Hatcher Pass Marathon

 This was my 10th time to run this tough race up the Willow Fishhook Road from Shirleytown Road up over Hatcher Pass and down to the Hatcher Pass Lodge, 27 miles later. My friend Diane stayed at my house last night. She was visiting from New York after her move there a year ago. We did a short hike of Gold Cord Lake yesterday and she agreed to get up very early this morning and drive me to Willow to the marathon start. We left my car up at the lodge near the finish line last night so I could have a way home at the finish. Logistics are always a problem with this race since they don't have a shuttle and it's a long gravel road that takes over 1 hour to get back to the start line. My friend Alice also raced today. We both felt a bit intimidated by the hot sunny temperature and planned to take our time to avoid heat exhaustion. It was in the area of 75-80 degrees most of the way. At times we were blessed with a light breeze, but it was really hot. We stayed together and spent a lot more time fast walking than running. Every time we broke into a run, we quickly slowed down to the fast-paced walk again. This was my slowest Hatcher Pass Marathon yet. They do give us 9 hours, and we both came very close to not making that limit. We stayed together until right at the very end when Alice got a second wind and beat me by 2 minutes to the finish. I took 8 hours and 58 minutes to her 8 hours and 56 minutes. There were still a few hardy folks behind us who were just finishing up the 50-mile race. Close to half of the runners registered for the 50-mile race didn't even start and many of those who did, dropped out, likely due to the heat. I had forgotten that I had replaced my trail running shoes and, in my confusion, couldn't find them. I ended up using my street running shoes instead. They turned out to be a wise choice because they were very comfortable. I had no foot pain the entire way. Even though it is gravel, it's a very hard packed road so street runners were just fine even though I had always used trail runners in the past for this race. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day and in spite of the heat, the sunshine was wonderful. We ended up simply turning it into a lovely 27-mile hike. We both enjoyed it more than any of the times we had pushed hard to try for a good finish time. It was the most fun I have ever had running a marathon. Alice is a great marathon partner. At the finish, I drove her back down to her car. Then she drove home to Anchorage, and I drove to Mark's house to pick up my dog, Bella and I finally got home at about 9:30 pm. It was a very long day. But so worth it! Marathon #177 for me.

Alice and me 

at the pass, about mile 24