Friday, September 24, 2010
Kayaked to work
I'm going to blog backwards. I have so many blogs I want to do that go back to my visit home to Idaho this summer. I have a feeling if I work backwards I'll more likely get them done. So this blog will be the most recent one.
I finally started my kayak. The western red cedar that I ordered from an outfit in Hoonah finally arrived. It arrived on the day I was leaving on the ferry to run in a race. Well, a couple days before my cedar arrived my friend and neighbor said she was selling her kayak. I thought it would be very nice to have a kayak that I could actually use since I had no idea when I would be able to finish my kayak. So I bought the kayak and she and I kayaked to work Wednesday. (She used her newer one that she had just bought.)
It was such a gorgeous day and it was supposed to be the last gorgeous day that we'll have in a while. We had nearly 2 weeks (I believe) of sunshine. It was quite overwhelming!
When I got to work, I was asked if I wanted to accompany a group from the high school hiking up Mt. Verstovia. I said of course I did. So, I have pictures from that, too.
I finally started my kayak. The western red cedar that I ordered from an outfit in Hoonah finally arrived. It arrived on the day I was leaving on the ferry to run in a race. Well, a couple days before my cedar arrived my friend and neighbor said she was selling her kayak. I thought it would be very nice to have a kayak that I could actually use since I had no idea when I would be able to finish my kayak. So I bought the kayak and she and I kayaked to work Wednesday. (She used her newer one that she had just bought.)
It was such a gorgeous day and it was supposed to be the last gorgeous day that we'll have in a while. We had nearly 2 weeks (I believe) of sunshine. It was quite overwhelming!
When I got to work, I was asked if I wanted to accompany a group from the high school hiking up Mt. Verstovia. I said of course I did. So, I have pictures from that, too.
Compare this picture to the bright green picture from a hike up Mt. Verstovia in August.
Pictured below is the path of kayaking to work. Some people asked if I live on an island when I said I kayaked to work. No, just kayaking along the shore; simply an alternative to taking the road.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Klondike Road Relay 2010
I ran in a race on the Klondike Highway. It is a yearly event that teams run from Skagway, Alaska to Whitehorse, Canada. I had never been to Canada either, so it was a great introduction to our northern neighbor.
There are ten legs in the race, so ideally, you want a team of ten. I was on a team from Sitka originally, but it ended up not working out for everyone and it sorta fell apart. It seems a large number of teams have trouble keeping all the numbers that signed up in the first place so there are quite a few teams scrambling to find last-minute runners. A few members from the team I was on dispersed and joined other teams. I joined a Juneau team called the UAS Road Scholars at the last minute.
I was worried that I was going to slow down the team since I had not been training as much as I would've liked. I felt like I was not in as good of shape as I had been when I ran the half-marathon in Boise three years ago. I predicted I would run 11-minute miles.
The race started at 7:30 PM PST on Friday evening. The first four members of our team shared a vehicle and followed the race. Meanwhile, the runners following the first four, myself included, tried to get a little sleep before leaving around midnight to get to checkpoint 5.
I maybe slept an hour and then we were off. We got to checkpoint 5 and I was the next runner so I was pretty nervous. We got there about an hour before when we predicted the switch would be. I couldn't rest in the car though, I was too nervous! So, I got out and just stood by and watched all the runners.
It was about 2:30 in the morning when I started running. It felt so crazy running in the middle of the night. It was dark. Every runner was required to wear reflective gear for the cars that passed on the road. Some runners wore head lamps to see where they were going. I didn't wear a head lamp. It was sort of a thrill to run when it was pitch black and not know for sure where my feet were landing. I ran along Tutshi Lake and I crossed the border from British Columbia to the Yukon Territory. It was about a 14-mile run and I made it to checkpoint 6 at 4:36 AM. I ran 9-minute miles! My team called me a sandbagger. Hahaha.
I should mention that the race started at 7:30 for a few teams. From then on there were teams that began every half hour until midnight. The fastest teams started at midnight.
There are ten legs in the race, so ideally, you want a team of ten. I was on a team from Sitka originally, but it ended up not working out for everyone and it sorta fell apart. It seems a large number of teams have trouble keeping all the numbers that signed up in the first place so there are quite a few teams scrambling to find last-minute runners. A few members from the team I was on dispersed and joined other teams. I joined a Juneau team called the UAS Road Scholars at the last minute.
I was worried that I was going to slow down the team since I had not been training as much as I would've liked. I felt like I was not in as good of shape as I had been when I ran the half-marathon in Boise three years ago. I predicted I would run 11-minute miles.
The race started at 7:30 PM PST on Friday evening. The first four members of our team shared a vehicle and followed the race. Meanwhile, the runners following the first four, myself included, tried to get a little sleep before leaving around midnight to get to checkpoint 5.
I maybe slept an hour and then we were off. We got to checkpoint 5 and I was the next runner so I was pretty nervous. We got there about an hour before when we predicted the switch would be. I couldn't rest in the car though, I was too nervous! So, I got out and just stood by and watched all the runners.
It was about 2:30 in the morning when I started running. It felt so crazy running in the middle of the night. It was dark. Every runner was required to wear reflective gear for the cars that passed on the road. Some runners wore head lamps to see where they were going. I didn't wear a head lamp. It was sort of a thrill to run when it was pitch black and not know for sure where my feet were landing. I ran along Tutshi Lake and I crossed the border from British Columbia to the Yukon Territory. It was about a 14-mile run and I made it to checkpoint 6 at 4:36 AM. I ran 9-minute miles! My team called me a sandbagger. Hahaha.
The last picture is Tutshi Lake.
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