Martha's So-Called Life

tuesday night at the races

Yesterday evening my friend Leslie and I headed to the Tuesday Night Races.  It's a fall event put on by the Municipality.  Each week it's a new course and a location in town.  You sign up for a league which has a distance range, and don't get to find out how far, or where, you are running until you show up.  I did these as a kid, so it was fun to go back after so many years.

Featured in the course last night were fall colors, hills, and mud! (Sorry for the kind of blurry photos...action shots!)

The elevation profile from my Garmin does not accurately reflect what some of the hills felt like!  We ended up mostly "power hiking" since I have been sick and Leslie hasn't been running.  

We will be doing this again next week...hopefully with more running and fewer hills!

photo updates from my "good" camera

Most of the photos that I post here are from my phone.  Mostly because that's the camera that I always have with me.  Every once in awhile I get around to emptying the photos off the SD card of my DSLR camera and occasionally they make it to the blog.

Remember when I went dipnetting back in July?  Here are the photos I took one evening when the sun came out and the light was amazing.

And here is some of the amazing scenery from our drive to and from Skagway for the Klondike Road Relay (a majority of these were taken from a moving vehicle, so pardon any blurriness).  

You definitely can't beat the scenery and dramatic fall colors on this drive!

If you missed my recap of the Klondike, you can catch up here: part 1, part 2, part 3

klondike road relay 2014: part 3

Here's part 1 and part 2 just in case you missed them!

Ok post race details.  One thing I forgot to mention was at this point I had completely lost my voice (I started with a sore throat on Thursday, felt ok on Friday, and still felt ok on Saturday, but had no voice), so there was a lot of gesturing and "shouting" on my part.

We left the finish line and headed to the cabins where we were staying the night (Sundog Retreat, I think).  It was about a 20 minute drive out of Whitehorse.  Once we got there, we split up between the two cabins...and took showers!  Hot showers!  It was glorious.  At that point the people in my cabin and I decided that we were pretty much too tired to do anything other than eat and go to bed.  So, we scavenged some food and went to sleep.  The plan was to get up super early (4:30am) Sunday morning and be on the road between 5am and 6am to get home.  

We managed to get on the road by 6:15 (pretty good when you are trying to get 9 people organized and motivated first thing in the morning).  The drive back started out with giant potholes.  Like the biggest potholes I've ever seen.  It had pretty much been raining since we drove down on Thursday, which was evident in the fact that the road had quickly disintegrated.  It was hard to tell from far away where exactly the potholes were, all you could see was gravel scattered across the road until you got right up close to them.  There was a lot of slowing down and driving in the oncoming traffic lane to avoid losing a wheel, or getting swallowed completely.  

Next came the snow. 

The roads were a slushy mess but Heather handled it like a champ.  

After we got through the snow there was one point when the whole road was gravel and there were 100s of tiny little (and some big) potholes.  Getting through that portion involved driving 25mph and zig zagging all over the road.  Super fun.  We all cheered when we hit pavement (and Beaver Creek)!

Most of the rest of the drive was uneventful.  It was funny that as soon as we went through U.S. customs, it was sunny and beautiful out, but it had rained/snowed on us almost the entire time we were in Canada.  

About 10 minutes outside of Glennallen, there was a large bang, a funny smell, and some other weird noises in the engine of the RV.  We quickly pulled over on the side of the road and got out to investigate.  It was not the tire (which is kind of what it sounded like to me), turns out that it was a spark plug.  After a phone call to the rental company, we established that it was safe to drive as long as we didn't mind the noise.  It was either that or wait 5 hours for someone to come help us, or wait until the next day to try and find a place to fix it.  We had a good laugh about the whole thing, donned our earplugs, and carried on in our RV turned giant riding lawnmower.  (PS. To the 10 or so cars, trucks, and RVs who drove by and didn't bother to see if we were ok...thanks, we got it figured out on our own.)

We also had to drive with all the windows open because it smelled like gas.  Fun.

We rolled into town around 8:30pm, did you hear us?.  We unloaded the RV and went home to our own beds! 

What an amazing, completely ridiculous, and incredibly awesome time! I can't wait to do it again next year!

Side note: my voice came back on Wednesday, but I ended up being sick for over a week.  I guess running 20 miles over night in the rain is not really the best thing to do when you are sick.  Oh well.  Totally worth it. 

let it snow

I love snow.  I hate this time of year when I'm stuck waiting around for it to happen.  So, I thought I'd put my wishing for snow vibes to good use and make something!  Not only did it help pass the time while I'm stuck at home being ill, it will also give me something to look at while I'm wishing for snow, but listening to the rain fall angrily outside.

4x6 print on glossy photo paper, my photo and my handwriting.  If you are interested, I'm selling 20 of them here.  Sorry to all the snow-haters out there...but we live in Alaska, where it is winter more often than it's not.  Embrace it!

weekend reading

This weekend is the last weekend of the summer that JRW has to work!  Hooray!  I'm celebrating by being home sick on the couch...at least it's raining and I'm not missing much.  Here's what I found to keep myself entertained...

Peach crisp! I'd sub some kind of nut mixture for the oats.

Why the U.S. chills it's eggs

Vaccination rates in some schools in Hollywood are lower than those of Sudan.  Argh!

Ebola, it's no joke. 

My new favorite way for getting the news. My previous method was to ask JRW to summarize...

Beer (or coffee) brownies...

Happy weekend!

klondike road relay 2014: part 2

First of all, if you found your way here from the KRR FB page or the from @SportYukon, welcome!!  

Here's part 1 if you missed it.  

Ok...leg 3.  It was dark, rainy, and foggy by the time I started my leg.  I was excited to be running and little nervous to be running in the dark...alone.  I had all my reflective gear and a flashy light on my shoe so my team could identify me (best idea ever), so I felt safe from cars...but as always, I was kind of worried about bears.  I'm not used to running without my four-legged sidekick, especially not when I'm mostly alone.  

I tried really hard not to look at my watch to see how fast I was running, but I could tell that I was clipping along and a nice pace (i.e. too fast to sustain and/or run again in 9 hours) due to the mostly downhill profile of leg 3.  My first two miles were 9:48 and 9:42 which is WAY faster than I have been running all season.  Reel it in Rosenstein. 

I finally settled into a better pace and just went with it.  I decided to stop trying to talk myself out of slowing down.  Sometimes you just have to change the plan and go with what feels good at the time! 

Once I came down out of the fog, I could still see a little bit of the scenery, which was almost as awesome in the dark as it is in the daylight.  

I saw my team a couple of times in all their gold and cowbelled glory (note to new readers, I like to make up words).  Got some water...and kept on running.  Somewhere around mile 5 I think I told them to just go ahead and meet me at the exchange zone, they had to go through Canadian Customs while I was running and I didn't want them to get stuck there.

I rolled into the exchange zone for leg 4 at 1:21:06 (9 minutes faster than my estimated time!) and tagged off to Michele!  My legs were tired and sore and I started worrying about my next run (we had two team members drop out and weren't able to replace them, so Audrey and I volunteered to run two legs).  When I got back to the RV I focused on getting into dry clothes, eating, and hydrating.  Then I tried to take a nap...which was very unsuccessful!

This part of the night is kind of a blur.  We cheered for Michele and then Val and finally sent Ashley off on her 16 miler.  When we pulled into the exchange zone for leg 6, Heather and I both noticed the giant hill that starts that leg off (as evidenced by the huge line of tail lights trailing up it).  We both told Ashley not to look.

Ashely killed her run...and she was easy to spot in her gold legwarmers!  

After Ashley, it was Alex's turn for leg 7.  He rocked his leg in gold tights! While Alex was running I was getting ready for my second leg.  My legs were still tired, I was tired, and it was still raining (good thing I like running in the rain)!  

I decided earlier that I was going to run 4 min and walk 1 min for this leg.  I have to say, I'm glad I made that plan.  I think this leg would have been incredibly hard for me if it had been my only leg, but given that I had already run almost 8 miles 9 hours earlier...it was a challenge.  

Looking at the elevation profile, I definitely do not recall there being that much downhill.  It felt like endless uphill.  Somewhere around 4 or 5 I think I asked Ashley "where the *$#& is the downhill?" But I just kept plugging along...in the torrential downpour.  

I definitely don't think that I could have done this leg without my team cheering me on.  I was so tired, but they just kept telling me I was doing a good job and to keep going.  And ringing cowbells.  Cowbells always help.  

When I finally hit the 1k marker I was SO. HAPPY.  I was also greeted by Heather who said she was going to run the last little bit with me (she's recovering from a stress fracture which was why she was driving and not racing).  I am not sure that I would have made it without her.  

These photos capture the moment perfectly.

I have never been so happy to be done running in my life!  20.6 miles in less than 12 hours! I ended up being faster than my original time estimate (before I told Ashley to add 15 minutes when I said I would run a second leg), which is great!  If I had run another 0.7 miles (half marathon distance) I would not have run my slowest half marathon either.  Considering the way I felt, I feel very good about that.

Audrey kicked butt on her last leg.  She said she felt pretty good and kept it nice and steady.  When Audrey was done it was FINALLY Bethany's turn.  She gets a gold star for patience...she was so excited to finally get to run!  

I think she also gets points for most enthusiasm while running!  After we sent Bethany off, we stopped a few times to cheer for her, and then headed to the finish line so we could catch the finish.  Parking in a giant RV was kind of a pain, so we dropped some people off to make sure we didn't miss her completely and then parked and the rest of us headed to the finish line.  

When she came into the finish area, the announcer said "and now the team we've all been waiting for...Solid Gold Inferno!" Awesome!  

And of course...the obligatory team photo!

Don't worry...there will definitely be a part 3...the drive home was almost as interesting as the race :)

klondike road relay 2014: part 1

Forgive me if this turns into a long-winded post with too many sequels.  It's just that I am not entirely sure how to begin to describe this experience.  If you've done it...then you know.  If not, you should just do it and then you'll know.  

Last Wednesday afternoon, Team Solid Gold Inferno (8 women and one guy) piled into a RV with the intention of driving 800+ miles to run a 100 mile overnight relay, and then drive the 700+ miles back home.  In 4.5 days.  

We left town at about 5pm on Wednesday, drove to Palmer and made a quick stop at the Fred Meyer for last minute supplies.  Then headed to Glenallen, where we stopped to get gas and eat a quick dinner.  

By the time we left Glenallen it was quite dark (I think it was just after 8pm).  Not far down the road I spotted something in the distance...in the road.  It turned out to be a family of bears (mama and two cubs) hanging out in the middle of a seldom used highway and quite surprised to have a large object with bright lights barreling towards them.  Our fearless driver slammed on the breaks (not the best breaks to begin with) while mama bear tried to figure out whether to attack (thank goodness we were in an RV because if we had been in a car, I'm pretty sure she would have clobbered it) or flee.  I've never seen such a large animal bounce around and look so angry.  They finally decided on heading for the bushes about the time we came to a full stop.  Almost everyone was asleep and rudely awakened to things flying past them as we tried to stop.  Good old Newton's 2nd Law!

Further down the road we got to experience some really amazing aurora.  They were super bright and dancing all over the place.  We even got a little hint of red/purple at one point.  It was awesome!

We rolled into Tok sometime around 1am I think and promptly went to sleep.  The next morning we were on the road by 8am.  We made it into Skagway about 8pm on Thursday evening.  It was raining.  We parked the RV at the campground spot we had and headed out for some dinner.  

I was totally exhausted and not feeling well at that point, so I went to bed.  The rest of the team stayed up and decorated shirts for the next days festivities (there was lots of gold glitter paint).  

Friday morning we got up around 8am to torrential downpour and winds gusting to 65mph.  We headed out for breakfast anyway...you can't let a little weather get in your way.  When we got back, I put my crafty skills to work and decorated my shirt to complete my gold outfit.  We also worked on last minute preparations for the race (extra supplies, refilling water, gas, cleaning, organizing, etc.) and then pulled the RV out of the campground and went to find a parking spot that would allow us a quick exit (several roads would be closed later due to the race and we needed to quickly get out to follow our runner).  

The plan was to be at the start by 5:45pm for our 6:15 start time.  So around 5:30pm we suited up in our best gold attire...and headed out to send Jessie off on the first leg.  The wind was still fierce, but we established that it would at least be a tailwind and not a headwind.  

Apparently when you put on gold clothing in a tourist town...everyone thinks you are important.  As we strutted our stuff down the street we noticed that we were being filmed and photographed by tourists.  As we waited for the race to start, people kept coming up to us and asking if they could have a photo with us.  Um, weird and awesome all at the same time.  

Here's Jessie before the start of Leg 1:

At 6:15pm, we sent her on her way and ran back to the motorhome to get going.  Leg 1 is tough, with a run through town and some massive hills.  It was windy and rainy, but still pretty!

Jessie tagged off to Audrey...and leg 2 began!

Audrey hauled it on her first leg.  Way to kill the uphill!!

The gold sure made it easy to spot our teammates (in the daylight).  By the time Audrey finished her first leg it was dark...and we were at the top of the pass so it was also foggy.  Audrey tagged off to me...and I set out into the darkness for my first leg...

Stay tuned for part 2!

august book report

I read a lot of books in August.  I've been stuck in a reading rut (i.e. haven't been able to finish a book to save my life) so this is good.  And thanks to my rediscovery of the library, this didn't break the bank!  

The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides // This is a super detail rich story about three characters.  You get to learn about the same years of their lives from each of their perspective.  This book hooked me from the beginning, and although there are some slow points (mostly the perspective of my least favorite character), I loved the whole thing.  I also enjoyed The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex by the same author.  

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See // A few years ago I read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See and thought it was good, so I was looking forward to reading another book by the same author.  I was pretty disappointed in this book though.  I just never really got into the story or the characters.  It's the story of a woman in a village in China and follows her as she grows up.  I don't have much else to say about this book.  It wasn't bad but it was not my favorite.  

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan // I thoroughly enjoyed this book (I read it in just under 48 hours), but also found it a little confusing and disappointed in the ending.  It follows a cast of characters from various points of view throughout their lives.  I found this hard to keep track of and I think it left me wanting more of certain aspects of their lives that were never touched on again.  Overall a good and entertaining read though!