Arrival in Alaska

Well, I've made it to Alaska, and man have I missed it.  Really, this place is fabulous.  So much badassness it's hard to describe.

Anyways, I've been able to spend a lot of time with my boy Axel.  He's working in Girdwood, which is just outside of Anchorage so it makes actually spending a little time together possible.  And I've been enjoying every minute of it.

On Saturday, I ran the half marathon in Anchorage- the Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon.  It was a great race... only about 5000 runners (teeny compared to my annual Chicago Marathon), beautiful sunny and 75 degree weather, and a good portion of the race on the coastal trail right along the ocean.  I had taken a couple weeks off of any serious running to give my hurting knee a rest and boy did I feel the results of not keeping up with training as I ran.  I mean, I knew I could finish no problem as I ran four half marathons in four weeks just before the break in running, but I didn't know how fast I could manage.  With a few hills and not much sleep (about 2 hrs) the night before, I knew a PR probably wasn't going to happen so I just enjoyed the run.

My friend Josh and I ready to run!

On Sunday Ax had a day off so we trekked out to the Matanuska glacier.  I have a friend I met my first summer up here who works as a guide on the glacier and we were hoping to catch her-- we sort of did--as she was leaving town.  Bummer that we didn't have her a guide, but I'm glad I at least got to say hi and she hooked us up with some stretchy crampon things which were a total necessity for what we were about to do.  I had never really been on a glacier hiking around like we did.   I mean, I had seen them when I went in the helicopter over the Chugach range and on the snowmobile trip when I visited Ax in the winter and from afar as I've visited different parts of AK, but it was totally different when its sunny and gorgeous out and your hiking around right on top of this massive ice formation.  Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here you go:

It's back to work for Ax for the next few days so we're calling Axel's motorhome parked in Girdwood home.  I like it- so simple.  He's up on the mountain today- so I'm going to go for a nice long hike in the drizzly rain.  Alaska greeted me with a few sunny beautiful days, but I knew it wouldn't last long- oh well. Time for the trails- later gators.