I originally assumed I would be
running these races. It wasn’t until
June that I realized I wouldn’t recover from a knee injury in time to run them. Instead, I trained to race-walk them.
I’ve run series like this on many
occasions, but I’ve never race-walked marathons on consecutive days. I find race-walking to be much more
tiring. In late July, I walked four
marathons in a span of nine days. I
experimented with different paces, and I think I found the pace that I would
allow be to finish in less than six hours, while still saving some energy for
the next day.
There aren’t any direct flights
from Minneapolis to Juneau. I had to
change planes in Seattle. I didn’t
arrive in Juneau until 10:30 PM. Knowing
I would have a late arrival, I got here on Sunday, so I wouldn’t have a race
the next morning.
Because I arrived so late, I
didn’t pick up my rental car until Monday morning. My hotel is close enough to the airport that
I was able to walk there Sunday night.
After picking up my rental car, I bought some groceries. Then I drove to each of the race venues to
make sure I knew the way, and to see where I could park. At the venue for today’s race, I met four
other runners, who were also checking out the race venue.
Monday afternoon, I drove to Mendenhall Glacier to do some sightseeing. I didn’t want to overdo the hiking, but I did the Nugget Falls hike.
On my way back from the Nugget
Falls hike, I met another runner. She
recognized my 2018 Boston Marathon jacket, because she was there the same
year. It turns out she’s also here for
the Alaska Series and she was at one of the races I did last month. It’s a small world.
We have two different race
venues. Today’s race was on Douglas
Island. The course was a segment of the
Treadwell Trail, starting and finishing in Savikko Park. It was an out-and-back route. To finish a marathon, we needed to do 16
laps. There was also a half marathon,
which consisted of eight laps. As with
other Mainly Marathons races, there was one aid station in the start/finish
area.
The trail surface was a mixture of pavement, hard-packed dirt, and gravel. Most of it was fairly flat, but there was one section with some undulations, including one spot where we went into and out of a gully. This brief hilly section also had some rocks imbedded in the trail. It might’ve been fine for running, but it wasn’t the easiest section to walk.
Packet pickup started at 6:00 AM,
and the race started at 7:00. I got to
the start just after 6:00, before the line for packet pickup got too long. We use the same race bibs for the entire
series, so I won’t have to get there as early the other days.
All of my recent marathons were
in Minnesota, with temperatures climbing into the 80s. It’s much cooler here in Alaska. For the entire race, the temperature was in
the 50s.
I was a bit conflicted about what
to wear. If I was running, I would
consider these temperatures ideal, and I would wear shorts. I was going to be on the course much longer,
and I wasn’t planning to go all-out, so I wore tights as a hedge against my
legs getting cold. All of my recent
races have been in much higher temperatures, so I wasn’t too worried about
getting too hot.
At home, we’ve had bad air
quality lately. Last week, there were
days when you could step outside and immediately smell smoke. I had mixed feelings about training with so
many particles in the air. I didn’t walk
as many miles as usual. It was a relief
to get to Alaska and have nice clean air for these races.
I wanted to walk at a pace that
wouldn’t tire me out too much for the next three races. I didn’t want my pace to be slower than 13
minutes per mile, but I also didn’t want to be too much faster than that.
I wasn’t trying to start fast,
but I walked the first mile in 12:17.
That was a little too fast. I
didn’t go out of my way to slow down, but I told myself I could relax a
little. That didn’t work. I walked the second mile in 12:01, which was
clearly way too fast. I suspect I had
extra energy after an unusually light week of training.
By now, I was into my second
lap. In my first lap, I found I had to
work harder to maintain my pace going through the brief hilly section. Starting with my second lap, I didn’t put any
effort into maintaining my pace through this section. I allowed myself to slow down for a few
minutes, and then I got back into my rhythm when the course leveled out. I also found myself speeding up at the
beginning and end of each lap, where the course was paved.
Overall, I was now going at a
more reasonable pace. For the next
several laps, my mile times were between 12:30 and 13:00.
I was expecting a cloudy day,
but it was mostly sunny for most of the morning. Most of the course was shady, and when I was
in the sun, I started to get hot. I felt
foolish wearing tights. I would’ve been
comfortable in shorts.
At the halfway point, I was on
pace to finish in about 5:34. By then, I
was beginning to feel a cool breeze. The
trail was close to the Gastineau Channel, which separates Douglas Island from
downtown Juneau. The water in the
channel is always cold, so air cools down when the wind blows through that
valley. At first, I only felt the cool
breeze when I was near the start/finish area.
Later, I also felt the cool breeze when I was walking through the
forest. In the second half of the race,
I was never hot.
Twice, I sped up briefly, so I
could talk to one of the runners. The
first time I did that, it didn’t seem to take too much out of me. The next time, it did. Even after slowing down to my usual pace, I
started to find the pace tiring.
By now, I was into my 10th lap,
but I still had almost seven laps to go, and I wondered if I should slow
down. My next mile was 13:14, which was
my slowest so far. I didn’t go out of my
way to slow down. I just didn’t put any
extra effort into maintaining the same pace.
I wondered if the rest of my miles would be in the 13:00 to 13:30 range. I may have slowed a little, but at least half
of my remaining miles were still between 12:30 and 13:00.
The last time I walked a marathon that was partially on a dirt surface, the dust got into my shoes, and I developed horrible blisters. Today, I was wearing gaiters. They're good at keeping dust and grit out of the back of my shoes, but they don't cover the toe box. I was worried about dust getting into the toe box and causing friction between my big toes and the top of the toe box. Late in the race, I was relieved that I wasn't noticing any blisters yet.
With four laps to go, I got the
sense that I was going too fast today. I
wasn’t going to have any difficulty finishing, but I also wasn’t going finish
feeling fresh. It didn’t seem like I was
leaving enough gas in the tank for the next three days.
Early in my last lap, I saw my
time for my 25th mile. It was 12:23,
which was my fastest mile since mile two.
I think I was subconsciously speeding up in anticipation of
finishing. I slowed down after that, but
I still finished in 5:34:50. My time for
the second half was about a minute slower than my time for the first half.
Within minutes of finishing, my
legs started to feel stiff. That
confirmed my suspicion that I walked too fast today. The next three days may be harder as a result.
Like other Mainly Marathons
series, this series has medals that link together to form a chain. Today, I received the top piece, plus the
medal for today’s race. Today’s medal is
in the shape of a bear.
After the race, I had lunch
with five other runners at a pub on Douglas Island that has pizza. By the time I got back to the hotel, it was
almost 2:30.
After taking a bath, doing some
stretches, and working on my legs with a massage stock, my legs felt much better. I don’t think I’ll start tomorrow’s race
feeling sore, but I do worry that I won’t have as much energy tomorrow.
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