I Run Alaska – Page 9 – Running Adventures in the Last Frontier

The Long Winter

March 22, 2013March 21, 2013 by Brandon
Winter

Now that we’re nearing the end of March, the end of this winter is finally in sight. As much as I have embraced running through snowstorms, icy sidewalks, and sub-zero temperatures, it’s around this time of year that I’m reminded how much I miss running outside without multiple layers of clothing and having to worry about my water freezing.

There’s a cruel back-and-forth that inevitably happens this time of year. One day, I’ll go for an afternoon run with the temperature in the high 30’s. The sun is shining, I’m wearing my sunglasses, and the snow is melting. I’ve got a big smile on my face, optimistic that spring is just around the corner. Then, like an angry splash of cold water to the face, I’ll wake up for an early morning run, and it is 5 degrees, or there are 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground.

This is one of the most difficult times to run outside in Alaska. It is a time of year affectionately referred to as “break up”, when the ice and snow are literally breaking up from the warming sun during the day, only to freeze back up as the temperature drops at night. This freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw cycle leaves the roads a treacherous battleground of jagged ice and slushy puddles big enough to swallow a small car.

During these last few weeks, I’ve done more runs on the treadmill than I have in the past year – something that I typically avoid at nearly all costs, even on the chilliest of winter mornings.

Even with fresh snow being forecast for this weekend, I’m ever hopeful that spring really is just around the corner. I look forward to once again feeling the sun’s warm glow as I run, needing to wear nothing more than a t-shirt and shorts.

Interviewed by The Beer Runner

February 11, 2013February 7, 2013 by Brandon

I was recently interviewed by The Beer Runner over at Draft Magazine. We talked about beer, running, and my weight loss – check it out!

How one man lost 90 pounds without giving up beer

I’m an Altra Ambassador for 2013!

January 25, 2013February 7, 2013 by Brandon
Altra

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been selected as an Altra Ambassador for 2013!

Altra Zero Drop Ambassador

If you haven’t been paying attention, I absolutely LOVE my Altra Zero Drop shoes. I currently do 95% of my running in either their Instincts when I’m on the roads, or their Lone Peaks on the trails. Since transitioning to their shoes at the beginning of last year, I have had no foot problems or other injuries whatsoever. That’s right – not a single blister or black toenail to be found here! I’ll tell anyone and everyone who is willing to listen about how great these shoes are.

So when I heard that they were taking applications for their 2013 ambassador program, I knew I had to apply. While I was on vacation with my family in Florida to run the Disney World Goofy Challenge, I got the magical email telling me that I had been accepted.

So what does this mean for me and my blog? First of all – no, this isn’t going to turn me into some corporate shill, where every post is an ad for Altra. I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t truly love and believe in this brand. I have been wanting to get back into blogging at least a little more regularly, because I do miss it, and I believe that this opportunity will give me some extra motiviation to do so, whether I’m writing specifically about Altra or not.

Who is Altra, Anyway?

If you’re not familiar with the Altra brand, they’re a small independant running shoe company based in Utah. The specialize in “zero drop” running shoes, meaning that there is no difference in height between your heel and toe, whereas the average running shoe is somewhere in the 12mm range. This barefoot-like feel helps to promote a more natural running form, similar to something like Vibram Five Fingers, but with padding to offer your feet more protection from the ground.

My favorite feature of their shoes is the wide toe box, allowing your toes to splay out more naturally, instead of being crammed into a pointed end like most typical running shoes. Previously, I had problems with getting blisters between my toes from them rubbing together. Since moving to Altras, I have been completely blister free. The same goes for getting black toe nails – they are not a runner’s badge of honor, they are a sign that your shoes don’t fit properly, that your toes are being jammed into a narrow toe box.

My Altras are, far and away, the most comfortable running shoes I’ve ever worn.

Thanks so much to Altra for giving me this opportunity. This news makes me even more excited to see what 2013 has in store!

Disney World Goofy Challenge Recap

goofy-challenge After 13 hours of air travel with 2 sick kids, I’m finally back home in Alaska after last weekend’s Disney World Goofy Challenge in Orlando. The Disney World Marathon weekend consists of the Donald Duck 1/2 Marathon on Saturday, followed by the Mickey Mouse Marathon on Sunday. The Goofy Challenge has you run both races.

The races started at 5:30am both days, so that they can get the roads and parks opened back up as soon as possible. This meant waking up at 3am 2 days in a row. This was mostly a game of “hurry up and wait”, since we had to be on the shuttle buses by 4am, only to stand around in the first staging area near the finish line, until we were allowed to start making the 20 minute walk to the starting corrals.

Don’t get me wrong, I had an absolutely great time at both races, it’s just that 3am is an early wakeup call – especially 2 days in a row.

Day 1 – Donald Duck 1/2 Marathon

We turned this trip into a big family vacation, with my parents and my wife’s family coming along. My wife, along with her mother and sister, walked the 1/2 marathon, so at least I had company in the wee hours of the morning the first day. My goal was to finish in just under 2 hours, in the hopes of saving my legs for the full marathon the next day. The course was a lot of fun, running through the Magic Kingdom and part of Epcot. Though that means that you still end up running a lot on the roads in between parks, and those miles can get a bit boring at times. Disney did a good job of keeping you entertained most of the way, with characters and music spaced regularly throughout the course.

Speaking of the characters for a moment – you can stop along the course to get your photo with them, and I was amazed how long some of the lines were, you could have probably spent 5-10 minutes waiting for some of them. I told myself that if any of the lines had only a couple of people, I would stop for a photo, but that never happened during the half. At the full marathon the next day, I ended up stopping for 2 character photos late in the race that didn’t have any wait.

Due to the huge crowds of runners (around 25,000 on both days), I must have done more bobbing and weaving than normal (and thus running a fair amount longer than 13.1 miles), because within about the last 1/2 mile of the race, I realized that I was seriously going to have to pick up the pace if I was going to finish in under 2 hours. I just about sprinted across the finish line, but managed to finish in 1:59:33. Overall I felt pretty good after finishing. I was optimistic about the next day.

Day 2 – Mickey Mouse Marathon

My “soft” goal for the marathon was to finish under 4 hours. I knew it would likely be a tall order, considering that I had just run a half marathon the day before, and the weather forecast for the day had the temperature reaching high 70’s/low 80’s – much warmer than I’m used to, coming from the middle of an Alaskan winter.

My 3am wakeup came early again, however this morning I would be making the trip to the starting line alone, while my family stayed snug in bed. The “hurry up and wait” process was much the same, but at least this time I knew what to expect. There was a bit of a feeling of deja vu, as the announcers told the same stories and made the same jokes as the day before. My legs were definitely feeling a bit sore and creaky from the day before, so I did a bit of stretching and light jogging to try and work the cobwebs out.

Then we were off again. The first 6 or 7-ish miles were the same as the day before, heading up to and through Magic Kingdom. Then we got some new sites as we ran around the speedway track and onto Animal Kingdom. I didn’t see this going on when I ran through, but I heard of runners later in the race actually stopping to ride the Everest ride (which, I totally would have done if I had known it was an option!).

Next it was onto the ESPN Wide World of Sport complex, where we weaved through the fields there, and even ran around the outfield of the baseball field. It was getting pretty hot by this point, and somewhere in here is where they had wet sponges at one of the aid stations, which was wonderful at the time. This is also about the time I had to stop for a short (but urgent!) bathroom break – the first time that’s ever happened to me during a race.

Getting into these later miles, it was getting hot out, and I was starting to see a fair amount of carnage. People’s pace was slowing way down, and lots of walking was going on. I was definitely feeling the effects of the heat, but so far had managed to keep a pretty steady pace. At this point (mile 22-ish), I was still on pace for a 4 hour finish.

Now we continued on a quick trip through Hollywood Studios, and then it would be onto Epcot and the finish. Here I stopped for a quick photo with Mr. & Mrs. Incredible (with the obligatory muscle-man pose). Then, running through a resort area between Hollywood Studios and Epcot, I caught the toe of my shoe on a curb and, not having the energy or the reaction time to recover, went down. I first caught myself with my hands, but still had enough momentum that I kept moving forward, so I quickly tucked my shoulder, rolled, and ended up in a sort of crouching position. I stood up and did a quick self-assessment – my hands were a little scraped up, but everything seemed to feel ok, so I started running again. I had a few people ask me if I was ok or if I needed a gel or anything. It wasn’t until the bus ride back to my hotel after the race that I realized I had actually scraped my knee up pretty bad, and had a nice bruise on my hip.

After the initial adrenaline rush of my fall had worn off though, my remaining energy began to fade pretty quickly. My running pace slowed considerably, and I took a few short walking breaks. Once I reached Epcot, however, I perked up a bit as I knew the finish line was near. I stopped for a quick photo with Snow White since there was no line. Within just a few hundred yards of the finish line, I saw a runner go down ahead of me. Several runners quickly stopped to help him to his feet, and he was able to run across the finish line on his own. The crowd of spectators went wild for this, loudly cheering and clapping for him. The excitement helped me pick it up right at the end for a strong finish.

I high-fived Goofy as I crossed the finish line, then quickly spotted Bart Yasso in the finish area. I went over to shake hands with the running legend, got a hearty congrats and a pat on the back, then I was off to collect my well-deserved medals. For completing the Goofy Challenge, you get a 3rd Goofy medal, which you pick up after finishing the marathon.

The 1/2 marathon and Goofy medals were pretty standard from what I’ve seen in other years, but since this was the 20th anniversary of the marathon, they really went all out on that medal:

I’m happy to report that through both races, I didn’t have any problems with my feet. I wore Injinji socks and the same pair of Altra Instincts both days. Altra and Injini are proving to be a killer combination for comfortable feet.

My finishing time for the full marathon was 4:05:33 – not quite the sub-4 I was hoping for, but all things considered, I’m still very happy with that time. And it makes me very excited to see what I can do running “just” a marathon back in Alaska in cooler temps. I had a great time running both the Disney World races, and I highly recommend them for anyone who enjoys Disney. I would love to say that I’ll be back again next year, but coming from Alaska, it’s a long (and expensive) trip to Florida. If I’m going to pay that much money to run an out-of-state race, I’d prefer to run a race I haven’t done before. Oh well, just one of the costs of living in paradise I guess 🙂

Willow Winter Solstice Marathon Recap (or: What It’s Like to Run a Marathon at -22°)

January 21, 2013January 21, 2013 by Brandon
Marathon · Race Report

Back on December 22, the (almost) shortest day of the year, I ran the Willow Winter Solstice Marathon. This was a new race this year put on by local ultrarunning legend Dave Johnston and his wife. I only heard about the race a few weeks prior from my running buddy Ray, who I ran the Resurrection Pass 50 with this past summer. The website warned of possible -30 to -40 degree temperatures. How could I say no?

I actually got the oppoturnity to run the full course 2 weeks earlier with Ray and a few others, because Dave wanted to check out the trail conditions, so I already had a good idea of what to expect coming into race day. That day the starting temp was 0°, and around 8° when we finished – overall pretty comfortable for running. The extended forecast at the time was showing around the same temps for race day, so I was cautiously optimistic.

However, as race day neared, the forecasted temperature kept dropping. When I showed up to the start on race day, this is what I was met with:

I was a bit nervous about the cold, but I had run a 20 miler in -15 the weekend before, so this wasn’t that much colder. But, having run the course 2 weeks prior, I also knew that this “marathon” was actually 28 miles, so I knew I’d be out there just that much longer. The course runs long because it’s an out-and-back, and they wanted to have the turnaround at a public-use cabin so there would be a place to come inside and warmup if need be.

most-interesting-man

Milling around the Willow Community Center waiting for the race to start, I was surprised by the number of runners who would show up for such a crazy race. There were about 30 runners total (including local dog-mushing legend DeeDee Jonrowe), split between the 1/2 and full marathons. Due to the extreme cold, Ray and I had decided to run the race together, not wanting to get into a bad situation out there if something went wrong.

One of the biggest challenges of running in this kind of cold is keeping your water from freezing. One of the most popular techniques is to carry a hydration bladder, and to blow the water out of the tube and back into the bladder every time you’re done taking a drink to keep the tube from freezing. You also need to wear at least one layer of clothing over the hydration bladder, so that your body heat helps keep the entire bladder from freezing up. However, even after following all of these guidelines, my water tube still managed to freeze up on me about halfway into the race. Luckily, there was an aid station at the turnaround point, and another back at the 1/2 marathon turnaround point, so I didn’t have to go completely waterless the rest of the race.

The trails were fairly well packed, but due to the cold and all the extra layers we were wearing, it was still relatively slow going. Despite the cold temperature, I was actually relatively comfortable most of the race. The hardest part was every time I needed to dig into my pocket for a gel. I was wearing 2 pairs of gloves for warmth, but I had to take the outermost pair off to actually have enough dexterity to operate zippers, tear open gels, etc. My gels would also be nearly frozen solid, so I had to slip them inside my gloves to let them warm up for a few minutes before I could actually eat them. Even then, I had to eat them quickly before they had a chance to freeze up again. Every time I went through this process, my hands got quite cold and it took another 10-15 minutes before they were warmed back up again. If I end up doing much more extreme cold running in the future, I’ll need to work on improving this process.

Despite the cold, it was a really fun race. It was an absolutely beautiful clear day (which is also why it was so cold), offerring great views of Denali. I brought my camera with me and was able to get a few shots before the battery froze and refused to work. Ray and I ran the whole way together, so I had someone to keep me company and chat with. We never really pushed the pace too much, just enjoyed the experience.

We finished in 5:12:51 – by far my slowest marathon yet, but that doesn’t bother me one bit (it was also 28 miles). Going into this race, I had no dreams of a fast time, I was just looking for a fun and unique experience, and I definitely got that. I’ve also got some pretty hefty bragging rights – not many people have run a marathon at -22° 🙂