What I’ve Been up to: Running 1000 Miles + Exploring Alaska

Hey my fabulous friends, long time no see!  I’m still alive!  I hope you all have been well, too.

As you may have noticed, I ended up taking a de facto blogging hiatus these last several months after telling myself “I’ll try for next weekend” for…well, a lot of weekends.  These last few months have been pretty action-packed, including a ton of running, a very tough marathon, moving to a new house, and spending an epic 2 weeks in Alaska.  Things are starting to quiet down a little bit, and I’m getting all the pieces set in place to get back to regular posts and generally breathing new life into this space.

I’ll be honest, after >5 years of blogging, it was nice to take a sabbatical, even if it wasn’t totally intentional.  Here’s a quick highlight reel of what’s been going on with me lately.

Silverton Alpine Marathon

The marathon distance is actually about 27 miles.  The race starts around 9,000 ft and accumulates 4,000 ft of climbing, maxing out at 12,963 ft at California Pass.  Needless to say, this was an incredibly tough course.  That said, the scenery was absolutely unbelievable.

I couldn’t help but stop and take photos, because…seriously.  Pictures don’t do it justice!

Most of the course follows the Alpine Loop, which is mostly gravel or dirt roads rather than single track.  This also means you share the trail with a fair amount of UTV and Jeep traffic, which can be a bit disruptive, but I got used to it.

I crossed the finish line in 6:05:25, even though I forecasted a 7+ hour finish.  My last ~10 miles were way stronger than I expected, averaging a sub-10 pace, even with a huge number of miles already in my legs.

This was the strongest race performance ever for me, and I still felt like I had more to give.  I’m incredibly proud of this result.  Not to mention, I had so much fun running it and I was in a great mood.  All around, it was definitely my best race experience to date.

Year to date, I’ve logged over 1,000 miles.  This is my first year breaking the 4-digit mark, which is exciting!  I also ran a local 12-mile race in October, which is all trail and forest road, including over 1,300 ft of elevation gain.  I managed to pull off a 10:36 average pace, which is blazing fast for me in those conditions.

All told, it’s been an incredibly successful training season, so it’s no wonder I’ve been needing a lot of recovery.

Alaska

I spent just shy of 2 weeks in Alaska in late July/early August as a birthday present to my mom.  Neither of us had been, and we were certainly not disappointed.  It would take at least an entire post to cover all the details, but we spent time in Denali, Lake Clark National Park, Seward, and Girdwood.  We saw all kinds of amazing scenery and a staggering array of wildlife.

Summarizing everything we did and saw is an absolutely overwhelming prospect, so I’ll leave you with a few photos instead.  All wildlife in the photos are in their natural habitats.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a new post!