The Midnight Sun

We’re back from a great trip. We arrived in Reno last night and then drove as far as Susanville; staying the night at Bill and Jill’s. We made the final leg of the trip this morning and we were at home with a collection of mail and a grateful cat, by noon.

What was Alaska like…well our trip began with a short flight (1 ½ hours) out of the Reno airport and that took us as far as Seattle. There we waited about 3 hours for our connecting flight; a flight that would take another 3 hours to complete. Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the flights! Was it because I was taking this trip for pleasure and not for business?

The flight was uneventful and the view was limited to the tops of the clouds until we descended below them, about 45 minutes out of Anchorage. The plane was following the Cook Inlet north, heading directly towards the Knik Arm and the airport. I must say that the view was awe inspiring! Snow capped mountains on each side of the plane, as far as you could see and the wave flecked gray waters of the inlet below us. The sun was a filtered golden light that cast a glow over everything it touched. And I saw no sign of civilization below me; no buildings and no boats.

Eventually the plane descended and we landed smoothly at Anchorage’s international airport, where…surprise! our luggage made the trip as well. It was about 8 PM and the sun was firmly in place in the western sky. And there it stayed for another 3 and a half hours. To be replaced by twilight till about 2 AM. Dawn? That occurred about 4:30 AM.

We had reservations at the Ramada Limited on Muldoon Road, over on the east side of town and close to the starting line for the marathon. Well, “Limited” was probably a good description for the place and the neighborhood. Not that much could be done about it as every hotel in town was full. So we decided to smile and just enjoy being in Alaska. After checking in, we all thought it best to get some sleep in preparation for the next days activities. Sleep? No matter how hard I tried, couldn’t get the curtains arranged keep the light out of the room. Luckily we were tired enough to fall asleep in just a short time.

We had breakfast at our hotel and then went to the race headquarters at the Sheraton…a much nicer hotel. We also found running shorts, socks and other gear to buy; most at pretty good prices. After getting our race packet with bib number and chip, it was time for an afternoon of walking around downtown Anchorage, seeing the sights.

The next day was race day and we were ready. There was a crowd of 2,500 or more in the parking lot of the high school where the starting line was located and so we hung back, knowing there was going to be a crunch as the crowd surged toward the line at the sound of the gun. I was poised to start my GPS timer as we crossed the mat that would activate my timing chip. We kept walking forward, looking for the mat. Finally we had passed the starting line and I still hadn’t seen the mat, so I pushed the button on my GPS unit and began to thread my way through the crowd, looking for a little clear space. The paved trail was only wide enough for 3 people abreast and so it took awhile to get some breathing room.  

This section of pavement lasted for about 7 miles and within the first mile we had our first moose sighting…and our last. It was also an uphill section, though a gradual one. Then we moved into the wilds of the Army base and the “Tank” trail. This was 8 miles of uphill rock and gravel. Some of it was quite steep, but it was finally wide enough to allow for easy passing. But by this time we had run out of the easy ones to pass. I suppose I should mention that we felt pretty good, despite the climb and we didn’t seem to be falling off of our pace. My GPS unit had us at a steady 4.5 mph despite the temptation to pause and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

At the end of 16 miles we went from crossing occasional streams on narrow wooden bridges to a wide expanse of asphalt and began a gradual downhill on our way back to the city. And we were pleasantly surprised to see Laurae and Bill waiting to cheer us on at mile 17. With just nine miles left, we felt confident of a good finish. The trail section had ruined my socks, but after stopping once to assess the damage, I couldn’t find any blisters or blood so I laced the shoes up tight and we pressed on.

We had about 3 miles of dreary sidewalk to navigate before we crossed over the road and headed into the city’s network of park trails. They were narrow but paved and, once again, the scenery was great! And once more we were passing people, giving us a boost for the final 6 miles. We needed it, as I noticed that our speed had dropped to somewhere between 4.3 and 4.4 mph.

The support had been great so far, plenty of water and orange slices available every two miles. But, at mile 21 we were offered popsicles, a first for us and most welcome! It was also at this point that I knew I was going to have a problem continuing at the pace we had been setting. My legs were definitely tiring and my feet had a dull ache in them. I also had a sharp pain where my left shoe seemed to be rubbing against my ankle. I kept looking, but there was no blood or blister so there was not much point in stopping to change socks.

We finally made it to mile 25, a trail running alongside a lake and in the distance I could see people leaving the trail and heading into the trees where the lake ended. That must be the finish line! Wrong…when I reached that point myself I found one more hill to climb. What cruelty! And it began to rain, which we really didn’t mind at all.

But, at the top of the hill were West High School and the finish line. The school track served as the finish corridor and Jill was just ahead of me, but there was still one person between us, so I decided to run the last 50 yards. I passed him with about 20 feet to spare and crossed the line right behind Jill.  I looked at my GPS unit as I crossed and noted that it read 6:01. That would give us a 13.8 minute/mile average, though I was more inclined to think we were under 6 hours because of the problems finding an actual “start” point.

After getting our medals and more water, it finally registered on us that it was raining pretty hard and perhaps we should get out of it and into a restaurant for some well deserved protein and lots of tasty cholesterol!

All in all, a good marathon. Hey, make that a great marathon! We got to see some wonderful scenery, meet people from all parts of the country and we saw a moose (1). What else could we need? Well, it would be a better timing system. Other marathons, smaller marathons make use of timing chips for start and finish plus mid-course timings. Anchorage should do the same.