Equinox Marathon Fairbanks

 I ran marathon #174 today. It's a very tough race because it climbs a mountain and is mostly a rocky narrow mountain trail. We were lucky this year because it was cloudy and cool but no rain, wind or snow. There are interesting sections of the race, that have special names. The first one is called the Tunnel. It's a beautiful section that runs through a long stand of trees that form sort of a tunnel with their canopy of golden autumn leaves. At the top of the Tunnel is my favorite spot where you can view an expanse of fall colors covering the hills across the valley.

Soon after, you climb the Zipper, which is a twisty winding narrow collection of tree root obstacles that lead to the top of Ester Dome. The challenge there is to avoid tripping on the roots. Once up on top, you are greeted by the many communication towers that service Fairbanks.

Soon you reach the out and back section. It's now a winding trail of rocky road full of giant mud and water puddles. It was easy to navigate around the puddles and avoid the dread of wet feet. This section goes mostly downhill to the turnaround at about mile 15. There is a giant well supplied table of water and food at the turnaround. But then it's mostly uphill back to the summit again. Soon after the top, one heads down the steep road to everyone's least favorite section, the dreaded Chute. I actually look forward to that because at least, it's downhill. Very steep rocky and narrow downhill for about half a mile more or less following a powerline. I kind of hop and skip down this, trying not to fall and break bones. Of course, the fast and fearless mountain runners go flying down this like it's not even there. I'm always happy to get to the spot where the trail is once again mostly flat or slightly downhill and I can actually run at my slow but steady pace through the fallen leaves. It was really beautiful through this section because of the golden colors.

From this section on, it starts to feel like any other marathon, with sections of road, both paved and unpaved. The pavement felt kind of hard on my tired feet, but I do like the downhill aspect of it. There is another section of trail beneath a powerline, then through streets, bike trails, and the woods, to the roundabout, then up the hill through the grass to the finish line back at the University of Fairbanks.

I was faster than last year by 22 minutes, but still very slow. We are allowed 10 hours, and I finished in 8:18:41. But this year I didn't make first in my age group. I'm in the 75-79 group. A 75-year-old woman beat me by over an hour. Normally at the next decade I would move to the next age group of 80-84. But they don't continue at that point. If I make it next year, I'll probably still be in the 75+ group even though I will be 80. But I'm mostly just happy that at 79, I can still run at all. I am happy with my results and was very happy to get off my feet and back at my hotel with Mark and Bella who were waiting there for me. We will go on to travel to Delta then down the Richardson Highway to home the next day.

2nd in the 75-79 age group medal