I took a late night red eye flight with Alaska Airlines out of LAX for a return trip to Anchorage, Alaska to run a properly measured marathon. Originally I wasn't planning on returning this year, but I had enough miles for a free flight. As if this trip was never meant to be, I was in a car accident just 2 weeks prior to the race. I had difficulty breathing from the crash, but within the 2 weeks I was feeling a lot better, so I decided to at least start the race since everything was paid for already. While waiting for my flight, I was called up by the gate agent. He asked if I was willing to switch to an exit row seat so that other customers could sit together. Heck yeah! More leg room! You don't have to twist my arm or ask me twice! :)
Saturday 8/20
The plane landed in Anchorage a little after 4 am which was 1 hour behind Pacific time. I was super tired as I couldn't get much sleep during the flight even with the neck pillow. As I exited the plane and was walking through the terminal, I was pretty drawn towards McDonald's where I ordered the usual sausage egg McMuffin meal for breakfast. I rarely drink coffee, but it's almost essential whenever I take a red eye flight.
Sausage egg McMuffin
Coffee
Originally I had thought about calling my hotel for a shuttle to come pick me up, but I thought it would be better to just wait at the airport since it's still dark outside with not much to do at that hour. I waited until 8 am to take the bus aka People Mover into Downtown Anchorage. The bus fare was only $2. I took the route 7 bus to the end of the line at the Downtown Transit Center which was just about a block away from the Dena'ina Civic and Convention Center, the venue for the race expo. The bus ride took about 30 minutes and the expo opened at 9 am, so the timing was pretty good.
People Mover
Expo
After getting my bib, race shirt, and goodie bag, I checked out a majority of the booths to see what they had to offer. Most of them were more for local folks. I talked a little with Jeff Galloway. I think he's starting to recognize me as I see him at quite a few of those Disney races. :)
Once I exited the expo, I took the short walk over to my hotel, Inlet Tower Hotel and Suites, to see if it was possible for me to check-in early. The guy at the front desk said that the cleaning crew had just arrived, so they would need a few hours to get some rooms cleaned up. I waited in the lobby for a little bit and then decided to take the time to go buy some drinks for the race and the weekend. So I walked across the street to check out the New Sagaya City Market. I first went through the small grocery store to see what they had to offer. I ended up buying a Powerade, Arizona green tea, a bottle of water, and a bag of some Alaskan coffee beans for the office.
Hotel lobby
Hotel front desk
Drinks and stuff
I then went back to the hotel to wait in the lobby. During the wait, I charged my phone and sampled all three small bags of bean chips that I had picked up at the expo. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were all pretty good! I don't think that I've ever had chips made out of beans.
Sample bean snacks
While waiting, there were groups of people routinely coming into the lobby and checking in or attempting to check in. Eventually I overheard the front desk giving out rooms, so I made my way to the counter to ask if there was a room for me. He put me up in a room on the 11th floor. The room was pretty spacious with a pretty nice view. I went through my race packet and laid out my flat runner before taking a shower and taking a much needed nap.
Lumpy bed
Kitchenette
Elevated tub
View from room
hmmm... it's the same bag from last year!
Race shirt
Flat runner
I got up and went down to the lobby at about 5 pm to eat an early dinner at the Pub House. I wasn't about to walk anywhere for dinner. I was there a tad too early as they had just opened. My waitress didn't even have time to find out what the specials were yet. It wasn't necessary since I didn't order any of the specials. I went with their IT Burger and the Grilled Romaine Salad. The burger was a bit pricey, but it was a good burger. It had a mash spread which soaked up the BBQ sauce and kept the burger from getting too messy. The stalk of broccoli was a bit huge. I had to use the steak knife from the romaine salad to cut it down to size. The salad was a bit bigger than I had expected. It came with avocado, manchego, coriander, and pine nuts. That combination made the salad very tasty.
IT Burger
Grilled Romaine Salad
IT Burger
After I was done and paid for my huge dinner, I went back up to my room to rest and digest my food. After flipping through the channels, I stumbled upon one of my favorite movies, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days... such a funny movie!
One of my favorite movies!
Frost yourself!
"You're so vain!"
Sunday 8/21
The race started at 9 am, so it was good to sleep in a little. I actually woke up at 4:30 am to watch the Men's Olympic Marathon. My data service was pretty spotty so the live stream was cutting in and out here and there, but I was able to see most of the race and the finish. After watching the pros do their thing, it was almost time for me to go slog through my marathon. I got ready in time to walk over to the start just in time to catch the start of the 49k ultra and the marathon early starters.
49k ultra and marathon early start
After snapping a few photos, I ended up going inside the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts to wait for the start of the race. It was also nice to be able to use real restrooms instead of the portapotties. While waiting, I talked to Sarah (#150) who was finishing her 50th State, John (#157) from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Benny (#4) from Tennessee. They were all Marathon Maniacs and/or 50 Staters. Before the start of the race, we gathered near the starting line for a group photo.
Marathon Maniacs/50 Staters
Corral
Oh dear lord, that first mile was painful! The legs were ok, but the right lung/chest/rib-cage was hurting! I really had trouble breathing, so I no choice but to slow it down the next few miles. After taking a walk break, it was a nauseating pain when I tried to start running again. It was a very disconcerting feeling to feel that way so early in the race. I tried to keep calm and just focus on managing the pain, hoping that it doesn't get any worse. I was feeling lousy, but still good enough to joke with the guy at the first turnaround point at about the 8.5 mile point. It was definitely far enough this year.
Pic from Heather
As I was approaching the halfway mark, a little girl detached from her family and started jogging with me. Her dad kept telling her not to run too far ahead. I asked them if she could run the rest of the race for me. They laughed at my remark. We eventually came up to a decent sized puddle where she ditched me to jump in it. She was having so much fun. Oh to be a kid again!
Little girl is a future marathoner
The second half was pretty difficult for me. Thank goodness most of it was on the beautiful Chester Creek Trail starting from mile 15 where the course headed East for the second out and back. During parts of it, I felt a little emotional and misty eyed. While my right chest was hurting with every breath, I was feeling grateful to be alive even though today would be a really long day. The car accident should have left me mangled or whatnot, but I came out of it relatively unscathed. Also I had run so many marathons that I had forgotten that the marathon distance was just long enough to strip away your layers and expose your raw emotions.
Heather completing her certified marathon in all 50 States
Things started feeling better after reaching somewhere near mile 20 and the final turnaround point. My chest stopped hurting as much, probably because I was no longer taking that deep of a breath. As a side effect, I'm sure that I wasn't taking in enough oxygen for my muscles as both of my thighs were cramping up big time. It also didn't help that I had gotten so far out of shape due to my collection of nagging injuries. At about mile 25, I got back to the water and headed towards 2nd Ave. They were tearing down the last aid station as I approached. After that, it was just a short steep run up the hill and a few more blocks to the finish line.
One of several wooden bridges
There were very few people left in the finish line area when I approached the finish line. The finish line was a sight for sore eyes, legs, and chest. It was pretty cool this year in that we were asked for an interesting fact about ourselves during registration. I had forgotten what I entered until the finish line announcer announced that there's a good chance that he'll be eating a steak for dinner! :)
Finisher medal
Click here for my Garmin data.
My first thought after crossing the finish line was thank goodness I made it within the cutoff! I also noticed that my right IT band was no longer giving me problems. Now if the left foot would stop being so sore! Also now I can definitively say that I have completed a marathon in 46 States and have 4 remaining States to go. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Rhode Island are the only ones that remain.
After getting my medal, a mylar blanket, and a bottle of water, I headed over to the beer garden to see if any of my friends were still there. Everybody was gone except for two of them. It was pretty cool that strangers who had finished the marathon several hours earlier congratulated me and was glad to see that I had finished. They were the same ones that had encouraged me during the two out and back sections as I was clearly struggling out there and pulling up the rear.
After saying bye to my friends, I walked back to my hotel. It was a bit windy, but that sure beat the heat back home. After I got to my room, the room keys did not work. So I had to ride the elevator back downstairs to get my room keys reactivated. Since I was there, I scheduled for a ride to the airport at 9 pm later that evening. I took a shower and rested in my bed until it was dinner time. This time I made sure not to go down too early.
I went back down to the Pub House and got the Butcher's Special which was a 15 oz ribeye steak with mushrooms and foie gras. I also got a Greek salad to go with it. Normally I don't like a steak so heavy on the sauce or gravy, but it was not bad. It felt a bit larger than a 15 oz steak. Man, that steak hit the spot!
Greek salad
Butcher's Special 15 oz Ribeye
mmmm mmmm... I love steaks!
I went back up to my room to rest a bit and pack up for my trip back home. The Olympics closing ceremony was on, so I caught most of that before heading back down to the lobby to catch my shuttle to the airport. At first I thought it was strange that we were headed in the opposite direction of the airport, but we stopped by the Quality Inn over on 8th Ave to pick up two other passengers before we actually started heading to the airport where I get to wait for another red eye flight home.
I must be having a string of good luck as I was again called by the gate agent to ask if I wanted to trade my seat for an exit row seat. Of course, yes! That put my mind at ease since I had a seat way in the back of the plane and I had a very short layover in Seattle. Once on board the plane, I tried to get some sleep, but it wasn't at all a quality rest since I kept waking up. It might had something to do with running a marathon earlier in the day. I just couldn't get comfortable.
Monday 8/22
We landed at SeaTac airport at about 4 am. As soon as I got off of the plane, I went looking for the nearest restroom. Of course the nearest one was being serviced, so I went searching for the next nearest. After I was done relieving myself, I went back to the gate to wait for the boarding process to start which was almost immediate since it was a very short layover. As I was waiting nearby the gate, there was a very loud obnoxious group of youngsters near the gate. They appeared to be in their early or mid 20's. They were talking louder than the gate agent using the PA system. Just my luck, the two loudest ones were sitting next to me. Apparently from listening to their conversation (like I had a choice), they were both very drunk or high on something. I gathered that they were going to Magic Mountain for their vacation. They seemed to be very proud of the fact that they were completely smashed and still got to the airport having packed the essentials (swimsuit, sparkles, etc) in their carry-on. I had no idea what sparkles were, but they had a lengthy conversation about it. Needless to say, having observed their interactions certainly did not give me much hope in our depraved youth. I couldn't wait to get as far away as I could from them once we landed in LAX.
