marathon shmarathon

This weekend was the summer solstice - longest day of the year. Boy its bright out all the time. I've actually had to pull out one of those dweebie eye covers they give you for free on airplanes, because I keep waking up at 6 or 7 am (TOTALLY not necessary given my work schedule, even less necessary on weekends).

I decided a while back that this weekend would be a good time to drive up to Anchorage to visit a friend of mine. Then last week, I decided that this weekend would also be a good time to run a half marathon. My good friend Cat was already registered for the Mayor's Midnight Sun Run...I figured, "hell, I'm going to be in ANC anyways, why not." Now, I've been running pretty regularly, but I usually run 6 miles. A half marathon is 13.1 miles. And I've never actually been in a race before, not even a 5K.

I decided that solistice would be a pretty good time to take care of all those firsts.

And it was AWESOME. There were almost 1000 women ALONE running the half - not to mention the men, the marathon runners, the 5 mile runners.

It was SO FUN. And totally doable. It was really nice to have a running partner, because we just settled into a steady pace and chatted the whole way, which really helped the miles go by and helped me not worry about the twinges in my muscles or how far we still had to go.

And I'm quite happy with my time. I came in 29/83 in my age group in 2:15:11, with Cat right behind me. I'm not even that sore. I would DEFINTELY do it again. Plus you get a medal and a t-shirt that says "official finisher." Sweet.

It feels like summer

Oops. Not gonna lie, I kind of forgot about this blog. Life has been CRAZY, in a good way. This summer is off to an excellent start. For one, the weather is 49340439 times better than last summer. I'm beginning to understand now - last fall when I was trying to decided whether to move here (long story short I was offered a full-time job) I was very apprehensive about winter, and several of my Alaskan acquaintances would tell me that winter is actually a nice relief, because you are so exhausted after running with the sun all summer. That was NOT the case last summer, which was cold and cloudy and rainy. I'm pretty sure I wore short sleeves approximately thrice (see this entry).

But THIS summer! Well, like I said, the sun is inspiring (and exhausting). You get off work and there are still 7 more hours of daylight in which to do things. This entry would be far longer than anyone's individual attention span if I detailed all the things that have led me to forget about the internet...However! Last weekend my boss hooked me and the 3 other interns at my place of work up with a free ride across the bay for the weekend. We hiked about 3 miles up to a lake and made camp.

Then one of the guys and I hiked over to a glacial river,

And then we all reconvened to roast hotdogs in the campfire.

The next day, the guys and I trekked up to Poot Peak. Depending on if you take the north or south routh up the slope, its either 1.9 or 2.8 miles up. However, the elevation gain is 2340 ft. We took the south route up the trail. The last half mile is basically straight up this scree field. The north route down is an "unmaintained trail." It was positively Indian Jones style, sliding straight down the mountain on our bums through mud and overgrown alders. It was a good weekend.