Sunday, August 18, 2013

DreamBig 2013 - #17 Alaska

STATE #17 - Anchorage, Alaska
Big Wild Life Runs
Finishers: 1,012

Flashback:
Back in January when my year long stint in New York abruptly came to a close, I was in San Francisco with Cooper helping him move into his new apartment in Oakland. I had been there a few days basically just taking up space and doing a mediocre job of supervising his move in while actually just watching TV and using my recent wisdom teeth extraction as a reason to be lazy. Knowing I needed to run Alaska eventually, I decided to look into it and found a race that I thought would be fun eventually. Eventually? Why not this summer? So on a whim using Delta and Sheraton points, I booked a trip to Alaska! Cooper later decided it would be a trip he wouldn't want to miss so he booked a flight as well!

A little more to this saga -- after Race #16 in Seattle, I was down in Fort Lauterdale for work and I decided to go on a run to the beach. Halfway through my run, my foot cramped up and I felt like it was swollen or I had broken something. I limped the rest of the way to the beach, took of my shoes and just sat there freaking out. Do I have a stress fracture? Did I tear something? Nothing is more unsettling than having a potential injury to a part of your body you are relying on to accomplish a goal. After a lot of freaking out and an appointment with the foot doctor, I was diagnosed with Planters Fasciitis which sounds disgusting but is really just and inflammation of the muscle? That runs from your Achilles down to your toes. I was given a boot that would help stretch it out and some exercises as well, but I was told I had to stay off it for a while meaning no running. I had booked half #17 to be mid July in Chicago, IL but due to the foot saga had to drop out of the race. As much as I wanted to rush things, say I was better, and get back out on the road, I had to rest or I would only make things worse. If you want to see a very sad Ashley, tell me I can't workout for 6-8 weeks. It was bad. A lot of time on the couch and a lot of pity parties for myself. BUT through rest and stretching and boot wearing, I slowly got better and was cleared for the race! Actually….the doctor told me to take it easy which in Ashley terms meant I was ready to race again.

August 16, 2013
So I had booked a direct flight on point from Atlanta to Anchorage that would put me in town mid afternoon on Friday the 16th. But for some reason, I last minute decided I would rather take an earlier flight that connected through Minneapolis but got me to Alaska around noon. I guess I thought breaking the flight into a few pieces would be more manageable on my body. Sure enough, my flight out of Atlanta got delayed. We landed in Minneapolis very close to my departure time for my next flight and myself and another man who was en route to Alaska for a fishing trip, took off running through the airport to try and get to our connecting flight. Despite our best efforts, we ended up missing the flight to Alaska and having to wait for the next flight. The only reasonable thing I could think of to do in my fit of furry was get Ben & Jerry's -- because icecream makes everything better. After a very long delay, we finally left MSP to continue my journey to Alaska.

We landed in Alaska mid evening and I decided to just head to the hotel. Cooper's flight wasn't getting in until later so I figured I would grab a cab and just hang out until he arrived. We were staying at the Sheraton on points and our room had a pretty nice view. It was about happy hour time so I head up to the lounge area and grabbed some snacks while I waited. Cooper got in sort of late and I think both of us were in disbelief that we were actually in Alaska! We had an early train to catch for a tour I had booked so we got a quick bite to eat and caught some z's.
ALASKA!

Saturday, August 17, 2013 
Because it was a quick trip in Alaska, I wanted to make sure we made the most of it. For that reason, I booked us on a train tour / boat ride out of Anchorage, AK down to Seward, Alaska. We grabbed a cab that took us to the train station where we waited until our train came along. Trains always make me feel like I am back in the olden days for some reason. We got down to Seward by train that took us along the coast, past a few glaciers and through some gorgeous terrain. It was a bit rainy and overcast but we still got some good pictures along the way but may have missed some wildlife opportunities.

Dove - says it so right
Super long train! 
Sleepy bear sighting
Glacier?


The river runs through
More train


Once we got down to Seward, we boarded a boat, the MIV Star of the Northwest, that took us out and around the national park on an educational tour. We saw a lot of wildlife during this trip. Again, it was rainy and fairly cold but the boat also had an indoor area equip with a prime rib buffet, I kid you not, that we enjoyed intermittently during our cruise whenever we needed to come inside for a warm up break.








Along the coast, we saw lots of sea otters, puffins, and seals. I guess the rest of the animals were hiding from the rain as well. On our way back into the harbor, the sun came out just enough for us to get some blue sky photos of the mountains. We hung around Seward for a little bit taking touristy photos before hoping back on our train to take us home to Anchorage.

Oh Port, you so pretty!







By the time we got to Anchorage we had missed packet pickup but in true Ashley fashion, I had confirmed with the race director in advance that we could pick them up in the morning. We were also both exhausted and figured we would just eat in the hotel restaurant to avoid having to venture out into the world. It had been a long 24 hours of planes, trains, boats and automobiles so we did our best to get some rest before the big race!








Sunday, August 18, 2013
 That darn tootin rain still had not stopped. I think the most annoying part is that it was never straight up raining. As Erin, my Bahamian roommate would say, it was "sprying"  -- she will correct me with this spelling as soon as she reads this. The sprying kept up so even though it was August, I opted for long sleeves because I am a baby.

We left the hotel and walked the few blocks to where the race would start and the packet pick up took place. After grabbing our new swag, we found a nice place to hang out by a wall under an awning to keep ourselves dry. We sat around until it was time to line up and then head to the start where it started raining even more. We joined our fellow racers under a couple tents that had been set up and I tried to shuffle to the middle where I could absorb everyone else's body heat. I'm very similar to a puppy in some ways.



Once it got closer to race time, we went out to brave the elements and waited for the gun to go off. This race was fairly different than most of the races I had run recently. We spent very little time in downtown or on main streets and the majority of the race was on a bike path that either ran along the coast or mostly through the woods.

I didn't want to push it since this was my first race back so I did my best to just play it cool. It was an out and back course so we got to enjoy seeing the fast people come back our directions towards the middle of the race. It continued to rain a little and I know I was going slow but Cooper was nice enough to tag along beside me. Honestly, the race was kind of boring and I was getting unmotivated but just tried to do my best to keep thinking "I'm in ALASKA!"

Around Mile 8, the support teams were giving out M&M's and I can only imagine how much my excitement meter peeked after I was handed a little cup of tasty chocolatey treats. Those kept me going for a good while and also the fact that backtracking out steps on the way back into down town helped me be able to countdown the miles.

Near Mile 10 or 11 Cooper started to run behind me for a bit and I was getting really annoyed. He said my pace was too awkward so he either had to slow down his pace or speed up and be in front of me. I was just at the end of my patience level and ready to be done so I told him to go ahead since all I wanted to do was finish the race. He went ahead a little but not enough to ever be out of sight. I started feeling a weird sense of vertigo at one point where I felt like my brain and my legs were not on the same page and I continued to run just hoping I would make it to the finish and something outlandish wouldn't happen to take me out of the race. The last thing I wanted to do was have to plan another trip up to Alaska especially after how far we had come.

I pulled it together and found my last burst of energy that gave me enough motivation to catch up to Cooper and wind through downtown to finish the race pretty close to him. I was hurting but had finished and that's all that mattered. This race had some weird finishers snacks like grilled cheese which I was pumped about. Who doesn't love a good, fresh grilled cheese straight off the flat top after running 13.1 miles? We got our treats and took some photos before heading down to the beer garden for our beers we had earned.

Grilled cheese please!
Half #4 for Cooper
Blue Barracudas
Beers are here!


OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 17 states down, 33 more to go! #DREAMBIG
After we had gotten tired of standing around drinking beer in the rain, we head back to the hotel to shower and then head out into Anchorage to explore a little more. We found a cool little market that had art and food stalls and I got me a nice chocolate covered piece of bacon. Once we got hungry, we got an early dinner / late lunch at a brewery on the water where we got some Alaskan seafood along with a flight of local brews.




Tired from the race, we spent the rest of the evening hanging out in the lobby of the Sheraton watching TV and napping while we waited for our flights home. It was an incredibly fast trip but I'm happy we made the most of it and I will most definitely be planning another trip back soon!

No comments:

Post a Comment