Well, I had a hunch I'd drop off for a while.....I tried starting this entry over Thanksgiving, but was just too busy. Fall racing season was busy busy and between the road trips and school, I just don't have the time to check in like I used to. Right after Belochka, Leonid and I came back to Alaska for the fall racing season. Sure, we've traveled to the USA many times before, but this was his first time in Alaska. The season is pretty busy until Early October, then it just drops dead as a flipping doornail til May unless you are up to the hassle of hauling to Anchorage which I am not. We raced (and won) nearly every weekend through October until the season was up. We got some damn nice prizes along the way everything from a Kenai Fjords cruise to air and ferry tickets to massage and spa treatment and many more goodies......
July-
Jackolof Bay 10 miler- this was an awesome hilly 10 miler from Jackolof Bay to Seldovia. We took the water taxi from Homer and the ferry back. This was very well organized and had fun prizes. The trip was worth its weight in berries we picked after the run!
Our first race and win for both of us
what to do with all those blueberries!
lots of berries and no bears -it was a good day!
Six days later I repeated my win at the Run For Life 5k in Soldotna and Leonid took his first win here.It was WET WET WET this yr!!!
first pink moment sunset in Anchorage at Pt Woronzof. July after 11pm.Sleeping Lady is in the background. I'd told Leonid about these views for years.
July-
Jackolof Bay 10 miler- this was an awesome hilly 10 miler from Jackolof Bay to Seldovia. We took the water taxi from Homer and the ferry back. This was very well organized and had fun prizes. The trip was worth its weight in berries we picked after the run!
Six days later I repeated my win at the Run For Life 5k in Soldotna and Leonid took his first win here.It was WET WET WET this yr!!!
GO FISH! Best recovery food :-)
The following weekend I ran the Kenai Run for Women 10k again this yr.....and here is my prize- a lovely fireweed painting :-)
....And the next weekend we ran the Costume 5k in Kenai where we both won overall! This was an offroad/on road hybrid course with hills! This worked in my favor!
Top 3 overall Leonid then me then William
chillin after the race!
During the last weekend of August, I had a holy day off school and a 3 day weekend.The weather gods cooperated in full and we hit the road to Seward to enjoy one of the prizes we had won- A Kenai Fjords cruise :-)
Labor Day weekend we went back to Seldovia for the 10k and more berries! We had to make use of that ferry ride back we had won earlier this season and we decided to spend the weekend running then picking the last of the blueberries. My fridge is well stocked with jam!
The 10k was a nice dirt road/trail course -not fast(the only fast course we really did was the 5k in Soldotna) but really pretty. We managed to win this one too! It was very well organized and marked! There were plenty of blueberries saying PICK ME PICK ME after the race!
Two weeks later was the Halibut Hustle 5k. I won this one "just for the halibut" the second year in a row and Leonid won on a technicality because the leader accidentally turned around too soon. It was a very windy day on the Spit that day and WET. I was some 40 sec faster than last year, but the course was again 300m long...ah well.
Now, I had planned to run the half at the Kenai Marathon this year so I could do Run to the Altar (the vertical trail half I did six days off the marathon last yr) and not feel like unrecovered shit. Unfortunately, Run to the Altar was cancelled and is no more. This was such a fun course-very hard gnarly ass trail. So, five days before the marathon I figured I'd do it as a long run. I was again selected to represent Latvia in the 100k WC/EC in November, but unfortunately, I couldn't afford the 3-4000$ for the trip. Yes, shit like this sucks. I'm still very capable of running well at the ultras, but the cost of travel and the logistics of getting out are killing what's left of my career. I'm out of the Little Su 50 in 2017 by default because we have Saturday School that day to make up for a holy day off midweek. I could take personal leave, but I can only justify taking personal leave for a race if it's WC/EC or a commercial race where I could offset the cost of the trip by going for prizes. I can't justify personal leave for Little Su 50k. Plus, the drive is a dangerous crapshoot that's 6 hours in good weather and maybe a no go come mid Feburary. I may be out in 2018 as well because I see we have Saturday School again mid Feb. We have a couple few Saturdays a school year when we sometimes have a Russian Orthodox holy day off midweek and then make it up on Saturday. This would be nice to do to fill the black hole of no winter races in Homer(still can't figure out why the hell it's dead as a bloody doornail October- May in Homer when we have mild winters and optimal places to race/train). However, the ends really don't justify the means.
I won the Kenai River Marathon running mostly alone all day. I beat the rain to the finish!!!! Many did not!
It was ideal weather- about +2-4C overcast
Two weeks later, we came back for the 5K in Kenai out on by American Cancer Society. Once Again, we both won and lucky for me this course was much like the costume run 5k but with 2 serious climbs one just one. I beat the girl who had just finished 3rd at HS state in XC the week before and she was better than me on the downhills but couldn't stay with me on the uphills. I used this to pull away on the climbs to open a gapand she finished about 20 sec. behind me. Had it been a flat course, I think she may have gotten me.
finish on a blustery -7C day!
The last weekend in October a couple weeks later we did a fun trail mud mile on a newly opened trail just outside of Homer. The cycling club put it on and you could run or bike it . It was a fun day!
I did the Turkey Trot (damn let 3 boys beat me LOL) about 3 weeks later. I'm training through the winter for spring summer. Yes, it continues to drive me batshit that there is nothing going on here until May. I may look into some possibilities over spring break, but' I'll see how feasible the travel etc is when it gets closer to the date and whether or not it's worth the hassle. I'm still planning a summer in Russia. Race plans if any are up in the air. It's really hard to gauge my fitness and effectively prepare for that part of the season when there are NO barometer races I terribly need March-April.Sadly, I'm pretty much being forced into retirement by default and inability to get out to the big high end races that motivate me. Without a sponsor or a means to offset the travel costs, It's just not possible. This is why I actually did most of my high level international racing in my 30s as opposed to my 20s because I had the same issues then- inability to get out as easily from Fairbanks and later Wasilla. However, at least I was able to get fit for my summer racing because in both these places, the running community had stuff going on throughout the winter. The few times there are races in my neck of the woods during the season, they are often these itty bitty 5ks and that's just not me. I need the longer stuff. I enjoy that more as well. I had planned to retire once I started slowing down after 40. I'm too competitive to have it any other way. I did finally get into proper shape late summer, so the capabilities to perform are still there, I need to be ready for that by the spring though and this not racing for some six months is ridiculous and wrong.
