A slight delay in posting this (sue me), but here's a recap of my 10th marathon, which was the Anchorage Mayor's Marathon/HM done on Saturday, June 23.  A group of six of us (including DW, Oski, and her DH) made this trip to Alaska, and scheduled it around the marathon.  My poor DW hurt her back the day before the trip, so she stayed home for two extra days to rest, and had to sit out the HM.  I'm very happy she was able to join us for the final 10 days of the vacation though.

This is the first marathon I've done that I knew I'd be unable to train specifically for.  This was not a goal race, as I've been focusing on my triathlon training.  My training consisted of a bunch of 12-14 mile runs that were part of my base triathlon training, plus one single 17.4 mile run to "prep" for this marathon.  Plus, a crapload of cycling and swimming.  Basically I ran this marathon on my triathlon fitness.    My goal was to break 3:25 just to get another BQ.  I knew the speed was there, as a 7:47 pace feels like a jog these days, but I was worried about the endurance.

Race weather was ideal.  49 degrees, dew point even lower, cloudy, no wind.  I wish I had this weather for my PR race last November.  Anyway, this was a small race as marathons go (600 people) and felt like a small local race.  I lined up near the front with Oski's DH, and off we went at 7:30 sharp.

Elevation profile:

The first 15 miles of this race is basically uphill.  A couple of short steep inclines, but otherwise gradual but enough that you know it's there.  My goal was to keep the effort easy and I tried, although the gradual incline made that difficult without slowing down too much.  This is supposedly a scenic course, but with a thick cloud cover, I was basically looking at trees and clouds for most of the race.  No mountain tops or majestic views, but I got plenty of that during the vacation.  The first few miles run on a bike path along the highway, then the next few miles are in a military training installation, which was kind of cool.  I ran past a sign on a fence that read "Undetonated artillery in area.  Do not enter."  Heh.

Miles 7-15 of this race were on a "tank road", which was basically a dirt road.  Some loose stones, but mostly a firm surface.  That was fine and actually felt nice for a few miles, but started to become a grind after 5, 6, 7 miles.  Combined with some loooong stretches of steady incline, I was already starting to feel fatigue before I even got halfway through the race.  The last mile of this tank road was a singletrack trail in the woods that spit out onto the main road (finally).

Knowing the second half of the race was downhill, I was hoping to start hammering out some faster miles, but that just didn't happen.  The tank road took a lot out of me, and the downhill second half didn't seem to make up for all the uphill.  I was still running decent splits, but I was feeling my lack of marathon training.  I passed a couple of guys in mile 16, and after that I was completely alone until mile 23.  I might as well have been on a solo training run.  I could not see the next person in front of me, and there were no spectators outside the aid stations.  That was a very lonely stretch of racing.  The last 10K was on the Anchorage bike path system which is a very extensive network of paved trails.  Very cool and scenic pathways, though when I am feeling that late marathon pain, I really don't give two shits about scenery.  There were a number of narrow tunnels to run through under roads, which was messing with my coordination that late in a marathon.  I had to just look at the end of the tunnels and concentrate on each foot strike.  I was really surprised I managed to avoid a late race crash and burn...a slight slowdown, but really not bad at all given my lack of training.  I battled and never lost focus. The last half mile hooks up with the HM route, and is a 100' uphill.  That is a torturous way to end a marathon.  I crossed the finish line as tired as I've ever been after a race.  Oski's DH finished one person in front of me, about a minute ahead, and we high fived at the finish line.  My knee hurt, my back hurt, and I was wiped out.  I had to sit and needed a good 10 minutes until I started to feel a little bit normal.

Here's my log entry if you care to look at the splits.  I've been done much worse when better trained.

• Race time was officially 3:18:34 gun time (another race that doesn't use chip time...weird..chip was 3:18:31).  I was five minutes off my PR, which I'm pretty happy with given my lack of training.
• BQ -6:26.  I don't need the BQ but it is cool to get my third in a row after trying so hard to get my first one.  
• OA finish was 28/605
• AG was 4/41 (dammit!)

Nice medal.  It is big and heavy.

Now I will focus on Ironman Chattanooga, which is Sept 30.  My next marathon will be Boston in 2019.  My plan is to train hard for Boston and race it full out.

Once we got the race over with, we could get down to the business of vacationing.  Here are some pics from the rest of the trip.....

This was about as dark as it got during our 12 day trip.  I took this picture of the sky around 2:30 in the morning.

I tried pho for the first time.  I am now a fan.

I snapped this pic on a morning run.

Lunch one day at an Anchorage brewery.  No beer though for this guy.

Day before marathon road trip to see the abandoned Independence Mine.  We saw our first moose on that drive!

Pre-race meal was at a Turkish restaurant.  Ground lamb and beef kebob.  Awesome.

I ordered this "pancake sandwich" for breakfast one day.  Not sure why they call it a sandwich.  It's just eggs and bacon sitting on top of pancakes.  I usually call this pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

We checked out some local baseball.  This is the Alaska Baseball League, which is a summer college league.  Maybe a hundred spectators, but we had a blast.  We sat near the pitcher's mom and she gave me a free cookie.  That doesn't happen at Fenway.

River during a hike.  Lots of pretty sights on this hike.

One of the highlights of the trip was a scenic train ride from Anchorage to Seward.  The views on this ride were spectacular.  Pictures can't possibly do it justice.

Breakfast on the train ride was pretty awesome too.  Stuffed French toast.  At least they called it "French" toast.  Another place called it American toast, because the menu says they serve an American classic and not something French.  LOL

We visited the spot where the Iditarod starts.

I ate more food.

And saw more scenery.

We took a couple of day trips to Homer (d'oh).  We drove to the official western end of the US highway system, which is kind of cool

We went for a bunch of hikes.  This is Flattop Mountain.  The last quarter mile was legit rock climbing, with no trail.

While three of our crew went halibut fishing, me and the Oskis went for a difficult 11.5 mile hike in the Alaska rainforest, way out in the middle of freaking nowhere, and needed to take a boat ride to get there.  We saw otters, eagles, icebergs, a glacier, and amazing views.  No bears, but so much bear poop.  My god the bear poop!

The boat captain told us about the dive bar where the locals go for fish tacos.  Score.

We saw a bunch of moose roaming about during the trip.  This was the closet we got to one, just across single lane road.

And we visited a wildlife sanctuary that basically takes care of animals and species that humans insist on messing up.

That's all.  Thanks for reading.

And don't forget, 30lbs of this guy and his friends just showed up (frozen and in a box ready to grill) at my office  

looks like a great trip. I would like to visit Alaska

If I could, I'd steal your train ride and the fish tacos.

Best RR ever.

Nice race and beautiful pictures! My coach actually lives in Alaska. I would love to visit.

Wow. Fantastic photos! You ran a good race too man. That finish sounds terrible with the 100’ of gain

WOOT!

(Also, I hope DaveP appreciates the classic Oski photo in that mix.)