My wife's extended family wanted to get together and go on an Alaskan cruise for Janet's grandparents 65th wedding anniversary.  I wasn't sure if I'd be the cruise going type but, but since we stopped in a few scenic places that I could run and they had beer on board I figured: why not?!  Besides, back in college a competitor at UPS (Davis) went off on a boat for a semester and came back waaaaaaay fast!  Would it work for me?  Well, I can tell you I didn't mind putting in the mileage on a 1/3 mile deck loop of a 950' boat, but I sure wouldn't want to do it for a semester!

I had one run, in particular, that was spectacular... not quite Max King doing the 3 sisters spectacular, but it was still pretty cool.  In Juneau, I took off from the boat and headed into the mountains... past the old gold rush site, past the 'WARNING: Grizzly Bears' signs, past, well, pretty much any sign of civilization.  Check out the map I uploaded, it pretty much shows where I went, but I got up into the snow and a glacier around the 3000'-3500' elevation point and almost made it up to the ridge where I could have seen back into Alaska and Canada onto the ice sheet.  The problem was, nobody knew where I was (rule #1 not to break), I didn't have anything with me except shorts, socks, running shoes, a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt and a cell with a dead battery (rule #2 not to break) and I was alone in bear country (rule #3 not to break).  So, I didn't want to push it too hard.  I will say that it was probably the most fun 17.5 miles I've run in years!  If there was no other reason to stay in shape since college, being fit enough to run into Alaska at 6:30-7:00min pace easily was enough for me.

As I neared the boat, I stopped in a few gift shops to look around.  After being out in the mountains running for 4.5 hours(ran for <2, but I had to stop & look around!), I was real popular with the crowds... he, he, he...

So I finally got around to getting myself on runnerspace, and ahh the relief!!  It was keeping me up at night!  Especially with the trials going on down there in Eugene.  Speaking of which, is it just me or were those the best darn T&F Olympic trials in Gen-X's (or later, I know, i'm getting old) history?!  Awesome!  And consider I wasn't there - I just watched them on crappy old NBC and I still thought they were amazing!!

So after that amazing week I'm getting pumped to get back out there and post some decent times.  I 'took off' from last July to January becuase of the twins.  Of course, it depends on who you talk to if you call it that or not.  What that means to me is that I just run easy for 4-8 miles a day and don't do workouts - what with Janet's complications with the twins and then business of life when they were born I tried to be around most of the time when I wasn't at work.  My first attemp to come back was in April at the UPS invite.  My ~15:35 5k was a decent first run back but I was then dissapointed with my Bloomsday performance in May of just over 40 minutes.  All I could think of the last 1.5 miles was that I was so glad I wasn't running a marathon.

So now I've started uping the old miles and hitting the workouts harder.  I have to be in good shape this year for Hood-To-Coast because the TeamXO/NCIC All-Stars need to perform this year!!  A tuneup at Torchlight and Sammamish 5k should help.  Keep your fingers crossed for me! :)

Take care all & enjoy the trails,

-Destry