On August 16, I ran Humpy’s
Marathon, which is part of the Anchorage Runfest. Besides the marathon, they also have a mile
race, a kids’ 2K, a 5K, a half marathon, and a 49K.
At the beginning of the
year, I set a goal of running a second Boston Qualifier in every state. At the time, there were only six states where
I didn’t already have two BQs, so I scheduled races in those six states. Alaska was one of those states.
I got my second BQ in
South Carolina, but I failed in my attempts in New Mexico and Ohio. In June, I found out I was anemic, which
explained why I was suddenly much slower.
About two months ago, I
started taking iron pills. Now, I’m
feeling stronger. I didn’t know if I’ve
recovered completely, but I was ready to give it a try.
Friday, August 14
I flew to Anchorage
Friday morning. It was a six-hour
flight, but there’s a three-hour time difference, so I still got to Anchorage
before noon.
My hotel was in the
downtown area. I took a taxi to the
hotel. After that, I could walk
everywhere I needed to go, so I didn’t need to rent a car.
It was too early to check
into a room, so I left my bags at the hotel and had lunch. After lunch, I walked to packet pickup, which
was in a church at the other end of the downtown area.
This race was a reunion
of the 50 States Marathon Club, so they had a booth at packet pickup. I was talking to some of the other club
members for about an hour before walking back to my hotel.
By the time I got into a
hotel room, I was already starting to get tired. It was only 4:00 in Alaska, but it felt like
7:00 to me. I was originally planning to
go for a run on the coastal trail, but I decided to have an early dinner
instead.
After dinner, I was
talking to a couple of guys at the bar.
When I finally got back to the hotel, I went right to bed. It turned out to be a rough night.
I slept for a couple of
hours. Then I woke up feeling sick. I felt like I needed to stay perfectly still
or I might throw up. For several minutes
I waited patiently for this feeling to pass.
Then I suddenly felt flush from head to toe. I recognized this feeling from the only other
time I’ve had food poisoning. I knew
instantly that I needed to rush to the bathroom before I threw up.
I had to clamp my hand
over my mouth to keep from throwing up on the carpet. I made it to the bathroom, but my mouth and
nose were now full of vomit. I emptied
my stomach contents into the bathroom sink.
Then the diarrhea started.
I had to blow my nose
several times, but the taste of that made me throw up again. When I eventually felt ready to go back to
bed, I still felt the residue of stomach acid burning my nose and sinuses. That made it almost impossible to get back to
sleep. The good news is that the race
wasn’t until Sunday, so I had all day Saturday to recover.
Saturday, August 15
I was finally drifting
back to sleep when the sound of a phone alarm woke me up. I simultaneously heard the phone vibrate and
play a familiar melody. I didn’t think I
set an alarm, but I reached for my phone to check. It wasn’t my phone making those sounds. It must have been coming from the room
adjacent to mine, and I heard it through the wall.
It was 3:30 AM, and I was
now wide awake again. I rested in bed
until 6:00, but I never got back to sleep.
At 6:00, I heard a train whistle.
It was good to know that the trains don’t start until 6:00.
I got up, made a cup of
tea, showered, and did my morning stretches.
By now, my digestive system seemed to have stabilized, so I went
downstairs to eat breakfast. I was still
reluctant to put food in my system, but I knew I needed to eat. I was feeling frail. I also needed to start rehydrating.
I stayed at the hotel all
morning. I did some exercises, but I
wasn’t ready to venture out until lunch time.
There was a pre-race pasta feed in a tent outside Flattop Pizza. I skipped that in favor of having pizza
inside the restaurant.
It was a large meal. I didn’t know if my digestive system was
still fragile, so I went back to the hotel to lay low for a while. It was a shame to be in Alaska and not do any
sightseeing, even within the downtown area, but my priority was saving my
strength for the race.
The same tent used for
the pasta feed was also used for the meeting of the 50 States Marathon
Club. The club meeting started shortly
after the pasta feed was done.
One of the things they do
at reunions is recognize people who have recently finished a round of marathons
in all 50 states. I completed my fifth
circuit of states in 2024 at the Route 66 Marathon. This was the first reunion I attended since
then, so it was my chance to talk about my journey.
After the meeting, I had
a light dinner and went straight to bed.
I slept for more than 10 hours.
Sunday, August 16
Sunday was race day. The race started at 8:30 AM in front of
Humpy’s Ale House. That was close enough
that I could walk to the start.
The temperature was in the
upper 50s, and it was cloudy. I had been
worried about the possibility of rain.
It rained during the night, but it didn’t rain at all during the race.
For a Boston qualifier, I
needed a time of 4:05 or faster. A month
or two ago, that time would’ve been unthinkable. In the last two weeks, I’ve had some
encouraging training runs, and I also had encouraging race results at the
Minnesota Senior Games. It was far from
clear if I could run a marathon in 4:05, but if I squinted just right, I could
convince myself it was plausible. As
long as there was a realistic chance, I had to give it a try.
All of my recent training
and all of my recent races have been in hot conditions. The cool conditions in Anchorage gave me the
best possible chance for a BQ. If
nothing else, it was my first good chance to test myself.
I lined up behind the 4:00
pace group, and I stayed close to them for the first mile. We started out on downtown streets. As we left the downtown area, we ran down a steep
hill, and I accidentally got in front of the group. As we got onto the Coastal Trail, I let the
group get ahead of me again. By the end
of the first mile, the pace was already starting to feel tiring.
Our pace for the first
mile was a little fast, but it’s worth noting there was a lot of downhill
running in that mile. In the second
mile, I fell back from the group to try to find my own pace.
For the next few miles,
we had good views of the bay. I was
focused on running, but other runners have reported seeing beluga whales from
this part of the course.
To finish in 4:05, I
would need to average 9:20 per mile. My
watch tends to give me splits before I reach the mile markers, so I needed the
splits from my watch to be a few seconds faster than that.
After falling behind the
pace group, I was running by myself.
There were lots of people running
with the 4:00 and 4:15 pace groups, but only a handful of runners were in
between. I was in no man’s land, so I
had to pay more attention to my effort to stay on a consistent pace.
Mile one had been faster
than nine minutes, but the next two miles were 9:12 and 9:15. After three miles, I was already coming to
the conclusion that this pace was unsustainable. It was already feeling too tiring. In particular, I was breathing much harder
than I normally do during a marathon. My
aerobic capacity still isn’t what it used to be.
I knew I wouldn’t stay on
this pace, but in mile four, I only slowed down a little. I ran that mile in 9:20.
A hiker on the trail
pointed out a moose in the woods. If
there’s moose on the trail in front of you, you need to stop and wait for it to
leave. This one was far enough off the
trail that I could keep running.
Because I was determined
to try for a BQ, I didn’t bring my phone with me. I didn’t want to be carrying any extra weight. For the first time, I regretted that
decision. I couldn’t take any pictures.
Looking ahead of me, I
could still see the 4:00 group. They
were going up a hill. I had already run
up and down a few smaller hills, but I could see that this one was going to
slow me down. Sure enough, three other runners
passed me on the hill.
After that, there was
another hill that also slowed me down. I
knew mile five was going to be slow, but it was still discouraging to slow down
by more than a minute. I ran that mile
in 10:34.
After that, I had to find
a pace that I could sustain for 21 more miles.
I settled into a pace of about 10 minutes per mile. I was still working, but this pace wouldn’t
break me.
We were running a long
out-and-back on the Coastal Trail, which is a paved bike path. When I saw the first runner coming back, I
saw from the color of his race bib that he was doing the 49K race. It surprised me to see a 49K runner ahead of
all the marathon runners. The 40K race
started 30 minutes earlier, but their out-and-back was five miles longer.
I eventually started to
see other runners coming back. At first,
there were just a few. Then I saw the
3:30 pace group. Before long, I would
also see the 3:45 and 4:00 groups coming back.
I was almost to the
8-mile mark when the 4:15 group passed me.
At my current pace, that was inevitable.
Shortly after that, I reached the turnaround.
Coming back, I started to
catch up with runners who had taken the early start. Other than them, I wasn’t seeing a lot of
runners going in my direction. Mostly, I
was seeing runners who were still on their way out. Every so often, I saw another pace group:
4:30, then 4:45, then 5:00. The groups
were getting smaller. One pacer only had
one runner with her. The last one I saw
was by himself.
Just past the 11-mile
mark, I encountered a hill that was steep enough that I had to walk most of
it. I had been keeping my pace pretty
close to 10 minutes, but in that mile, I slowed to 10:36.
At the halfway point, I
was on pace to break 4:20, but only because I had started with four faster
miles. At my current pace, I expected to
finish with a time in the 4:20s. My new
goal, at this point, was to keep my time under 4:30.
Just before the 15-mile
mark, we left the Coastal Trail to turn onto the Chester Creek Trail. Now we were doing an out-and-back on this
trail that took us across the city.
The half marathon started
at the same time as the marathon, but their course didn’t go very far on the
Coastal Trail. They did the out-and-back
on the Chester Creek Trail, but not the out-and-back I had just finished on the
Coastal Trail.
Immediately after turning
onto this trail, I started to see half marathon runners who were on their way
back. The first time I saw a marathon
runner coming back, I did the math. He
was on pace to break three hours. Faster
runners had already gone by. Shortly
after that, I saw a 3:00 pace group for the half marathon.
The first four miles on
the Chester Creek trail were relatively flat.
I had an easier time keeping up a consistent pace on this trail.
Although we were running through
the city, we rarely saw any buildings.
We were running through the woods, so it felt like we were in the wilderness.
I was about two and a
half miles from the turnround when I reached a junction in the trail. There were arrows pointing to the right, but
there was another trail that went to the left.
This is where I missed a turn the last time I ran on this course. This time, the turn seemed pretty obvious.
After making that turn, I
saw a long hill heading up to a bridge over the freeway. This hill was steep enough that I had to walk
most of it. That resulted in another
slow mile.
As soon as I reached the
bridge, I resumed running. After crossing
the freeway, there was a brief downhill section, but there were more hills from
there to the turnaround.
I once again started to
see pace groups coming back. I was still
two miles from the turnaround when I saw the 3:30 group. When I saw the 3:45 group, I was only a mile
and a half from the turnaround. Before I
got there, I would also see the 4:00 and 4:15 groups.
When I saw the 4:15 group
coming back, I started watching for the turnaround. There were several turns on this section, and
I couldn’t see the turnaround until after I came around the last bend.
As I made the turn, I
checked my time. I was three quarters
done with the race, and I was now on pace to finish in about 4:23. I was pretty confident I could keep my time
in the 4:20s, but I still had to come back over the hilly section.
As I came around the
first turn, I saw the 4:30 group. I wasn’t
expecting them to be so close to be. I
was determined to stay ahead of them, but I still had six and a half miles to
go.
The next mile was another
slow one, because of the hills. Coming
back up to the bridge was another hill, but in this direction, it wasn’t as
tough. After crossing the bridge, I had
a nice long downhill section. I used
that to get back on pace.
After that hill, the
trail leveled off. All the way back to
the coastal trail, I was able to keep every mile under 10 minutes.
Signs for the marathon
and half marathon were every mile. Signs
for the 49K race were every 5K. When I
saw the 45K sign, I knew I had only 4K to go, since both races finish the same
way. Then I saw a 46K sign. I realized then that the 49K race would now
have signs every kilometer.
With about two miles to go,
I turned back onto the Coast Trail, which would lead us back to downtown. The next mile was slightly uphill, but I was
able to keep up my pace.
Near the end of that
mile, I saw several signs in rapid succession.
First, I saw the 47K sign for the 49K race. Then I saw the 25-mile sign for the
marathon. Then I saw the 12-mile sign
for the half marathon. After that, there
was a one mile to go sign.
I did a time check. I would easily break 4:30, but I would have
to work for it. I remembered how much
downhill running there was in the first mile.
Now I had to run all of that in the uphill direction.
I ran through a tunnel
where I was greeted by a guy playing a saxophone. He was playing “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Right after that tunnel, the hill got
steeper, and my quads started to ache.
I was forcing myself to
run uphill, but then I reached a short bridge with loose boards. That was too uncomfortable for my aching
quads. I had to walk across the bridge,
but then I forced myself to resume running.
I knew when I made the
next turn, I would start up a steeper hill on city streets. The approach to the turn was also slightly
uphill, and that softened me up. When I
turned the corner and started up the steeper hill, I had to walk most of
it. Two other runners went by me.
After that hill, I was
finally able to run the rest of the way.
When I made the last turn onto Fifth Avenue, I could see the finish
line.
A runner passed me on my
right. He looked too young to be in my
age group, so I didn’t make any effort to race him to the finish.
I finished the race in
4:22:53. It was nowhere close to a Boston
qualifier, but it’s my fastest marathon since March. I’m not there yet, but I’m making progress.
Fishing is a big part of
the local economy, so instead of finisher medals, they called them “fishiner”
medals. People sometimes think that’s a spelling
error, but it’s deliberate. I placed
first in my age group, so I got an extra medal to put on my ribbon.
I also got a mug.
After the race, I went to
the beer garden, where I saw several other members of the 50 States Marathon Club. It had been cloudy all morning, but as soon
as I got to the beer garden the sun came out.
I don’t need to fly home until tomorrow. After getting cleaned up, I went to dinner at one of the local breweries. I didn’t go back to the one where I got food poisoning.
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