Okay, the wedding and all the excitement is over. But the running continues….:)
I had planned on doing the Skinny Raven Half Marathon that was scheduled on the day after Matt and Sonja’s wedding. Since Jose was here visiting, he decided to run the half with me! He runs regularly, but he had not been training at all for a half marathon. My training has been geared towards the NYC Marathon, so I wasn’t sure how either of us would do. But, we both did pretty awesome!
Here we are just hanging out and staying warm before the race. It was a little chilly! I even thought about wearing my jacket during the run, but then decided to check it at the last minute. I am not a coffee drinker, but there was plenty of hot coffee available to keep the runners warm.
Warming up before the race; getting ready to run!
I told Jose to run his own race because it would be a long slow race if he ran my pace. And I guess he realized that just past the one mile marker. There he goes pulling away from me. I was able to keep him in my sights for a few miles at least.
Soon after that first mile, this guy runs up next to me and tells me that I look like I have good form and he was going to try to stay with me for as long as he could (I thought the comment was a little strange, doesn’t everybody have good or a least decent form in the first mile?). I did want to run my own race, but I was okay with company if it worked out. He literally stayed with me right up until the last mile. At that point he quickly went to the side of the trail and I didn’t see him again. I did wait for him for a few minutes at the end, but when he didn’t show up, I assumed that he must have gotten hurt or something. I really hope he was okay!
The course was a mostly flat out and back winding through the bike trails. It did have a pretty steep hill about a mile or so before the turnaround and a pretty significant hill at the end. What is up with these races that always have hills at the very end. That sucks! Every time!
I don’t know if the guy I was running with paced me to a faster than expected finish or if I would have done it on my own, but I was really surprised to finish in under 1:50. That time actually qualifies me for the very race that I am training for right now! Yes the NYC Marathon! I felt really good the whole way. That last hill had me grimacing a little and I could feel my calves starting to tighten up, but otherwise I felt great!
When I got to that last mile, I could see Jose up ahead. He had slowed down a bit and even started walking at intervals. He tends to cramp up at the end of a race so he claimed that he started walking to prevent that from happening. I think he was just waiting for me because we started up that last hill together and he seemed totally fine 🙂
The finish!
He came in fourth in his age group. I think if he had not waited for me, he would have placed within the awards categories. Even still, he wasn’t even planning on running a race let alone a half marathon. So he did pretty awesome!
I actually placed 1st among women in my age category. The picture is a little misleading because it says I was first of three as if there were only three of us in that age category running that day. The truth is that only three runners in that category had finished at the time the photo was taken. The final results shows that 27 runners in that that age category completed the half. And of note, I finished 2nd in the grand masters??? I had never heard of that before, but apparently it is runners over the age of 50 😳
This was the race photo finish. I don’t look so fresh here ha ha. It was a little tough coming up that last hill and then a short sprint to the finish. I always love to check out my form in these finish photos – its important for me to know that I am not over striding!
Jose looked nice and relaxed. I think he could have kept going. Maybe he will run a marathon with me one day!
Once the race was over, Jose met up with Teena and together they headed to Girdwood, which is about a 45 minute drive, for a Dog Tour/mushing trip. Once they got to Girdwood, they took a helicopter ride in the Chugach Mountains and eventually landed on the Punch Bowl Glacier. According to them, they got the history of the Iditarod, dog training techniques, and actually took turns as dog mushers. They had a good time, but I think if it had been a clear day where they could see some of the views, it would have been even more awesome! They have some pretty cool photos of the event. I should have snagged a couple from them.
I headed home and hung out with Mom for the rest of the day. We just sat around and took it easy. It was very nice just having her here!
Jose was determined to have Alaska King Crab while he was here, so he purchased some the day before. They were expected back from Girdwood around 7pm and we (okay Scott) had a nice crab and steak dinner ready. It was soooo good! I haven’t had Alaska king crab in a long time. It seems that I rarely take pictures of food. I think that is because I am more interested in eating it than photographing it. Although, I did happen to snap a picture of dessert!
My family would be leaving Alaska in a couple of days and the weather was just cloudy, rainy and cold 🙁 Even still, Scott, Jose, and Teena took a trip to the JBER (military base) to go fishing! Well, Teena walked the dogs around the lake, I don’t think she is into fishing 🙂
I ended up going on a training run of 5 miles that day which went really well. Then my Mother and I headed up to Arctic Valley (the same area where the wedding was held) to watch supposedly over 450 paratroopers jump out of airplanes during a training exercise. All we saw were circulating airplanes; not one paratrooper. We thought maybe it was too windy so along with everybody else that was hanging out for the same reason, we decided to head back down the mountain. As it turned out, they did jump according to the evening news. I’m not sure how we missed them.
But on our way down, we did stop to watch a black bear having a snack.
Later that night, Teena and Jose took a walk from the house to the Eagle River Nature Center and saw this guy fishing for salmon.
They actually went back there on their last day here and took several videos of a brown bear hanging out at the beaver pond (maybe the same one). They took some pretty cool videos. Just a side note, there is a local photographer that takes a lot of pictures in this area (and other places) if you are interested click here.
We also took a a quick drive down by the inlet prior to everybody leaving. Talk about a sad day. It is always so incredibly sad for me when family leaves or I leave if I am the one visiting. I go into a deep depression and it takes me days to recover. And this trip was no exception. I just couldn’t believe they were leaving already. It seemed like they just got here! Time goes by so fast- it just blows my mind!
Mom doesn’t like having her picture taken and won’t be too happy that I have posted it, but I am going to anyways😜
They had a rental car so they drove themselves to the airport after the sad good-byes. Sonja, Matt and the kids showed up to say good-bye which they were not expecting so that was a nice surprise.
Tylor thinks Uncle Jose is the coolest!
Little did I know that it would not end here. Unfortunately, their flight was canceled due to an oil leak and they spent the next three hours in the airport trying to get other arrangements. I didn’t know how I could help so I headed into town in case they needed to come back to our house for the night. As it turned out, they were able to get a room in town and would fly out the next morning at about 8 am. As much as I had wanted them to come back and stay with me (selfish on my part), it was better to stay in town and get an extra hour of rest. It was going to be a long flight from Anchorage straight to Atlanta! At least I got to see them one more time before they left, but I really did hate all they had to go through.
As it turns out, that plane with the oil leak had to have the engine replaced….courtesy of a friend who works at the airport 🙂 I guess better to find out when you are on the ground and not in the air!
So, the wedding is over, the half marathon is done, and my family is gone. I’ll be going back to work at the end of the week and of course, I will continue to train for the NYC Marathon. And I will have to figure out my schedule so that I can go visit my family soon! I miss them so much!
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