Number 27 - Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon, Anchorage, AK
A couple of months ago one of my running friends said he signed up for the Anchorage marathon and was looking for someone to go along. Although it was not in my immediate plans, I said sure. Well, we left Phoenix Thursday at dusk, and arrived 5 hours later at dusk. We got the hotel around 1:00 am, still dusk. The next morning we went to check out the glacier at Portage, around an hour south of Anchorage. When getting to Portage we hiked up a trail that led to Byron Glacier. Instead of a colorless sheet of ice, it had a blue tint to it as a result of the ground up rock being imbedded into the ice; quite different than anything I have seen. We then took a tour boat to the foot of the Portage Glacier. This lake was formed from the runoff of the glacier which had a greenish/blue tint to it, again from the ground up rock. They said the boat was particularly designed to operate on this lake full of icebergs from the calving (chucks of the glacier falling into the water). Waterfalls all around pouring into the lake; it was a quite a sight. The visit south was capped off by seeing a moose and her calf next to the highway as we drove back to Anchorage.
Race day was overcast occasionally drizzling with temperatures in the 50’s; ideal conditions for running a marathon. There were about a thousand marathoners and an usually larger than normal crowd of “fifty state'ers”. While waiting for the start we saw three people with signs on the shirts that this was their fiftieth today. We talked to a few others; a middle aged woman was running her 400th today. She has been doing this about twice a month for the last twenty years, has run marathon on all continents and done the fifty state challenge three times. My 27th marathon seemed like nothing in comparison. We met several others who had run over forty and one guy who had run 250.
The course was reasonably flat in the beginning and then took off into the woods on a gravel road at about the eight mile mark. About five miles on this sometimes slippery and loose surface, would take a toll later. After the gravel road, the course took to the trails for a couple of miles before getting back on solid pavement. It was a beautiful route through the forest, not doing much of that these days living in Phoenix. The course then got back into the city of Anchorage, but instead of streets the course was on paved paths through city parks with many brooks and trees; really serene and refreshing settings eventually emptying out near a lake which led to the finish. Although I always try to hit a challenging target time, I knew this would not be a fast time due to the course, the extensive travel I have done lately and the subsequent lack of training. Those five miles on the gravel took there toll and by twenty-three I was done. I walked/ran the last three and finished in 4:15. In spite of the five miles of gravel road it was a beautiful course and a real pleasure.
My friend Lowell and I went to Humpy’s Alehouse afterwards and enjoyed the locals celebrating the solstice. Part of Humpy’s fame is hosting the “Man vs. Food” challenge. They have a menu item called the “Kodiak Arrest” and anyone who can eat it all gets the ultimate bragging rights (7 crab cakes, 1 foot of reindeer sausage, 3 lbs of Alaska king crab with sides and a wild berry crisp with ice cream). I passed on this one. We ran into many runners and swapped stories, four others joined us at our table. One person was flying to Kona to due her fiftieth next weekend. So don’t call me crazy; I know crazy.

Number 26 - Boston Marathon, Boston, Mass.
If you are going to repeat a marathon, this is the one. No where is there more excitement leading up to or during a race than here. The enthusiasm of the crowd is beyond compare. The streets are lined from beginning to end with spectators. If I lived closer and qualified, it would be hard to not sign up each year. This year, unlike in 2004 when it was 86 degrees, the conditions were near perfect, with temperatures in the low 50’s, partly cloudy and a cross wind of 15 mph.
My two sisters came over from New York to support me for this race. We had a good time, although short visit. I tried to arrange a nice pasta dinner at a nearby new restaurant, only to find it closed when the cab dropped us off. Of course, then is when it started to rain. We took shelter a few blocks away in a coffee bar where we settled on a late lunch. Later in the day we strolled through the marathon expo sharing some of the craziness around us runners with my sisters before finding a small book store/restaurant on Newberry Street to eat dinner. On race day they met me on the first long hill on the course, mile 16, and again near the finish. It is amazing with all the people and logistics getting from one place to another that we were able to meet up.
I received a great deal of encouragement during the race, wearing my orange colors for MS and my request for prayers for my daughter on the back of my shirt. At least a dozen people offered prayers for her during the race, including one in particular that really touched my heart. A fellow runner came up to me and we spoke for a few minutes and he said his brother, a priest, had died recently. We were coming up to a church in the town of Natick and he said as he passed the church he would talk to his brother about my daughter because he knew he had good connections with the Lord. It was moving. I am sure many others prayed that did not say anything and for all these prayers I am thankful. As I have said before, I am always looking for that righteous man/woman who can turn the tide for my daughter in her battle with MS.
My qualifying time placed me in the second wave of runners starting at 10:30 compared to the previous noon start for everyone, which took 20 plus minutes to just reach the starting line. This time the delay was only three and a half minutes. I started off down the hills in Hopkington clicking off the miles at a little faster pace than planned and eventually accumulated about a one to two minute cushion before reaching the hills in Newton. I thought I was doing ok, but for some reason thought I had climbed the last hill only to realize that the last and most severe hill was ahead of me. This is where I started loosing my cushion. I started checking my watch and calculating how to hit my 3:59 time goal. Just maintain a 9:30 pace and I’ll make, I kept telling myself. That was not easy and while the miles for the first half of the course passed by quickly the last 5 took forever. With a mile to go and the crowd’s encouragement I was able to pick up the pace and finished in 3:59:27, ten minutes faster than my 2004 time.
I was pretty stiff and sore, but after a shower and short nap took off to check out the restaurant we missed the day before. I convinced myself the mile or so walk was good and was pleasantly surprised to get a seat right away and enjoyed a great meal before setting off to find the home made ice cream shop we saw the day before. This time I indulged with no limits and thought about my next stop, Anchorage, Alaska in June.

Number 25 - Disney Marathon, Orlando, Florida
This was another marathon like no other with the lure of Disney and roughly 50,000 runners participating in all the events over the weekend, in spite of record low temperatures for Florida. My daughter and I had been planning this for 9 months, well before she was diagnosed with MS. In spite of the hurdles, she trained through them and reached the starting line healthy, but quite a bit under the goal of 20 mile training runs. The goal was to finish before the “sweepers” caught us. You see, this race had a time limit and anyone not keeping up would be pulled off the course. This was not something Jaime would accept.
The weekend started off with my granddaughter, Anna, running her first race; a 200 yard dash as part of the Kids Marathon race program. It was rainy and cold, but she was undeterred. She ran strong until I told her to look for the sign we made for her as she approached the finish line, then she nearly stopped running trying to find the sign. Of course, the race was not timed, but there was a medal which she proudly wore all day.














Marathon day started at 3:00 am ET, so we could leave by 4:00 and get to the start by 5:30. There was a ton of traffic and we ended up getting there just in time to bring up the rear of the field. We had our extra jackets, plastic bags for cover and gloves which we wore for almost half the race. We built up a cushion for our time goal in the early miles, but by the time we hit 15 miles it was trouble city. Jaime hit the proverbial wall. However, she worked through it and we kept going. At 21 miles the “sweepers” were only 10-15 minutes behind us and we were well behind the required pace per mile. With the fear of not finishing we kept pushing to get to one milestone after another. Hoping that if we reached a certain gate or reached the Hollywood Studios part of the course, we would be safe. With about a mile to go the end was in sight, however it was on the totally other side of the lake in Epcot. It seemed like another marathon just to get there, but Jaime persevered and we reached the finish line in 6:56:26; just three and half minutes ahead of the required finish time. Amazingly, Jaime only suffered one blister on one foot with no other significant injuries.
We all thanked God for this accomplish and continue to pray for Jaime and her battle with MS. She did great. I was so proud.