Absolutely Awesome Alaska Marathon

Wow, what I realize is that although it is completely awesome to travel and go wherever you want to go in life, it doesn’t mean a thing if you are not with the people you love the most as sharing is the deepest joy. I say this as I left my 11-year-old daughter at home crying and not wanting me to travel to Alaska to run this marathon. I asked each of my kids if they wanted to go, but they had so many snow days, full days of school and finals as well – not to mention gymnastics, soccer playoff commitments and fun activities planned with their friends and teams. But on the other hand, it is also completely awesome to travel as an independent person and be free to experience life in all its glory. I feel so grateful to be able to pursue my passions in life and have a family that supports that. I told one of my greatest friends ever (Jeff Hamilton) that he needed to keep me laughing the entire time I am in Alaska so I maybe wouldn’t miss my family so much. The fact that I am even went to this race kind of started all out of a whim and a set of circumstances that frankly were meant to be. I wasn’t planning to run Alaska in June 2018. I was thinking about the Kona Marathon on the Big Island. Last November (2017) while I was driving to Philadelphia to run the Philadelphia Marathon when I texted my friend Jeff and told him that I was running Philly and going to visit one of my best friends, Kelly, who lives outside of Philadelphia. He proceeded to send me a link to this race and that he was going to be living in Alaska during the summer and I thought, “Why not?!?!” You don’t have to twist my arm to travel to Alaska, see one of my greatest friends ever and run a freaking MARATHON (one of my favorite things to do in this life)!! So as soon as I got back from Philadelphia, I found a flight and booked it! It is ironic because my first marathon (Rock N’ Roll Arizona going from Phoenix to Tempe, Arizona) ran right by Jeff’s place but Pat and I didn’t see him because he was so sick with the flu, so I thought this was a chance for a “do over”. I assessed the feasibility of this trip 7 months into the future and made travel plans! There is no need to deliberate endlessly, you JUST DO IT! That is true living in my opinion. Gone are the days of “no sorry I can’t, I have shackles and chains attached to me, I can’t get pry myself away from my stupid boring work project, my husband and/or family won’t let me go because I can’t do anything without them, etc.” Nope, that is not the kind of life that I lead, so I investigated, informed my husband, he encouraged me and I booked it!

By the time I made it to Alaska on June 19th at 11:30pm Alaska time which was really 3:30am EST, I was awake for almost 24 hours and I was trashed (I mean tired….us runners don’t drink foolishly anymore). It was funny though – since it was still daylight then, people were running and riding bikes. Um, yes, those CRAZY FREAKING PEOPLE! I thought “How the heck would I feel good enough again to run a marathon in a few days?!” I didn’t quite know, but I knew I would find a way like I always do. I arrived late on a Tuesday night and the marathon wasn’t until Saturday, so I purposely did that, so I would have time to recover and rest. My running was all done for the week prior to flying to Alaska, so it was really a time to rest and recover from the grueling travel. Of course, we found so many things to do: see a glacier, walk the many miles of paved bike paths in Anchorage plus the downtown area, travel many miles of the course to be completely prepared, search for moose and bears and even an easy 4-mile hike after the marathon. I was amazed how quickly I adapted to Alaska time! I stayed up late because it never really got dark there and midnight was the equivalent of 4am back home. So when I slept until 8am, I was almost in complete shock!! I rarely do that at home. We would be walking around outside at 10:30-11:30 at night and so were many other people! I realized by Thursday that I better get to sleep earlier because the race starts at 7am on Saturday. If I sleep too long, I will miss the race and I would not be happy! It’s a runner’s biggest fear is to oversleep and/or miss the start of a race.

As I approached race morning, I felt rested and ready. It was probably about 49-50 degrees and it had rained the night before so more chill in the air than expected. Honestly, I was scared poopless about running 9 miles on the trails because I didn’t want to encounter a moose or a bear, but that fear soon escaped my mind with the many runners nearby. As we lined up for the race, the woman said there were runners from 47 states, so I felt good to have travelled SO FAR for this one. It goes to show you – your passion takes you wherever you want to go! Travel 3400 miles for a marathon? Sure, no problem. I am in! As we took off to start the race, I stayed on the left side of the pack because I always try to be smart about running the tangents. As I approached the first mile, I hovered at an 8:20 pace, which is about normal for me. When I am fully rested for a marathon, that’s my usual, but I have ventured into the 7-minute per mile pace as well if I am feeling like a complete animal! The first few miles, I was still chilly, and I didn’t ditch my throwaway shirt until mile 2 and tucked my gloves into my shorts in case I still wanted them. Pat and Jeff kept texting each other and I kept hearing “ding!” and it was bothering me, so I had to turn that off. I need to FOCUS people!! LOL. The first few miles were along the highway and some gentle rolling roads, nothing too crazy. I felt good. The chill in the air felt good to me as well. As we reached mile 4, we went up and over an overpass so that was a nice little hill plus some additional ones before we approached a golf course. I got into a groove and I didn’t feel like the hills bothered me. It was straight and flat at the golf course, and I knew that by mile 6, we would be venturing off road to an Army training base. I wasn’t sure how this gravel and dirt road would impact my pace, but I tried to keep steady. This “trail” was very wide and there were still a lot of people out here, so I no longer seemed completely petrified of a bear jumping out and attacking me, but that didn’t stop me from wearing my bear bell! I am sure I drove people completely nuts that were running near me, but I only could hear the jingling between songs LOL. However, although I didn’t see any big ass bears, I saw a “shitload” of bear poop – probably about every 200 – 500 meters and always on the right side of the road right where I was running. I was careful not to step in it! So essentially there were bears THERE earlier in the day because the poop looked fresh. I was trying to stay on the most patted down part of the trail so that there was no chance of slipping on the gravel rocks. One older man kept shifting from side to side and I HAD to pass him to eliminate that distraction. I was keeping a very good pace throughout the trails. I hit 10 miles at 1:28 and it was right around that time when I realized I had to tinkle. But I tried to push that idea out of my mind. When your pace is good, you have to keep going baby!! There were additional hills throughout the trails but not enough to slow me. I never eat GU going up a hill (so I can breathe and eat simultaneously), but I feel determined to get it done. I was probably almost halfway when I saw a guy wearing a Red Sox hat backwards, so I asked him if he was from Boston and he said yes. Pretty cool that he travelled so far for this race too. As I approached the half marathon mark (no official mat right there), I was at the lower end of 1:57 at mile 13 so figure my 13.1 time was somewhere in the high 1:57 or low 1:58 range. Suddenly, I noticed a bunch of animated people cheering and I wondered if they were cheer