Pre race junk: I signed up for this race a few months ago and thought it would be fun to do while we were up here in Cordova Alaska. But after getting up here I got way too into the fishing, sight seeing, 4-wheeling ect and the thought of having to take time away from all of that to run a race sounded tragic. I've turned into an even bigger adult kid up here. There are way too many cool things to do outside and I can't control myself. Plus it gets light at around 4 a.m and doesn't get dark until after 11 p.m. So I haven't slept much all week. No time to sleep when you fish until dark then spend 2 hours after taking care of all the fish we caught. And last but not least my diet up here has been off the hook. Mik'L's aunt is an amazing cook and I love to eat. Haven't stopped plus I've been drinking Mt. Dew to help take the edge off:) So anyways not the best prep the week of a marathon. But I didn't come up here to run the marathon. I came to do everything Alaska and as much of it as I could in the time we have here. I told Mik'L on the ride out to the starting line that I'd be lucky to break 3 hours with the way I felt... running faster just sounded out of the question.
The weather was forcast to be rainy the entire time we were here but it's been amazing. The day of the race was the best day of them all. As we drove out to the starting line of the race we saw a moose walk out in the road in front of us.
The Course: It starts 26.2 miels (distance was right on after driving it twice). We started out in the flats or the Cooper river delta. Basically a massive drainage at the base of a massive mountain range. But it's flat from there all the way into town. Well maybe a 1% grade incline for the first 14 miles then a 1% decline for about 7 miles and the rest flat. The first 15 miles of the race start on a dirt (very loose gravel road) and it turnes to good pavement after that. You cross countless bridges and rivers as you make your way back into town. All of them bigger than any river in Utah (other than the Colorado). I've never seen so much water. It's all running off the mountains and the 4-5 big glaciers that are above the Cooper River delta. Then as you get 4 miles from town you start to come into a little valley that flows around a big freshwater lake and then the town is on the far side of the lake creating a little barrier between the lake and the ocean. This place is really amazing! Words do no justice...
The Race: I got to ride out there with my wife and her aunt who also got to drive right behind me for the first 22 miles of the race. This was for caution of any bears. And they were able to bring me GU and drink anytime I wanted. That was nice. We started and two guys went out ahead of me and that kind of flipped a trigger in my brain. I quickly matched their pace and basically from there to the finish was locked into a 5:50ish pace. It felt smooth and comfortable. I didn't feel like I was killing it, rather just enjoying the day. Had to stop at mile 11 for a big boy potty break that took 40 seconds of real time and maybe cost me a little more just becaue I had to stop and start. But still hit the half in 1:18:00. By the half I was getting really sick of the gravel and the long, long incline. It wasn't steep but there was no change in grade from mile 7 to 14 or so and it just got pesky. I'd dropped the other two guys after mile 1 and had no sight or sound of them by mlie 5. 2nd pace was 3:02 and would have been a new course record from the old 3:20.
Once on the pavement I wanted to try and get a little faster turnover with the slight decline for about 6 miles but my splits just stayed basically the same. Once you get to the lake there are some rollers into town and I slowed from 6 min pace to around 6:10 pace. Hit the second half in 1:18:40. So a pretty even split race for me.
I felt good the entire way. Mile markers were right on through mile 19 or 20 and then my garmin went crazy when I dumped water all over myself so I didn't get anymore splits. Had a blast and am so glad I signed up and then decided to run the race. So pretty, so fun and I never felt trashed. Finished the race then went back to the house got ready to go fishing and we fished from noon to basically midnight. Never felt any hang over from the race. Really no soreness or the normal fatigue.
Sorry this is long for those who made it this far. | 