Father’s Day weekend of 2023, I made a trip to the further northwest. I touched the ground in my 50th state. On this trip, I finished a marathon in my 49th state in the 49th state in the 49th edition of the Anchorage Mayor’s Marathon.
In my youth, my family made many long car trips, some lasting four weeks. By the time I was 12, I had been in 45 states. Last year, I got to 49 when running Deadwood, South Dakota. This year, I finally made it to Alaska.
I used points for three free nights in the Hilton. Rooms are pretty expensive, running over $400 a night. It might be their standard rack rate or the summer rates. A few days after the marathon was the longest day of the year, with over 21 hours of civil daylight.
The downtown hotels are within walking distance of the buses to the start and the finish line. There is a Marriott and a few other hotels, including the haunted Historic Anchorage Hotel. The many chain hotels south of town require a car for race day.
You wonder why Alaska would be on Daylight Savings time. They are 4 hours later than Eastern Time. Without Daylight Savings, the sun would be up at 3 am. Sundown was 11:50 pm with civil daylight past midnight, and by 3 am. Sunrise was 4:20 am.
The city has an excellent bus system called People Mover (www.muni.org). The fare is $2 per ride or $5 for a day pass. Being over 60 years old, I rode for 1/2 price. I used my day pass for a Walmart trip and another for packet pickup on Friday. The system has a route to the airport, too.
The location between the two water arms has been inhabited for at least 7000 years and was named Anchor Point by Captain Cook in his 18th-century exploration of the northeast Pacific.
Anchorage is the fourth largest city by area in the United States at 2000 square miles. The three largest cities are also in Alaska. The city government manages all of the land surrounding the main population center. 40% of Alaskans live in Anchorage.
The city is a major air cargo hub within 10 hours of Tokyo, New York City, and Frankfurt. The coastline is buffered with extensive mud flats, prohibiting cargo ship access except for a few locations.
The headquarters for Conoco Phillips Alaska is in the tallest building in the city. Besides oil and gold, many unreachable minerals are in the area mountains.
The course starts at midfield at the Conoco Phillips Soccer Stadium, which is 10 miles southwest of the city. The field surface is turf which was short and dry.
The first 3/4 mile is a steep downhill on a 10-foot wide paved path. In mid-pack, you had to run with a braking motion in a crowded field of 600 starters.
Once on the 10-foot-wide paved Coastal Trail, you head for 9 miles toward the city. The pavement is even, and the organizers highlighted all the surface blemishes with orange paint. There are some little ups and downs.
The course is well marked with large yellow directional signs, which become essential once turning onto the paved Chester Creek Trail. You follow this trail through the University of Alaska-Anchorage to the Far North Bicentennial Park.
The dirt path through the park is the only unpaved portion of the course. Entering at mile 15, you want to look down on the rough trail surface but need to keep aware of the surroundings for possible bear or moose sightings. This two-mile section was the only portion of the course where mosquitoes bothered me.
The only bear spotting was the droppings on the paved trail leading into the park.
Miles 17 to 25.5 are on paved trails, returning to the Chester Creek Trail at mile 21.
The last .7 miles is uphill on N Street. There are other short hills on the course. This final hill is noticeable. At the top of the hill and the intersection of N and 10th, the route enters Delany Park Strip for 100 meters on grass to the finish.
Delany Park Strip was the original landing location for airplanes. With only 4000 Anchorage residents, planes landed on this flat ground south of town.
The forecast for the day was 50 degrees at the start and up to 58 degrees by noon, with a 42-degree dew point and a slight breeze from the west. The partly cloudy forecast turned to mostly sunny.
The buses to the start were every 5 minutes from 5:30 to 6:45 am. I took the 6:15 am bus for the 7:30 am start. The lack of cloud cover kept the temperature in the 40s.
It was chilly, waiting for the start. Initially, I wore shorts over compression shorts, a singlet over a long-sleeved shirt, a neck gaiter, a ball cap, gloves, and my Saucony Triumph 20 shoes. Hoping to get a few pictures, I carried my cell phone in a waist pouch. My long sleeve shirt and gaiter were off by mile 6.
My readiness score was 90%. I wanted to do five miles before one hour, ten before two, 15 before three, 20 before four, and see what I could do. There were 14 water stops along the course, and I planned to walk for 2 minutes at each.
I felt OK for the first 2 miles. My quads started hurting and losing bounce by the first aid station at mile three. The walk breaks helped with some recovery. I went through 5 miles in 53:06 and 10 miles in 1:52:10.
On the Chester Creek Trail around Mile 10, we started to merge into the back of the 5-mile race pack. The 10-foot wide trail got tighter when that race’s runners began coming back on us. They did have the 5-mile turnaround on a spur trail that helped.
At mile 12, I changed to 6-minute intervals, walking for 2 minutes and running the rest. My first half was 2:31:10, and I got through mile 15 in 2:56:18. When I got into the park, I changed to run for 2 minutes and walked the rest. I started to fade and went through mile 20 in 4:16:42. My dirt miles were over 17 minutes.
At mile 20, I noticed my cell battery was at 15%. My FitBit was draining the battery. So, I turned off my phone, which stopped my FitBit race recording. It still tracked steps and heart rate. I’ll have to run faster or keep my cell phone at home.
As the day passed, many cyclists rode on the Chester Creek Trail. Some were nice, others were dangerous.
At mile 24, I stopped the run breaks and walked with my 25th and 26th miles of 15:30. Once I reached the top of the N Street hill, I ran the final 200 meters to finish.
I finished 495th overall, 300th male, and 14 of 24 in the 65 to 69-year-old age group in 5:51:42. My second half was 3:20:32. Yuck!
This marathon was my 84th in my 49th state. Only one more to go, with North Dakota this fall. Woohoo!
My average heart rate was 140 bpm and a max of 158 bpm with 2 hours and 43 minutes in the first 20 miles above 137 bpm.
The medal was large and heavy, and the race shirt was excellent.
They had some excellent food at the finish, including bread, grilled cheese, chips and salsa, and cookies. If you want a beer at the finish, bring an ID. Even if you look over 60, they still need to see an ID. Since I’m on blood thinners, I can’t consume alcohol and had to get my 49th State Brewing Blueberry Creme Soda over the fence.
Airlines cost $1200 from the east coast. Chicago is only a 6-hour flight. With my experience, I ensure I allow more time for a connection on the way to a race. I’d rather sit at an airport for 3 hours than miss a connection, as there are few flights into remote locales.
On my return trip, my original reservation had a 90-minute connection in Chicago. The airline changed flight times, which reduced the connection to 50 minutes. On the bus to the airport, I received a text that my flight out of Anchorage was delayed and I would miss my connection in Chicago.
I arrived at the airport at 2:30 pm for my 8 pm flight. I had to hang out somewhere. The airline changed my flights to connect through San Francisco, leaving at 4:05 pm. However, with the hour line through security, I missed the flight by a few minutes.
The gate agent was not able to rebook me on another flight. So, I had to return to the ticket counter to change my flight. They changed me to a connection through Houston, leaving at 8:50 pm. This time through security took 90 minutes.
The airline’s computer system should have known about the security backup and never booked me on the San Francisco option—an excellent opportunity for Artificial Intelligence.
While running to vote this morning, I realized in the last 63 days, I finished three 5km, three marathons, a half marathon, and a 15 km. No wonder my quads were dead. I’m surprised I did so well at the Historic Half and the SPCA 5km.
