7 Continents Completed

It's finally official.  I now have both my medal and my official certificate stating that I have run a marathon on each of the 7 continents. 

The Medal

The Certificate

Edmonton Marathon

I drove to Edmonton Alberta for this race.  Nearly 4000 miles round trip.  I love the beautiful drive along the Alaska Highway, even though it was a really long haul. 

Beautiful scenery as usual.

Alaska Highway

The race was very pleasant.  Again I was lucky to have the perfect weather.  There was potential for hot weather or for rain, but it was just perfect.  Balmy with a nice breeze but still nice and sunny.  This one gives me my 5th Canadian Province too.

I really like the medal.

Edmonton Marathon Medal

Big Wild Life Marathon

Back in Alaska For the Big Wild Life Marathon in Anchorage.

I felt pretty good during this run in spite of the fact that it rained the entire time.  At least it wasn't too hot.  I was a bit faster than usual.  Although it turned out that the race was about one mile short so they adjust everyone's times based on their average speed through the rest of the race.  There is a big controversy over it because of their mistake.  Some people were depending on it to complete their 50 states and the 50 States Marathon has so far refused to count it as a certified race.  Marathon Maniacs and even Boston are counting it. So people are still asking the 50 States club to reconsider.  In my case I have many Alaska races so it isn't causing a problem for me.  But I feel bad for those who spent a lot of money to come all the way to Alaska who now feel they have to spend a lot of money again if they want to be considered certified finishers.

The medal was really nice.

Amazing Maasai Marathon

A fabulous trip and an amazing race.  This race in Kenya completed my 7 Continents. Before the race itself we did many small safari rides to various game preserves in Kenya.  I saw so many wonderful animals.  It was almost as good as my other safari in Tanzania in the Serengeti.  We also went to numerous orphaned animals sanctuaries.  I got to feed giraffes, elephants, and monkeys.  Went for a ride on a 150 year old tortoise, and got to pet an adorable young cheetah.  We saw many endangered black rhinos, and ran with giraffes and zebras near one of our hotels. A highlight of the trip was visiting one of the girls schools and getting to meet some of the girls.  Most girls don't have the opportunity to go to high school in Kenya.  But some are fortunate and were selected to attend this particular school instead of getting married at the age of only 13.  How sad that most girls have to get married while still children and have to chance of an education.  The Amazing Maasai Marathon was a fundraiser to fund education for girls.  Kenya has a long way to go to fully correct this terrible problem.

The race itself was really fun because the little children would run along with me, usually grabbing my hand as they ran.  The course was kind of tough with lots of hills and very dusty dirt roads and trails.  Again we were lucky because there was a good breeze and the temperature was not too hot.

I felt good even at the high altitude, likely due to the time spent at much higher altitude in New Mexico and Colorado the week before.  I was still just under 7 hours, which is way too long.  I need to get busy training to increase my speed.

Here are just a few of the folks I met along the way!

Kenyan Runners

 

Giraffes

Elephants

Leopard

Zebra