Alaska. Running. And stuffing my face with pizza.

It may appear to you, my dearest readers, that I've completely jumped off the running bandwagon. I haven't. I'd like to say I've more or less jumped off the blogging bandwagon, which quite frankly, makes me altogether sad. Blogging is what helped me push the limits of running, and push the limits of fitness. I've let both of those things slip a bit lately.

So here I am, making a pledge to you and to myself, that I will commence blogging about running again. I need to do this. For my health, for my motivation, and for my sanity. I need people to understand my obsession about running. And, let's be honest, I need encouragement. Especially when I'm surrounded by so much temptation at home to not run or workout.

I certainly haven't stopped running. In fact, I'm running a marathon in two weeks. Doesn't mean I'm ready for it, or that I've trained the way I should have. My training has been spotty, so to say. I do really well for a week, then the next week I have things that "come up", then the next week I do really well again. Rinse. Repeat.

I'm sure that in the coming weeks I'll explain a little more about my sporadic running life. I know I will. I need to dissect it in order to fully understand why I fell off the bandwagon, and then I need to address it and fix it. But for now, I'll stop being Negative Nancy. Let's focus on the awesome things that I did these past few months. I ran some races. And I had a blast.


Race #1: Spring Break Up Run 10K
In April I ran Break Up Run 10K in Anchorage near UAA. You may see "break up" and think it means two college lovebirds realizing they wanna have a kickass time in Mexico during Spring Break. Well, here in Alaska, "break up" means the ice is finally melting. It's literally breaking up. With that said, here's what the ENTIRE course of the 10K run looked like:


Yup. That's not slush. That WAS slush the day before, but turned to solid ice overnight...just in time for the race. Hooray. Alaska is awesome, right?

Despite the treacherous course (I was a little worried for my ankles and knees on more than one occasion, including one "almost" face plant on the ice...), I PRd! I finished 4th female overall, and ran it in 59:45. Go me!

Me and Tawnya

Race #2: Ragnar Relay SoCal
We all know I love a good relay. I can't help it. These will forever be my favorite kind of race to run in, mainly because of the people I get to meet during the race, and for the new friends that I create. I love love LOVE the team aspect of the relay.

I had one of the easier set of legs to run, which was fine by me. I'd been super sick for about a week before hopping on the plane to Los Angeles. I honestly didn't know how my body would hold up in the heat, and at the same time continue to fight off the flu virus, all while running 13+ miles.

Our team, Sugar Coated WhoopAss, finished the 200 mile relay in 31 hours, 9 minutes, and some change. Here's a few pics to highlight the race:









Race #3: Skinny Raven Twilight 12K
This was my first 12K. It felt like such an odd distance to me. I didn't quite know how to pace myself, so I ended going out way too fast, and crashing during the last 1/2 mile. Especially because the last 1/2 mile had a KILLER climb! (Come to think of it, every race in Anchorage ends this way...it's the only way to get off the coastal trail and back onto downtown streets). My time? 1:11:49. Definite room for improvement. Oh, and this race doesn't begin until 7 PM. It's funny, I prefer to train at night, but come race day, I wanna hop out of bed in the early AM and get going!

Before the race, at Skinny Raven Sports in downtown Anchorage

Race #3: Mayor's Half Marathon
So how does it feel to run a half marathon undertrained? Just ask, because I did it. Yikes. I didn't come close to a PR, but I was fully expecting this. It was just good to know that I still had 13.1 miles in me. What did I do to celebrate? Stuffed my face with pizza and beer. Then promptly took a nap. :) (Maybe next time I'll run more than 8 miles before attempting to complete a half marathon again! haha!) I finished in 2:13:something. Better luck next time!