Valley Thaw Out Marathon

 I initially registered for the half marathon because I have run it several times. The marathon is new this year and was originally advertised with a 5-hour time limit. I knew that was way beyond my abilities so reluctantly settled for the half. A few weeks later my friend, Alice told me she tried to register for the half, but it was all full. So, she registered for the full marathon, not really wanting to do the whole distance. Soon after, I noticed that they had changed the time limit to a generous 8 hours. I knew I could probably do that even if I walked the whole way. I tried to switch my registration to the marathon but got a message that it was too late to switch. A few days later I got a notice that if anyone wanted to drop out of the half to allow those waitlisted to get a chance, they could contact the race director. I talked with Alice and we decided it would be fun if we ran together. I emailed the director and switched to the full marathon. The day before the race, Alice switched to the half because her back hurt. She is a faster runner than I am, but I was looking forward to trying to stay with her most of the way. But that was not to be. There were only 34 runners doing the full marathon and they were all young enough to be my grandchildren, and a zillion times faster than I am. But that's OK. They took off and I was in last place in the first mile, which is typical. After a couple of miles, I found that my feet were really starting to hurt. It seemed to get a little worse with each mile. But I took it in stride and did a lot of short runs followed by periods of walking. My pace didn't seem to change much whether I walked or ran, and I could see I was on a pace to finish in time. I was so happy to see that a lot of the water had receded from that tunnel, and I was able to avoid getting wet feet. Although as I went through the tunnel for the second time, on the return course, I considered putting my feet in that icy water because by mile 17 or so, I was really having serious foot pain. I kept telling myself it's only a couple more hours, I'll live through it. The wind came up once out on the Springer system, and I was really happy I had brought my windbreaker with me. It kept me at the perfect temperature. It started out a gorgeous blue-sky day and was cooler and cloudy by the end. But still, a beautiful course with the mountains towering above me. I finished with 20 minutes to spare. Not a very good time, but still a finish. I'm so glad I upgraded to the marathon. It showed me that first I need to buy different shoes, then do some more training in the new ones. I need to pick up my pace if I want to finish the Anchorage Marathon in June. I should have plenty of time to remedy the foot and training problem by then. Plus, through the whole race I was also suffering with the blasted head cold that had not improved a bit since Tuesday. I was so happy to see that finish line!

Bike Trail Run

 Last time I wore my street running shoes, I had some trouble with my feet. So, I took a nice 6 mile run with Bella along the bike trails that will be part of the Valley Thaw Out Marathon this coming Saturday. I was very happy to find that they didn't seem to bother my feet at all. It wasn't quite as good of a training run as it could have been because Bella likes to stop and sniff every rock, tree, and blade of grass along the path. I parked at the Matanuska River bridge and ran through the tunnel, up to the Airport Road then over to the Springer system to see what the conditions were like. The only bad part was the tunnel under the Old Glenn Highway. It is totally flooded and I had to tiptoe carefully along a narrow section of ice, hoping Bella didn't pull me over into the water. I'm a little concerned about how I will negotiate that on the race. Maybe I will bring a couple of plastic bags to put over my shoes to keep them dry. Other than that, the roads and trails are in great condition. I seem to be coming down with a cold though, and that is worrying me more than the flooded tunnel. I'll be taking it easy for the rest of the week, keeping my fingers crossed.

My Route

The Tunnel!

Settlers Bay Coastal Trails

 I suggested Settlers Bay Coastal Trails as a possible place to hike today, when Pam asked if we should go hike. It's been raining and snowing and muddy everywhere. But we decided to give it a try. When we first arrived, it had at least stopped raining. The trail was hard packed snow and ice, requiring micro spikes. It started out fine, and the dogs ran on up ahead, but it wasn't too long before we encountered flooded conditions. We were able to navigate around the flooded areas and make it all the way to the other entrance. We elected to take the other trail back, assuming we would just have similar conditions. But this trail was much more flooded. About halfway back, we were unable to find a way around the flooded areas. We ended up trying to find a high spot, while scrambling over fallen trees and getting very wet feet. In some places, our little dogs were practically swimming in the water. We were basically between the two main trails. Occasionally we would find a narrow trail and follow it for a while. I always kept my AllTrails app open so I could be sure we were at least headed in the correct direction. Bella seemed to know what we were trying to do and tended to find paths leading toward the cars. We finally came to a fenceline and could see our cars down below. But at first, it looked like a steep cliff we would need to descend. So, we stayed on a trail but very soon I realized we were just headed back to where we had come from. We turned around then I saw Bella head along a narrow ridge and down to the parking lot. We ducked under that fence and followed her. It wasn't a trip that warranted taking any pictures, but I did take a screenshot of our crazy route on the AllTrails app. We're saving this one for dryer weather!

Independence Mine

 Bella and I hiked up the closed road to Independence Mine today. Most of the trails right now are a muddy slushy mess. I gave her a bath last night so didn't want to have to give her another one tonight. At least it was good clean snow all the way to the mine and back. She seemed to have a wonderful time racing up and down in the snow and visiting with the couple of other people we saw up there. I should have brought my skis, but I hadn't actually planned to go up there, so didn't have them with me. Maybe if this good weather holds, we will come back again tomorrow with skis. Although the forecast for tomorrow is snow. Maybe next week!

Bodenburg Butte Hike

 It's so slushy and muddy right now due to breakup. Pam and I had trouble deciding where to go for a little hike today. Hoping the sun may have dried out some of the trail, I suggested hiking the Butte. Well, it wasn't quite dry out there, but the snow that covered most of the trail was solid enough that our micro spikes were enough to keep us from falling down in the slush. The stairs were mostly dry but some of the higher sections still had big clumps of ice on them. We had to be careful. We left our dogs off leash while on the stairs, so they didn't drag us to our deaths racing us to the top. It was nice and warm with only a light wind at the top. There was a group of young people on the top. One of the girls in that group was carrying a beautiful white cat in a backpack. She even took him out of her pack, and he walked around on the summit on a leash. He didn't seem too bothered by our curious dogs. But I kept Bella on a leash, so she didn't cause any trouble. I'm not sure how she reacts with cats. On our way down, Bella disappeared and didn't come back when both Pam and I were frantically calling her name. I was getting worried and went to my Find My app on my phone and searched for her Apple Air Tag. It wasn't working very well in pointing to her direction. But when I pushed the sound button, I could hear the tag ringing in the distance. I couldn't tell which direction it was coming from, so I climbed up a bit. Up higher, I couldn't hear the little sound anymore. So, I knew she must be ahead of us. Finally, as we descended, the sound got louder and she appeared below us. I kept her in my sights after that. She had apparently found something interesting off the trail that was more important to her than the sound of my voice. She was not being a good girl at that moment! But I was very happy we were reunited. It was a good workout for all of us. 

A lady and her cat!

Archangel Road Ski

 Today is pretty overcast with a forecast of rain or snow. I met Pam and her dog Dahla up at Archangel Road at 12:30 and we skied out to the bridge. The snow was very wet and slippery on the uphill. My skis seemed to want to slide backwards more then they wanted to push uphill. But I finally made it to the bridge. It snowed pretty heavily on us most of the way. The light was kind of flat, but the fresh snow was smoothing out the surface. I hardly worked at all getting back to the car. I got a much better workout with my arms because I mostly just used my poles to motivate me downhill. On the way to the bridge, Pam was often quite far ahead of me. Bella kept running up to her, then back to me, thus running at least twice as far as either of us did. Her dog seemed to stay mostly close to her. There were a few other skiers with loose dogs, which made our dogs feel it was essential that they race after them and bark furiously until we called them back. We skied a total of 4.7 miles. I'm sure Bella ran at least 6 miles. We were all soaking wet when we got back to our cars. Bella looked like the court jester with her hair soaking wet and sticking straight up. But I know she had fun. So did I. 

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

 Pam and I wanted to ski on Eklutna Lake itself today. But it's been getting quite warm lately, so we had some reservations about venturing out onto the lake. It's likely still safe, but it's not a good idea to take any chances. First, we tried to walk down to the lake to check conditions. We found the ramp leading down to the lake was a thick ice sheet. It would require ice spikes to even get down to the lake to ski. We quickly abandoned that idea and decided to hike the Lakeside Trail instead. I wore my snow boots with my micro spikes. The trail was also very icy but easy walking with the spikes. It was very rough and would have been horrible for skiing. It started out very cloudy, but by the time we reached the Yuditnu Bridge, the sun was shining brightly. The wind was increasing by then also. But it was not uncomfortably cold. We took a break in the cabin while our dogs begged for treats. Then we hiked back, completing a nice 7-mile walk. All in all, it was a delightful little hike for us and our doggies.