.

The Fated Battle of Rivals: Capital Relays

After Happy Valley, we had two down weeks before the next track meet, Capital Relays, hosted by American University. While Happy Valley was a meet to have fun and hang out with friends, Capital Relays was a meet where serious business would be going down. On February 25, 2023, the day of the meet, my great friend and training partner Caleb Holland would become my mortal enemy for a brief period of time. 

While Caleb and I are great friends, we are running rivals. We had been working out together for a few weeks at this point in the semester, and had already had a full semester in the fall of running together. Up to this point, we had never had a proper face off without any unforeseen circumstances getting in the way. At Capital Relays this was going to change. We were meeting head to head in the 5000m.

The morning of the 25th, I boarded Samuel Guzzone’s car, and we headed to American University for the meet. Shortly after arriving at the meet, I was greeted by my parents who had come up from Southern Maryland to watch their children run in circles at a very substantial pace. It was great to see them, but this meant my battle with Caleb had even more stakes. Not only was my pride on the line, but I would have to face humiliating myself in front of my family if I lost. I needed to win at all costs.

Caleb, Sam, and I all warmed up together, and soon after it was time for us to race the 5000m (Sam was also racing, though he had no chance of beating either of us). The race began and immediately I felt comfortable. After about a mile, the race started to feel harder, but I knew I could keep going. At the two mile mark, it started to get even harder though I kept pushing and did not drop my pace. With two laps to go Caleb and I were still running together. We were both on pace for big prs. With 800m, Caleb started to pull away. How could I let this happen? With 400m to go, I could see and hear my gambling addict friends who had bet on me to win the race screaming at me telling me to catch up. I tried with all my might to catch Caleb, but he was simply too fast. I finished with a time of 18:02, a 28 second pr, but behind Caleb who finished with a high 17. I was very happy with my performance, but knew I would have to get revenge on Caleb soon. Pictured below is Caleb and I during and after the race.

While I knew Caleb would be the victim of my revenge at some point in the future, I was happy we could have a great race together. At this meet, our rivalry had concluded, but I still had two more events to run. The first of which was a 1600m. The 1600m occurred soon after the 5000m. Way too soon after the 5000m. My legs still pounding, I ran the 1600m in a time of over 5:30, not very much faster than the final mile of my 5000m earlier that day. Still happy with my 5000m performance, I was not disappointed by this, especially knowing the treat I had in store for my final event of the day. 

As the meet went by, I enjoyed watching my clubmates run amazing races, and even did a hot cocoa review with my colleague Lillian Hsu, but we eventually got to the final event of the day, and also my final event of the day, the 4x400m. However this was no ordinary 4x400m. The race was called the “Anything but the Batton 4x400m.” Naturally, my teammates, Sam Fields, Jacob Bush, and John Schmidt, and I knew exactly what we needed to do. It was time for the 4xbunny. The 4 of us suited up in bunny suits, grabbed a carrot to use as the batton, had a quick photoshoot, and then it was time to race. 

I was the leadoff leg, opening up in a time of 57 seconds that not even Bugs Bunny himself could have beaten. After my leg, we were in the lead. All my teammates had to do was hold the lead and we were golden. And that was exactly what they did. They kept the lead and even expanded it, with John Schmidt bringing us to victory as the anchor. We won our heat in bunny suits. To this day, this still may be the greatest relay I have ever run. Pictured below is the team before and during the race.

After the race, the meet concluded, and I went with my parents to have a delicious meal back in College Park at Mod Pizza. I went home after this exhausted, but satisfied, and happy about such a great day. Pictured below is a selfie of me and my mom at Mod Pizza.

An Unexpected Break: The Road to Freddy Half

After Capital Relays, I ran a bit the next week, but quickly after that fell into an extended running drought. Starting in the beginning of March, school began to pick up which made running harder, and I needed to prepare for my Spring Break study abroad trip to London. During my trip abroad, I of course did not spend any time running as my days were jam packed with fun and educational activities. After the trip I fell ill due to the lack of sleep I got on the trip, further preventing me from running. The month of April was also one of my busiest months academically as well. In March and April the time I had to run was almost nonexistent, and my motivation began to fall a bit as well. Even being out of shape, I was still ready to have some fun at the Frederick Half Marathon in May.

A Few High Points in the Bumpy Road

Even with March and April not being the best months for me in terms of running, there were still some good moments. The first being a D.C. run on April 8th, featuring my colleagues Emily Jiang, Adam Cullen, Cap, and Lillian Hsu. We set out to D.C, running on Baltimore Avenue when we saw an opportunity to merge onto the Anacostia Trail and continue the run that way. EJ and I decided to take the merger and go the long way to D.C., while our other three colleagues continued on Baltimore Avenue. EJ and I ran for a total of 18 miles and had some great chats along the way. At this point, this was my longest run of all time, and was probably half my mileage for the entire month of April. We eventually met up with our other colleagues at a Shake Shack where we all enjoyed lunch together, and then took the metro home together. Pictured below is the five of us on the metro on the way home from D.C.

The second “highlight” during this extended running lowlight was a four way run to California Tortilla on April 16th. This time the group was myself, Adam Cullen, Benno Wien, and Caleb Holland, with Caleb being the organizer for the event. We met at SPH and ran to the North Northwest trail. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful group. Eventually, we reached a small stream that we needed to cross over to continue on the trail. I crossed using the unadvised route to avoid getting wet, and unfortunately took a tumble and banged up my knee. I couldn’t continue the run, but Caleb’s parents were nice enough to come pick us up and take us to his house where we ordered California Tortilla and ate it at a nearby picnic bench in Caleb’s neighborhood. After lunch, it was a bit of a trek home using public transportation, but we made it. It was a day filled with adversity, but still a great day with friends, and a great meal. Pictured below is the four of us in Caleb’s backyard.

The last running highlight before the Freddy Half came on April 22nd, at John Hopkins University. Along with the rest of club running, I was at John Hopkins for a track invitational. Knowing I wasn’t in great shape I wasn’t expecting much from the meet, but I wanted to have some fun racing the 1500m. I arrived at the meet late since everyone in my car did not need to be there for the beginning of the meet. However, I arrived in time to cheer on Caleb in the 5000m, and soon after get ready for my race. My goal in the race was to just go out with the fastest people no matter what… and I succeeded. I went out in a 65 second first lap and then proceeded to die off, but still managed to finish with a time of 4:52, a pr! Not a mile pr if you convert it, but was still very happy with the time, and was happy to get a really fun race in.

A Story of Redemption: The Freddy Half

The lead up to the Freddy Half was rocky. I just straight up was not running for most of it. However, I was still as excited as ever for the race. At this point in time, it was probably the most excited I had ever been for a race, even though my fitness level was not very high. On May 6, the day before the half, Lillian and I drove to Frederick to pick up the club’s race packets, and do a quick shakeout run. After eating a Domino’s pizza for dinner that night, I was ready to race in the morning. Pictured below is Lillian and I with everyone’s packets and race jackets.

The next morning we all arrived at SPH at 5:00am, and drove to Freddy, arriving at about 6:00am. The race started at 7, so we had plenty of time to warmup, excrete, and get ready to race. Once we got to Freddy, that’s when my excitement began to pickup even more. As I saw some of my comrades with horrible nerves, I couldn’t even contain my excitement. I was ready to have some fun.

7:00am came and it was time to race. I began the race hesitant, knowing that it would not be a good idea with my current fitness level to go out too fast. My first two miles were about 7:10-7:15 each. At this point I was running close to fellow runners Timothy Chu and Samuel Guzzone. In the distance I could see a pack of club runners, including names like Benno Wien, Cap, Liam Foley, and Caleb Holland. I decided I was going to try to catch up to them.

I began to pick up the pace, starting to split sub 7 minute miles. The group I was trying to catch seemed to start to split apart, but I could still see myself getting closer to some of them. At about the halfway point of the race, I caught up to my rival Caleb Holland. In a race where everyone counted me out, I was right there ready to even the score against Caleb. I went past Caleb and about a mile or two later caught up to Liam. I was continuously gaining speed at this point, so I went past Liam, and caught up to Cap at the 10 mile mark. After splitting a 5:40 10th mile, I passed Benno as well. I passed the whole group. At mile 12, Benno went by me and beat me to the finish, but I was able to stay ahead of the rest of the group, finishing with a time of 1:26:31, a half marathon pr. More importantly, I evened the score with my rival Caleb. It was another great day for running and the club. The best possible way to end the season. Pictured below is the team after the race

Bonus Round: Ice Cream Trifecta Run

While the Freddy Half marked the end of the official running season, there was still one more race to go. The ice cream trifecta run was a run created by club running legend Nate Lieske. It consisted of running from SPH to the Maryland Dairy, eating an ice cream there, running to Cold Stone, eating an ice cream there, and finally running to Rita’s, eating an ice cream there, and running back to SPH as fast as you can. 

In my race, I took a more casual approach. I ran to Maryland Dairy, ate a scoop of Brenda’s Peanut Butter Frese to start off. To follow, I ran to Cold Stone and had a cup of cotton candy ice cream with some white chocolate chips as toppings. Finally, I ran to Rita’s (arriving at about the same time as Club Running President Sohan Ganatra), and ate a cup of chocolate custard. Afterward, I ran back to SPH (about 20 minutes before Sohan arrived). No idea what my finishing time was, but it was a fun and tasty day. Pictured below is me at Cold Stone and Rita’s.

Summer

The Running Continues

While UMD Club Running got put on hold in the Summer, I was lucky enough to have some friends stick around in College Park and the surrounding area to give me a nice fun Summer of running.

Innovation at its Finest: The Invention of the Demon Runs

Summer is quite the hot season, so to avoid the heat you can either wake up early to run before it gets hot, or brave the darkness and go out at night and fight demons while you run. Being a trained hashira, I of course chose to fight the demons. My very first demon run came on the day of my brother AC’s graduation in May. After his ceremony, my family going home for the day, and him going to bed, I decided to crank out a run to reflect on my semester. The weather was amazing, and a dark run on campus alone made for great reflection. I continued these solo on campus demon runs for when I didn’t have time to run during the day, when I wanted to avoid the heat, and for other times when I wanted time to reflect.

Most of my demon runs were by myself, but my greatest demon run of all time, and one of my greatest runs of the Summer and the whole year was a duo demon run collab. On July 12, 2023, I had a legendary demon run collab in Silver Spring Maryland with none other than Caleb Holland. I came home from work from my internship in Baltimore, grabbed a snack, and headed to Lillian Hsu’s house to hang with her, AC, and EJ and drink some hot chocolate together. Soon after this, it was almost time for the sun to go down and the demons to come out. This meant it was time for me to drive over to Caleb’s house in Silver Spring for the demon run collab. 

As it started to get dark, Caleb and I began a 10 mile jaunt through the dark and scary woods of the north northwest trail (the scene of the previous California Tortilla run incident), by the Silver Spring MVA (even scarier), and Caleb’s old high school, Montgomery Blair. We talked about various topics, including getting our drivers’ license (prompted by the MVA and mutual comrade Lillian Hsu receiving her drivers license one day prior to this collab), work, and anime. It was truly a beautiful experience and an amazing run. Pictured below is Caleb and I in the middle of the woods on our darkness run.

After the run, Caleb was so gracious to invent me inside his home for a nice dinner cooked by none other than himself. We had a lovely dinner of burgers and fries, featuring a special sauce made by Caleb. After dinner, we went on down to Caleb’s basement, watched an episode of the masterpiece, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and then I departed back to College Park to get some rest before a virtual day at my internship the next morning. Pictured below is Caleb and I at dinner.

Time to Work Hard: Marathon Training Arc

The demon runs were a fun addition to the Summer, but they were a microcosm of what my Summer of running was about. The Summer was about building a crazy base (huge) to get in shape to run the Baltimore Marathon the upcoming Fall in October. It was going to be hard but I was ready for the grind. Even more luckily, I had a training partner, EJ, to try this endeavor with. 

After completing the Freddy Half in a pr time, in spite of my lack of training, I quickly decided that I would run the Baltimore Marathon that Fall. I knew I wanted to run a marathon before completing college, and it seemed like the perfect time to do it was approaching. After making the decision, I even more quickly convinced EJ to make the same decision and our plan was set. We had a Summer of training ahead of us.

The training was grueling, with us both reaching weeks of up to 60 miles, and hitting long runs of up to 20 miles in the wicked Summer heat. On top of this, doing marathon pace workouts (EJ did this not me, I just ran with her), we gained quite a lot of fitness during the Summer. On top of the fitness gains, the long runs and workouts provided EJ and I an opportunity to grow closer as friends and have some much deeper conversations than what we’ve had up to this point in time. 

Andrew Actually Has Friends: The Era of Collabs

Luckily for EJ and I, our good friends AC and Lillian Hsu were located in College Park during the Summer as well, so they were our regular running buddies, However, also during this Summer, we were fortunate enough to add some other members to our regular running crew, particularly Gabe Worthington, and Edward Broadberry (better known as “Big Berry” or just simply “Berry”). They were great additions to the squad. We also had semi-regular guest appearances from people such as Caleb Holland, Samuel Guzzone, and Brooke Walz, and some one off appearances with people like Sam Fields, Zach Kiedrowski, and Cap. After the Cap collab, we even got to hang out and play Town of Salem while talking on discord with Timothy Chu. I even got to have a Charles County collab with none other than Roman Lakner. Pictured below is Roman and I on our collab at Oak Ridge Park.

This Summer of collabs culminated at the very end of the Summer, just a couple days before the Fall 2023 semester would begin. On Saturday, August 26, I hosted the ultimate mega collab at SPH, with about 20 club members present. The entire week leading up to the collab, I effortlessly reached out to club members begging them to attend my mega collab. I ended up receiving a fair amount of “unavailables” and other rejections, but I’m proud of the group we got together. I believe it is the largest collab in the history of UMD Club Running aside from official practices, essentially meaning I am the most popular member of UMD Club Running in its history. Together we all went on a nice little lake loop jaunt. Pictured below is the collab

The Quest for Glory: College Park Parkruns

I was marathon training over the Summer, but this doesn’t mean I didn’t still want to run fast. As quite the speedy lad, I always have the itch to start cranking some faster paces, especially after a long time of running slow. To get this speed in while still getting some good distance training for the marathon, I decided to race some 5ks. These would come in the form of the College Park Parkrun race.

The first time I decided to participate in the Parkrun race was on June 17th. Leading up the event I had checked the previous results of the weekly races, and noticed that the winner of the race usually came in at a time of about 18 minutes. A time that I was extremely capable of running. I decided to make my ultimate running side quest to win a Parkrun gold medal. If I managed to take the crown, this would be my first ever time winning a running race (In my high school swimming career, I managed to win exactly one race).

On the 17th, I ran to the start line with EJ and AC, where we met up with Berry, and the three of us all warmed up together. Afterwards it was time for the race. I went out the first mile with the top people, and immediately knew the pace was not sustainable. I was still at the beginning of my marathon arc, and on top of that I wasn’t used to running quickly. I faded, and started to get passed. I ended up finishing in 6th place with a time of 19:51, losing to a first place finisher who ran the entire race while pushing his child in a stroller. I was weak and he was strong. It was a great community event, but the problem was it was a great community event. I should’ve destroyed the community with my dominance. Pictured below is me, AC, EJ, and Berry cooling down at Lake Artemesia after the race.

I was fired up after my 6th place finish, but knew I had much more work to do before I would be able to take the crown. I put in a solid month of work, and decided to return to Parkrun on July 22nd to take the crown. The evening before, on July 21st, I announced on my Strava that I would be taking home the crown the next day. Some would say I was cocky, but I would just say that I was confident in all the work that I had put in.

On the 22nd, we had a similar group running the race with EJ and AC still being there, but this time with Jenna replacing our previous comrade Berry. We were preparing for a race when all of a sudden a mysterious figure approached the start line. The mysterious figure was none other than John Schmidt. John had seen my Strava post from the night prior, and decided to show up to best me and disallow me from getting the Parkrun crown. Knowing my race pace was about the same pace as John’s easy runs, I knew my chances at the crown were near 0, but I would still try and have some fun.

John decided to help pace and coach me through the race, doing an excellent job. John bested me in the last 0.1 miles, but beforehand he paced me to a beautiful negative split race, with splits of 6:10, 6:00, and 5:50. He also coached my form and helped me with my breathing. John and I ended up getting beaten by another racer to get 2nd and 3rd place respectively. I finished with a time of 18:56, only 15 seconds behind the winner. I didn’t get a gold medal, but I was getting closer. I retired from Parkrun from the Summer, and am still chasing the crown. It has not come yet, but it will come in the future.

Fall

School is Back and the Big Event Approaches

Once school went back into session for the Fall 2023 semester, I made my return to UMD Club Running. My goal was still to prepare for the Baltimore marathon, but also to have some fun along the way.

Doing it for the Fans: The Cavalier Invitational

Due to the Baltimore Marathon, I ended up only running one cross country race during the Fall 2023 semester. Doing only one means it had to be a good one. And a good one it was. I decided this meet would be the Cavalier Invitational and that this meet was dedicated entirely to the fans. I was in charge of doing an Instagram takeover on the @UMDClubRunning Instagram the entire day of the meet. For the sake of the club, I had to deliver high quality content.

The meet was on Saturday, September 16th. I woke up that morning nice and early before 6:00am, had some breakfast, got ready, and drove over to SPH. It was a great day so far. I met up with the people who I would be driving to the meet, and we were ready to take off. At least we were supposed to be ready to take off. That is, if we weren’t missing one very key member of the club… our own President, Sohan Ganatra. While the rest of the club was ready to go off to the meet, Sohan was still asleep in bed. I decided to go with my carmates, Ella Quigley and Patrick Torre, to give the President some luxury treatment and pick him up at his house. After this, we were finally ready to go off to the meet. In the car we had some great chats and great music, and eventually we arrived at the meet. Pictured below is the content created by yours truly from the Instagram takeover by this point in the day.

After arriving at the meet, of course, I continued to make content. Soon though, it was time for me to start warming up for the race. A race in which it was extremely important for me to have a good warm up and especially do some quick strides. I would be Instagram living the race while running it, and I was planning to win the race. After a nice team huddle that I got on livestream, it was time to race. Phone in my hand, I stepped to the front of our team’s box, ready for the gun to go off. Seconds later, I heard the gun, and immediately began sprinting to the front of the field. No one was even close to me. The fans on the livestream were going crazy as I lead the way. After about 400m, I began to get passed, but the glory was already mine. The rest of the race I decided to take a more casual approach, conducting interviews of other runners in the race, including Cap, Evan Masiello, and Patrick Torre. I attempted to interview runners from other clubs, but was unfortunately rejected. I did not win the race, but I had the most fun out of the field and finished with a time of about 38 minutes. Pictured below is me winning the first 400m of the race and the rest of the takeover content up to this point in the day.

After finishing my race, it was time to watch and document the women’s race. The women all did a phenomenal job, and I believe I gave them a proper spotlight on Instagram to showcase their amazing talent. Once the women finished up (didn’t take very long because they are all very fast), it was time to get awards (I unfortunately did not receive one but Sam Fields did), and then go home. On the way home we all stopped at a Sheetz where we shared a delicious lunch together as a club. Afterward, I had a nice peaceful ride home with Ella, Patrick, and Sohan. Once I got home I was exhausted, but happy with how I spent my day. Pictured below is the rest of the Instagram takeover content from the meet.

The Day Finally Arrived: Baltimore Marathon 2023

After the Cavalier Invitational, I continued training hard for the marathon for a couple weeks, and was very quickly tapering after that. After so many months of working hard, the taper felt angelic. Once the taper began, all of a sudden it was Friday, October 13th, the day before the marathon. I did not have class on this day, so my day was spent with EJ And Berry driving to Baltimore to pick up our race packets the next day. EJ and I would be running the full marathon, while Berry would be running the half. We would also be picking up half marathon race packets for AC and Brian Lau (also known as Blau). We picked up the packets, headed back to UMD, and ate an extremely hefty dinner at the yiner, filled with lots of carbohydrates. Afterwards, we headed to EJ’s house, made some pancakes for breakfast the next day. Then all that was left was to go to sleep and let race come upon us.

And that’s exactly what we did. Sooner than I could imagine, it was the morning of October 14, race day. I ate my pancakes for breakfast, made sure I was ready, and then headed over to EJ’s house to drive over to Baltimore with her and AC. We arrived at Baltimore nice and early at about 7:00am, about an hour before our race began. After making sure we used the bathroom as much as physically possible, and confirming the race’s start location too many times, we were ready to race. I ate a bag of lifesaver gummies, and had my fanny pack ready with the rest of my candy to use as fuel for 

during the race. It was time for the race to begin.

But wait… there’s one more thing I forgot to mention. I hadn’t said it up to this point, but my rival, Caleb Holland, would be racing the Baltimore Marathon as well. Not only was this my first ever marathon, but it was also a rival matchup. It was the tiebreaker race between Caleb and I. The winner would be crowned the superior runner. The stakes were huge. Under no circumstances could I lose. ‘

8:00am came, and the race began. Caleb and I ran together for the full first half of the race coming in at 1:30:02 for the first half marathon. We were on amazing pace for a sub 3 hour time. Everything was going great. My legs still felt good. Fueling was going well. I was able to gulp up gatorade at every aid stop, and I munched on some life saver gummies every 30 minutes. The gummies were a bit harder to get down than they were for my easy runs, because my breathing was a bit harder, but it wasn’t a problem. We even had lots of supporters cheering us on during the first half. Mentally, and physically, I felt amazing.

Only a mile later we started hurting. Only a mile after that Caleb and I had made a pact to finish together no matter what. Only two miles after that, at mile 17, we had both fully bonked. The pain snuck up on us. We weren’t expecting it. One minute we were celebrating at the halfway point because of our “great pacing,” and so soon after that we were in immense pain. From mile 17 to the finish, every step was a struggle. My legs were so heavy and hurt so much, and I was so close to cramping up at any given moment. Going downhill put so much pressure on my legs that it was unbearable. I wanted so badly to stop eating my candy as fuel because I felt horrible, but I knew I would just feel worse if I stopped, so I kept eating until I ran out.

Eventually, after what felt like forever, Caleb and I came around the final turn, locked arms, and ran the final straightaway to the finish. We came into the race as rivals, and finished the race as brothers. We’ll have another matchup eventually, but this race did not end up being about the competition. It was about the camaraderie. To this day we still have a tied record head to head.

After finishing my legs gradually started hurting more and more and standing up was just straight up painful. I went over to the medical tent to get stretched out, cramped up a bit during it, but afterwards the pain was a bit more manageable. I met up with my parents and one of my childhood (and current) best friends Caleb Davis who had come out to cheer me on. By this point I was extremely cold and wet (it was a rainy day), but after getting my hoodie and pants on over my shorts (with the assistance of my parents) (could barely lift my legs up), I started to warm up. After this I headed to meet up with the rest of the runners competing in the Baltimore Running Festival, and then I headed to lunch with Caleb Davis and my parents. I didn’t have much of an appetite, but ate as much as I could. After that, we found my parents’ car, and they drove me back to College Park. I was exhausted after a crazy battle, but so proud of myself. Pictured below are me and the various runners competing in the Baltimore Running Festival.

Post Marathon Happy Fun Time

After the marathon, I wasn’t able to run very much for about a month because of hip pain, but I still had fun with UMD Club Running. I would still come to practice to hang out and talk with friends, even if I wasn’t able to run. I eventually got back to running consistently again, and had some fun moments such as pacing EJ’s friend Jenny Zhang (known as JZ) to an amazing time at a College Park Parkrun. Overall another great season of running with great people. Pictured below is me, EJ, and JZ after absolutely demolishing a parkrun. 

Conclusion

This conclusion is a UMD Club Running Blog exclusion part that will not appear in my overall blog post that I am writing. I’ve had a great year of running, and an even better year of making great friends and strengthening existing connections through running. I’m excited for another great year of doing the same! Hope you all enjoyed!