Twilight Twelve K in the Greatland!

Well, it wasn't a stellar performance but it did a great deal for strengthening my resolve to get back into marathon shape. Running the Skinny Raven Sports Twilight 12K last Friday was lots of fun, primarily because my buddy Mark ran (I mean jogged/walked) it with me...thank God he did because I may have taken short cuts along the way! The race was sponsored by the city's premier running store, Skinny Raven. Jerry Ross, the state's top distance runner and Olympic hopeful, was the organizer. Prior to the start of the 12K, a 1-mile running event was held pitting against each other the top high school and college 1600 and 3200 meter runners. Predictably, Trevor Dunbar won in 4:10ish...I featured a blog entry about him a few months ago.

Back to the 12K. Joining Mark and I in the race were my friends Judy Blake and Jim Gamble. Jim has run marathons here and abroad. Judy is an amazing runner who occasionally places in her 55-age group. Judy regularly trains with a group and likes to run trails and half marathons.

The very sunny 12K route began downtown and worked its way to the Government Hill area where there were nice views of downtown and old neighborhoods. I didn't have any trouble running up to this point. From Government Hill the route went back through downtown and on to the Coastal Trail. It was at this point that I felt like I needed to walk more often...boo. It was also now becoming cloudy, cool, and breezy. Mark kept my spirits up with great conversation. The Coastal Trail is Anchorage's running route jewel...beautiful views of Cook Inlet and the mountains beyond. I think the thought of eating

all the furnished pizza I wanted at the finish line keep me motivated from this point on. Approaching the 6 mile route marker, I reminded Mark that I hadn't run more than 6 miles up to this point...I ceremonially stepped past the sign and kept going. By now it was easy to see that Mark and I were probably some of the very last runners left on the route...the other 500+ runners were by now eating all my pizza! As we ran along Westchester Lagoon, up Bootleggers Cove, and approached the finish line on the Delaney Park Strip I couldn't help but wonder why the hell I entered the race. I was not running well, I was tired, cold and hungry as hell. Luckily I had Mark with me to remind me that running with friends is always fun and given my situation, I should be proud that I was out there doing it. How strange it was to enter the finishers shoot and hear Jerry Ross call out Mark and my bib numbers and names while hundreds of runners gathered around the finish line cheered us on...I was embarrassed for my time.

I wanted to go somewhere and hide, but instead I shot over to the pizza boxes only to see that there weren't any pizzas left!!!! However, my wife Marian saved the day. For God knows how long, she saved one slice of pizza for me. Despite it being as cold as my hands and being as stiff as a board, I devoured it...along with one other piece that someone found while picking up the pizza boxes to throw away.

Mark is a special friend and I really appreciate him running the race with me when he could have run it probably at a 8 minute per mile pace, or faster. Mark is training very hard to run the Mayor's Marathon on June 20 and hopefully qualify for Boston. He has come to within a minute of doing so on a number of occasions. I wish him luck on his upcoming marathon and I hope there is enough pizza at the end of the race for him...run fast Mark!