My First Marathon!

I never thought that I'd see the day, but today I did my first marathon! Carol has run and done marathons forever, but not me. I never, EVER thought that even if I did a marathon that the first one would be the Equinox Marathon, widely considered the second toughest marathon in the U.S., second only to the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado. (Please don't spam me with what you're sure are way harder marathons. I'm a) repeating what is widely said and b) enjoying the ego boost.)

The reason that the Equinox is so tough is because of two factors:

• It is held in Fairbanks, Alaska near the autumnal equinox (usually 21 September, plus or minus a day) when the weather can be hot, cold, snowy, sunny, rainy, or frigid, and in its history has been all of those.
• It has 4,000 feet of elevation change. It starts outside the Patty Gym at the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus and at one point passes over the top of Ester Dome, one of the highest points in the Fairbanks area, with plenty of steep in between.

Fortunately today was a beautiful day, almost cloudless, a bit chilly in the 30s all day. There was a little snow on Ester Dome from the rain and snow of a few days ago, but it was pretty well stamped down. That still left the 4,000 feet to deal with.

No, I didn't run it. One of the nice things about the Equinox is that it has a long history (42 years and running) of being a friendly race. So many people run it but many people walk it as well. Carol and I did the latter, although we did run parts of it (okay, very few), including a dramatic running finish, hand in hand (we are SO romantic, eh)? I was pretty amazed that we kept up a pretty good walking pace, even on the uphills, even the killer uphill near the finish line. We tend to walk fast anyway but I didn't think that we'd sustain a fast pace.

We finished in just over 7 hours (right around 7:01), which was well within the 10-hour time limit to be considered to have finished it and get a patch. Woohoo!

And now I'm sitting here after a warm shower and a bite of dinner, sore as can be. One of the downsides is that a bit of the course is on asphalt, although by far and away most of the distance is on trails and gravel roads. But the asphalt was a killer, so I have some sore muscles in my groin and Achille's tendon, as well as a sore back. Nothing serious. But I'm NOT looking forward to Monday, when I'm sure I'll be sore all over, particularly painful as I walk down stairs!

Was it worth it? Of course! I'm quite satisfied that I did it, although I'm probably going to milk some points from Carol for having done it.

Would I do it again? Hmm. Maybe. Ask me again next August!

Do I still love Carol, after she did this to me? Of course!!!!!!!!!!!!! But don't tell her, since I don't want her TOO sure of herself! Heh.

Driving the Denali Park Road

One of the many benefits of living in Alaska is being close to Denali National Park. Even better is that every year the park holds a lottery for 1,600 lucky souls to enter to win the chance to drive the 90 miles in from the park entrance on the Parks Highway all the way to Wonder Lake and beyond to Kantishna, for four days in the second half of September. During the season from about May to mid-September only park buses are allowed beyond the Savage River, about 15 miles in. So it is a treat to be able to drive a private vehicle on your own schedule and exploring the parts of the park you are most interested in.

The park changed the rules of the lottery a bit this year, among other things requiring a $10 payment with the application, which much be sent in July of that year. I've been entering for something like 10 straight years and have never won, although I've used other people's permits when they couldn't go. I suggested that my sweetie, Carol Kleckner, enter this year as well. And, of course, her first time out she wins! Sheesh. But it was a good thing because she asked me to go along! Woohoo!

Our date was Friday, 17 September, and we bundled into the car yesterday morning and had an incredible day of amazing country and wildlife, including moose, plenty of ptarmigan, hawks, and the closest I've ever been to two grizzly bears. You can see photos here. These are only the ones I took with my digital camera; Carol used my 35 mm SLR to take a bunch of slides, so I'll add those after we get them developed and digitized. Toward the bottom of the page, look closely to see Denali (officially Mt. McKinley, but no one in Alaska calls it that), which we had great views of at times.

The bears were way, way cool. We spotted them as we came across the Toklat River bridge, around mile 53, on the up river side of the bridge. We drove on, hoping to get closer to them, but there was too much brush between the road and the river. So we went back to the bridge and spent about 15 minutes as they came in our direction and passed under the bridge right under us, then continued down river. Then they headed to an area around the port-a-potties, and we headed down there and got more photos. Very cool!

Fires in Interior Alaska: We're Number One!

2004 has officially become the worst fire season on record, with way more than 5,000,000 acres burned to date and no end in sight.

BLM - Alaska Press Release - Smoke Fills the Air

We're getting SICK of this smoke!

Fairbanks is On Fire

Fairbanks, Alaska--my home town--is on fire. Not literally, but we are surrounded by forest fires most of which were caused by lightning. The result is that the entire Tanana Valley is beset with an amazing brown fog, so dense that the sun is but a faint orange image...sometimes.

Here are some pretty amazing pictures of what things look like from space:

Satellite photo from Tuesday
Ten days worth of images, letting you see how the fires developed and spread

As a friend pointed out, Alaska is producing some pretty major global pollution (gee thanks, Kathleen!). The good news is that this afternoon things are a bit better and fewer people are threatened by evacuations.