Six sunny miles

I'm back!

Took some time off writing, and a week off running. The running hurt more than the writing. I was grumpy. I ate too much popcorn. I cleaned the house, caught up on the laundry. When I found myself scrubbing the bathtub, I knew it was time to tie on my shoes and hit the trails.

Except there were super high winds (again) and horribly icy roads so I consoled myself with the treadmill and road running for almost a week.

Yesterday the sun was out, shining over the mountains and giving off happy vibes.

View from my living room window yesterday morning.

So I took Beebs for her first longish trail run since her injury. We hit the historic Iditarod Trail for 6 miles. The bummer is the trail is 8 miles out and back but I wanted to keep Beebs at six. It was painful having to turn back with only a mile to go.

Beebs was feeling great, charging ahead and flying down the hills.

Beebs on the snowy trail. If you look close you can still see where the dogs tore into her hip; I think she'll have teeth marks fover, poor dear.

As always, the views were awesome.

I found myself praising the snowmachiners (in Alaska, it's snowmachine, not snowmobile--go figure) for packing down a nice, sturdy trail. The first 1.5 miles was fast, and then it got a bit clumpy but still runnable. I planned on taking it slow, since I had done hill work Tuesday and speed intervals Monday, but it was very difficult not to pick up the pace on the firmly-packed stretches.

Here's a pic on the way back, blurry from dropping my camera in the snow.

It was wonderful to run trails again. After I got back from my Hedgebrook Residency, I handed in my novel and then slept for about a week. Truly! I was that exhausted. I surfaced to attend work functions and write news stories, and then I fell back to sleep again.

Now I'm wide awake, working on my second novel and dreaming of running this:

The Prince of Wales Marathon. It's on my birthday, May 28. I don't think I can be in marathon shape by then but I'm seriously thinking of running it. It's only $35 plus plane fare and ferry ride to get to the island. But man, the views would be worth the suffering.

I'm also signed up for the Mayor's Marathon half in June, which I'm running with my sister, CK (we're wearing making cheetah running skirts from runningskirts.com and are gonna rock the course) and the full Big Wild Life marathon in August.

My big dilemma, however, is that there are three races I want to run on the same week in May: The Exit Glacier 10K, the Knoya Ridge Mountain Run and the Turnagain Trail 8-miler.

Two years ago when I ran the Knoya Ridge Mountain Run, a 20 something kid collapsed and died about a quarter mile from the finish at the ridge of the peak. It was awful, truly dreadful, and I'll write about it sometime in this blog but not tonight.

Anyway, my tentative race schedule. Actually, looking it over, I realize that if I run the Prince of Wales Marathon I'll miss out on some of my fav races. Oh, such tough decisions!


Knoya Ride, May 22 or Turnagain Arm Trail Race, May 24
Trent/Waldron Glacier Half-Marathon Race or POW Marathon, May 28 (both as training runs only)
Government Peak Mountain Race, June 4
Mayor's Half Marathon, June 18
Mt. Marathon mountain race, July 4
Master's 10K, July 21
SeaLife Center Wildlife Rescue 5k, mid-August
Lost Lake 16-miler trail race, Aug. 27
Zombie Half Marathon, Oct. 15

Running: 5 miles intervals Monday; 4 miles hill work Tuesday; 6 miles trails, Wednesday

Reading: "The Right Questions" by Debbie Ford (nonfiction self-help book 'cause I have some big decisions ahead of me and want to choose carefully)

Writing: Oh yes, please!