Barrow

Last weekend, Frank and I drove up through interior Alaska to Fairbanks and then on to Barrow for a "Day at the Top of the World".

The trip up to Fairbanks was suprisingly uneventful. Whenever we drive out of Anchorage, my suburban roots begin to show as I get nervous about experiencing a tire blow-out or run out of gas in the middle of nowhere, having to live on pretzels and gum for mutliple days while fending off bears.

Luckily, I had heard of The Milepost, which is a book that chronicles every nook and cranny of the Alaskan Highway system. This is an absolutely essential book for every Alaskan Traveller! This made me feel less agoraphobic in the wilderness.

So saying that, I can now attest to everyone that, yes, the travel and tourism board is not lying, there are enough adequate gas stations along both the Richardson and Glenn Highways. The roads between here and Fairbanks are more than adequate. In fact, if it wasn't for the lack of exits and guardrails, I would say the road system was actually better than I75 in most cases (certainly the gas prices were better :)).

We stayed at the River's Edge resort, which consists of small one-room cabins along the Chena River. It's really a fantastic place in Fairbanks, further away from the tourism traps of the other hotels.

The next morning, we were off on our way to Barrow.

Barrow Alaska is the northernmost town on the North American Mainland. Point Barrow, which is essentially a spit that juts into the Arctic ocean, is the northernmost point in the US. That being said, it is cold but not as cold as you might think -- the average low in January is only -19 degrees. The day we were there, it was about 30 degrees.

I would like to say that there is a lot to see in Barrow, and maybe it does for a town of only 4,000 people. But once you've seen the museum, the Wiley Post/Will Rogers memorial, eaten lunch at Pepe's Mexican, and checked out the prices at the local supermarket (suprisingly not that much different than Anchorage, although dairy products were super-high), you've pretty much seen the town.

All that was left, really, was to see the polar bears. Driving out to Point Barrow, I remember feeling really claustrophobic. Since the sky and ground are both white, there is just this unnerving loss of direction. I could so easily get lost in that whiteness and be eaten by a polar bear! Speaking of polar bears, we did see some in the distance by the bone yard (you see remnants of that in the pictures) -- luckily for our safety and unluckily for picture-taking, the polar bears were driven off by some jerk behind us driving like an idiot.

So, will we be packing up and moving to Barrow? Probably not. But I'm glad we went and saw what it was like. The fact that people have lived and thrived on such a seemingly inhospitable place since 500 CE is an incredible testament to the human race.

It's the edge of the world as we know it...

 

Barrow is cold. Here's a picture of Frank at the Point Barrow, the northernmost point in the US.

More later!

"It's Time to call 911", Part 2 :Update

Through a series of strange circumstances, Frank, Galileo and I found ourselves at Jodphur trailhead for a hike this afternoon. As we were walking along the cliff edge, we heard a big boom sound. The smoke soon followed.

Luckily, we were in the only place in Kincaid park where you could get cell phone reception, and were able to call 911. The fire trucks were there pretty quickly (they had to crawl up the sand dunes) and saved the day!

UPDATED: Story on ADN with more cool pictures

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"Making a mess with Lori and Frank" Redux

During the spring, every alaskan gets a little twinkle in their eye. Despite the fact that many of us were never interested in gardening, up here, I swear there is something in the air that makes you want to nurture green stuff up out of the ground.

We are no different. In our first Spring, we put together a massive tiered garden in our backyard. Because the ground up here gets a bit shaky and wood in general warps, we had some repairs to do this year.

Task #1 was mulching the gardens and beds to (hopefully) assure that only things we want to grow actually grow.

The second task was a little harder. It involved fixing the herb garden fencing which was a little cockamamie. This task first involved cutting treated wood with a dull hand saw and levelling boards. Suprisingly, no people (or dogs) were hurt in that exercise.

Which brings me to the last part of the exercise. Frank had to nail metal braces to keep all the boards together. It proved to be difficult, and provided a colorful vocabulary lesson to the neighborhood kids.

Oh, and Frank took a hammer to his knee hard enough to cause an inch gash on the side of his knee. The gash has finally stopped bleeding and luckily it looks like the knee is operational, albeit stiff and sore.

This effectively ends the gardening extravaganza for at least a few days.

Spring has (somewhat) sprung...

Here in Anchorage, it takes quite a while for us to get into spring, but once we do, watch out! Things grow incredibly fast here once they get started.

In our case, we've started working on the garden, in anticipation that soon we'll be able to put plants in the ground. Inside, we have tomatoes and peppers, as you can see :).

Outside, things are going great as well, here are two pictures of the infamous rhubarb and the ever-present "pansies", our first flower of the season:


One of the things we are talking about is what to do with our deck which is currently a 4x4 square about 2.5 feet off the ground, making it difficult to negotiate. My idea I thought was whimsical and pretty darn cool -- make a little beach!

Hear me out...pavers, decks, etc are difficult up here since the earth moves a lot. You might be OK for a year or so, but you know that eventually it has to be redone. Sand can just be replaced/reraked, and, unlike gravel, is soft and reminiscent of hawaii. A coconut umbrella, little fru-fru drinks, and some tiki torches would complete it. Before the first snowfall, we could take a big tarp and put it over the sand to keep the snow from being dirty.

What do you think?

It's Time to Call 911!

In Fairbanks, a 4 year old called 911 when his mom collapsed. He knew how to do this because one of his favorite books was "It's time to Call 911: What to Do in an Emergency". It's an incredible story --make sure to listen to the audio recording of the call.

Friday hodgepodge

Today's post is a grab bag of smaller posts, all that have been sitting in my post box for a while. It's Friday, and I"m ready to play a few games of pangya and get ready for the weekend.

Even Boston Marathoners get the blues...
Do you know what the worst thing about running a marathon is for me? Not running 26 miles :). I hate post-marathon let-down. Before the marathon, anything is possible! Afterwards, my mind is inconvenienced by reality and the body of course is also a bit shaky.

Which brings me to the bike ride :). Not wanting to subject our road bikes to the gravel and ick of spring ANC muck, we went on a mountain bike ride. I almost died -- I think my legs were telling me that perhaps I should take it easy for a few more days.

Despite my breakdown, we had to go out, because..Frank has a new awesome mountain bike! It's a Giant Trance -- the most important thing is that it has suspension on the front and back for an incredibly cushy ride. He is going to have so much fun riding on all of our favorite ski trails in the summer!

Planet Earth
In Boston, I got hooked on Planet Earth. Except when a fragile creature was on the losing side of the game of life, it provided to me the stressless entertainment I needed to be calm on the night before the marathon. I introduced Frank to it yesterday; needless to say, we are hooked on the incredible videography. The series is out on DVD, and you should all buy it :)

In Garden News...
...it's not time to plant things outside yet here in AK. The weather is warm, but it's still not warm enough to really keep plants outside all night. On the other hand, we bought pepper plants and tomato plants that we are starting inside -- we're hoping that we can get a jump start on these so that they actually produce fruit by the end of the season. I'm hopeful, because the tomato is already producing buds like it's at least "thinking" about growing fruit.

Anyways, I am going to try to update the blog more often :) Maybe we'll go looking for ptarmigans this weekend!

How does it feel to run in a Nor'easter?

As I said below a LOT can happen in almost five hours. It's been really hard to process all that happened and put it into a coherent story.

Marathon Day started at 5:30 am with ritualized race day prep. I always do the same things in the same order, just to make sure I don't forget anything. Monday, this ritual also included putting three layers on to keep warm during the anticipated wet,cold, and windy conditions.

Dad met me downstairs around 6:00 to walk to the hotel where the buses were waiting for the team. It was an ominous sign that it was already windy, rainy, and cold that morning and it did not look like it was going to warm up. I was extremely nervous, so it was really great that Dad was there to keep me calm.

After some waiting, we got on the bus and drove the 26 miles to Hopkington (which takes an hour or so). Once there, we were lucky enough to be able to wait on the bus (most other people had to wait outside or in the high school gym). On the bus, the talk of the morning was all about clothing and temperature, and the air was filled with the confidence that can only come BEFORE you run your marathon.

It was infectious! I contemplated a four-hour finish in epic conditions as I watched the rain while assembling my shoe solution (sock within taped grocery bag, grocery bag within shoe). Before I knew it, the first wave had started (those are the fast people) and it was time to put up my hood and start moseying down to the corralls.

Boston is the biggest marathon I have ever been in, and it was truly amazing at how many people were running. Like cows, we herded ourselves towards the start line, following the sound of a bullhorn.

People were incredibly friendly. Hopkington, where the race starts, was so geared up for bad weather that homes along the start corralls actually had opened up for people to take shelter from the rain. The entire town was out cheering us on as we got ready to race.

The gun started, but it was about 10 minutes before I actually got over the start line -- even then, we hadn't started running yet. Once people cleared out enough so that we could run, everyone around me took off downhill.

The first few miles of the marathon were downhill, wet, and warm. At around mile 3, I got started sweating, so I had to toss my REI vest.

Soon, but I guess not soon enough, we got out of Hopkington and into the next town. Suprisingly, everyone at that town also was cheering for us. Little did I know, this would be how the entire race course would be!

Somewhere around mile 6, despite all the cheering, my bad second quarter began, and I started to feel cold, queasy and out of juice. I was using a training-tested nutritional scheme, but it just did not seem to be working in this weather. I ducked into a bar for a restroom (everyone cheered me on as I left). About that time, I also decided to switch back to my tried and true gel (luckily, I had brought four gels along with me). Combining fuel I could stomach and a few more downhills, I started to feel better, and around mile 10 or so I finally got back to "normal".

Around mile 12, I started to hear this high pitched roar, and it took me a while to figure out that it was Wellesley college. The ladies of this college take it upon themselves every year to create the loudest, most inspirational mile of the course. This was the first time during the race that I got teary as I slapped the hands of all the kids. The fact that they were still out there, considering that we were now many hours into the race, was inspirational.

We climbed out of the Wellesly sound tunnel, and made our way closer to Boston. Along this way, I started really trying to realize that I was here, actually running the Boston Marathon, and that by golly I was going to have a great time! I continued the high-fives, especially to little kids, and also started sampling various confections that people were handing out on the side road. During the race, I also got interested in the baseball game (anything other than the marathon became interesting at this point), and eventually the Red Sox won. I also got a chance to encourage a few people who had fallen behind that I knew as well.

This made a lot of miles 13-20 a blur to me of hands, cheering, cookies and gatorade. I was having a blast, and to me, I was really going pretty fast. Mile 20 starts the infamous heartbreak hill, which is pretty substantial, but not as horribly long or difficult as people say it is, especially since the Boston College kids come out at the top to cheer you on while drinking beer -- imagine, they were lining the street five deep and overflowing the metal barricades.

I kept looking for the haunted mile -- the mile where there were supposed to be very few fans and a cemetery on one side, but I never found it. Miles 22 through 24 for me were really more high fives, cheering, gatorade and jolly ranchers. At one point, I got to play someone's gong on the side of the road; at another, I jumped up and down with my hands in the air along with a group of spectators. I was pretty loopy, and luckily, it was just like a very big (and long) party.

Suddenly, we went down an underpass for a street, and I knew we were really close to the finish! Around this time, another runner in a yellow rainsuit "befriended" me and decided to motivate me by cheering me on and slapping me on the back in a firm but friendly manner. This is not a good thing to do to someone at mile 25 of a marathon but honestly, I didn't have enough energy left to get upset. The throngs at the side of the road got louder -- I noticed there was a big left-hand turn coming up in front of us and..it was Boyleston Street! "That's where the marathon finishes!" I shouted to my yellow friend. And I took off for that left hand turn with all I had left.

Around that bend, you could see the Boston Marathon finish line -- the most famous finish line in all of running. I got teary for the second time on the course, and had to stop sniffling because it makes me hyperventilate.

As usual, I "sprinted" the last 250m or so and as I crossed the finish line (4:49:37), I celebrated by screaming something inaudible and flinging my fists in the air. This awkward act at the end of a marathon produced a massive shock wave of pain throughout my entire back, rendering me incapable of moving my arms for a few minutes until (very very luckily) the pain subsided.

It's amazing how good it feels to stop running sometimes.

Immediately I focused on following the crowd through the post-marathon chute. I got a heat blanket and luckily since my arms were still immobile, they put a little happy sticker in the middle to keep it on my shoulders. The next thing was to get the chip off my leg, and after a bit of discussion with my leg, I was finally able to get my foot up high enough that the lady could get the chip off my foot and tie my shoe back up. We discussed the complete success of my grocery bag shoe solution, which kept my feet dry and blister-free. Then the shoe lady put the unicorn finisher's medal on me -- you can't imagine how excited I was to see that little guy!

After all of that, it was so very great to have Dad at the finish line. Of course it's always great to have someone at the finish line after a race, but especially great to have your Dad there. He'd just finished the Glass City Marathon the day before, and had flown all the way to Boston just for this moment!

So, to summarize, the weather in Boston was not great, but it wasn't as bad as everyone said it was going to be. The Boston Marathon is hands down the best marathon I have ever been in because of the spectator support. It might take until I'm 80, but I'm definitely going to try to run it again -- maybe qualify next time :)

Boston Marathon

When you run a marathon in 4:49, there is a whole lot to say. I'll try and come up with a more complete recap but some basics:
1) Weather was rainy and warm at the start, windy and cooler in the middle, and downright cold at the end.
2) The fans in Boston are the best anywhere! My hand is sore from high-fives.
3) I am unsure if any running event ever will beat making a left onto Boyleston street and seeing the most famous FINISH banner in the world in front of me.
4) I might never run a marathon without grocery bags on my feet again -- this is the first marathon I've ever finished blister-free.

More soon!

Boston Marathon Joke

What's Sad?
--Testing whether grocery bags taped to your feet are an effective dry-shoe solution
What's sadder than sad?
--Standing in the shower with rain gear on to determine just how waterproof your waterproof jacket is.

Happy Marathon Monday!
Lori

There is no bad weather, just different types of good weather

Yikes! Imagine getting this in your mail a few days before a marathon...

As the Boston Athletic Association continues to make preparations for Monday's Boston Marathon, we are monitoring the upcoming weather conditions forecast for this area. Based on the National Weather Service's most recent report and in cooperation with the Executive Office of Public Safety (Commonwealth of Massachusetts) and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, together with the eight cities and towns along the 26.2-mile marathon route, we are planning for likely heavy rain and windy conditions on race day. However, all race day plans remain the same. The Boston Athletic Association advises participants in Monday's race to plan accordingly for their run, bringing with them gear and apparel to suit the conditions. The B.A.A. will continue to update its web site as necessary.


Lovely! At least, I figure, the worse the weather, the better I'll be prepared at least!

Learn to read with Morgan Freeman

Before Morgan Freeman became super awesome, he was "Easy Reader" on Electric Company. You Tube is great, isn't it?

I really feel that he gets into his character there -- I totally believe that he loves to read.
Of course there's this one too:

a GIANT Morgan Freeman is pretty scary too!

Happy Good Friday!

Running to the beat of my own...nothing

I was reading the Runner's World -Boston edition last night and came across a note saying that headphones are not allowed for safety reasons.

They are kidding, right?

The last time I ran without headphones was a triathlon, because they don't work well in the water. But that was 3 miles, a half hour. Four hours is a whole different story.

I mean, kudos to the gazelles who need to concentrate on their form so that they can finish in two hours. I'm sure the no headphone rule does not phase them. Us "sturdy folk" will be out there twice as long, and geesh, having one more distraction available to use is a big deal.

Yes, I'm bitter. I'll get over it but that does not mean I like it.

Oahu

OK, OK, Hawaii Pictures are

Oahu Vacation

Up...

Ski Championships!

Yesterday, Frank, Tara and I went to the US National Alpine Ski Championships here in Alyeska Ski resort. I FORGOT MY CAMERA. ARGH!

Where is NorthtoAK?

Well, I'm back from vacation. I know I have not updated the blog in a while, but there are a two reasons:
1) I'm trying to get all the pictures and data from Hawaii up on the blog, which takes quite a bit of time. Ok that only explains the last two weeks :).
2) Springtime in AK. Although we likely have more sun than you do in the lower 48, we still have snow on the ground. It is on track to be the fourth coldest March on record. We traditionally have snow-free spots by the first week in April, and unless there is a serious disruption on the Earth's access, that ain't gonna happen. So many Anchoragians (like me and Frank) are a tad unhappy. This distress also is causing havoc in the MatSu Valley, where they are so cranky people are suing for ownership of office cats.

I'm hoping to get back on track soon, get those Hawaii pictures up as well as give an update on Boston Marathon training as well as the US Ski Championships at Alyeska this week (Yippee!).

P.S. And who won the Iditarod this year? Not Martin Buser, but he did come in 4th and led for a while. Lance Mackey became the first person ever to win both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod in the same year. It's a huge dramatic story that is definitely worth reading about.

Having a Halibut time with the Iditarod

While you in the midwest are enjoying your so-called spring weather, here in Anchorage we are still knee deep in the white stuff.

However, there are signs of "not winter" like ADN's coverage of the opening of halibut season: "Today at noon thousands of baited hooks will descend hundreds of feet into the dark depths of Alaska's frigid waters and shortly thereafter untold numbers of halibut will make the mistake of a lifetime.

And we will eat them for it."

We also have the Iditarod! Are you watching? If not, you won't know that some of the big favorites have suprisingly scratched, and my favorite Martin Buser is in the LEAD!

 

Anyways, look for a Monday/Sunday finish to the race, it will be a very fast sprint to the finish I think!

Nature's Electric Slide

Good news first :) Last night, right as we were going to bed, I remembered that there was supposed to be really good aurora activity that night. So, Galileo and I decided to check out the north windows. Sure enough, a bright green streak was lighting up the sky to the north of us! It looked something like this. An aurora kind of waves at you, gets a bit brighter in one place, then another, and can go from being "band-y" to upright in a matter of seconds.

As an ex-physics major, I thought I'd read up on it for you. So far, it has to do with ions travelling together, forming a plasma that hitches a ride on a solar wind. Or something like that.

All I really know is...to see this massive set of particles dance in our atmosphere is incredible; to see it out of your own home's windows is priceless.

The Aurora predictor at UAF says that tonight will be another good night for the northern lights.

Accepting the things one cannot change...

Wrestling with my hair today, I found something new about myself.

I thought at first it was a trick of the light, but I found a very very light hair on the side of my head. To test, I pulled it out and matched it up to different things in the house that were white. It was not quite as white as the sink, but certainly when you put it up against a navy shirt, it was definitely light and not very red at all.

There are really two different conclusions I could make -- 1) that I am turning blonde or have always had a very blonde hair on the side of my head or 2) that hair was decidedly white. I've had 30 years of inspecting my head (granted, I'm not much of a detail person), so I'm assuming that it was, perhaps, a grey-ish hair.

Yikes. "Grey hair is for old people" was my first thought (Sorry, old people :)). Then I thought, "Well...and for Taylor Hicks (my age) and even my sister (who is not an old person either)". Even if it was a grey hair, it's not like everyone else in the whole world for generations hasn't gone through this too, right?

I've been reading a lot about mental attitudes preparing for the marathon. One of the biggest things to remember when running a big race is separating those factors you have influence on (your training, your nutrition) and those you can't (the weather).

So, I chose to put this grey hair stuff into the mental bucket of "things I cannot change", acknowledged it, and tried to leave it at that...

..which lasted for five minutes. Apparently, I require something I can control to worry about to replace the grey hair worry-- this is probably why I have many hobbies. No, I'm not saying that it's a healthy reaction, but I'm being honest here.

So, the second thing I did was take a real good look in the mirror, and thought about what I do control, and what I can do something about next.

The fact is, for a newly old person, I am doing great. Hey, I'm functionally sound -- no broken bones, no permanent injuries to really complain about. In fact, with the marathoning and skiing, I am actually in better shape and fitness than I was at 17.

So, I'm going to focus my energy on two things. They are physical and a bit vain, but of course, so is worrying about grey hair:
1) I'm going to beat my Marathon PR, which is 4:18:44 (Columbus, age 26), at Boston in April.
2) I'm going to lose those last five pounds where it will facilitate that Marathon PR and not hurt it. If my calculations are correct, this requires a reduction of 3% body fat (not muscle), which is realistic, keeps me in a healthy BMI, and shouldn't interfere with goal #1.

Wish me luck :) I'll also work on getting used to the grey hair and her friends.

"Spencer Day"

Since the ski conditions have been especially awesome in Anchorage, Frank and I decided that Sunday would be our "Ski Spencer" day.

Spencer is probably the most famous trail in Anchorage, known for its' sharp, twisty downhills and insanely dramatic uphills. Personally, I think it is cursed. I've only been on it once last year, and "almost died" (I planted my face down in the snow five times). When Frank and I tried last year, he pulled his groin during the first 100 meters of downhill.

So we got our courage up today to ski Spencer again -- and we also coaxed Tara to go too. As Frank got his skis together, I carefully packed extra sport jelly beans and overdressed, just in case there was an emergency (I already wear a "safety orange" jacket for such times).

As we set out, it was looking like a great day. The ski wax was a little too warm for the day, which was actually good this time, since we wanted to go a little slower than usual. Spencer starts with a severe but small dip into the unknown before you start the gradual uphill battle to the top of the mountain. At the beginning, we were all in a good mood, but gradually, the mountain really wears even the most positive person down. By the time we got to the top, even I was swearing like a sailor!

Of course, what goes up, must come down. So once the hour of going uphill was finished, we started our harrowing descent. It reminds me of going down a bobsled run on skis, especially since there are names like "Luge" and "Labrynth". The Labrynth takes you right up to the gate to Hilltop ski area (that's right, we slog up the back of a mountain that smart people use a ski lift for). In fact, if you don't make the turn, like I didn't last year, you can easily run into the wood fence. There's a few more turns like that, but eventually you find yourself back on the Gasline as a "Spencer Survivor".

So Frank, Tara and I did Spencer and it was awesome. I didn't enjoy the downhills, but Frank certainly did ;). And, do you know what? It really was not as scary as I remember it.