This is one of my favorite races and I love the course. It's tough but beautiful and non boring. I had been throwing in bitchin' hill sessions all winter and really stepped it up after I got back in January. I wanted to try for another win here. So in addition to said hill sessions, I snowshoed on the ice road, I ran the winter on snow, mud, ice, rocks, tundra, whatever. Intervals happened near the airstrip often in sideways rain or snow. I wanted this race and I was also training for Moscow Trail 24 June which is a similar in difficulty course. I won that last year as well. After the half, I went down to Homer to visit friends for a few days, take care of doctor appointments, and drink the best beer in the universe-Grace Ridge Brewery rocks.
I drove back to Anchorage Thursday so I'd have decent legs for Saturday. I headed out to the start and it was already warm by the 9am start-hot...pushing 15C and sunny. Oh dear, it's HOT...really HOT. Keep in mind, I awoke to sideways sticking snow in the village 2 weeks earlier. I felt good on the uphill. The lady that finished 3rd at the half last week hung with me the first 4k or so then began to drop back a bit. At the turnaround, I had about a 2 minute lead. I knew I needed to haul ass down in case she was a fast downhiller. My climb was a couple min faster than last year. I hauled and hauled 3.40-55 km all the way home. I could not see the second lady but wasn't sure how much a lead I had. With 2k to go, I couldn't see a soul behind me and knew I had thi but had to keep hammering it in. 2 guys were ahead of me and that was it. I finished 6 min up on the next lady, but she was only a couple min slower than my time from last year so definitely a climber. I shaved 4 min from my time from last year. Smart training and those hill sessions did their job! Another A+ to the race directors. These guys are awesome. They do a great job and I should mention do NOT charge ridiculous entry fees that seem to be the trend at more Anchorage races lately. 15$ entry 15$for a shirt. The Glacier Half is also very reasonable in this regard.
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I drove back to Anchorage Thursday so I'd have decent legs for Saturday. I headed out to the start and it was already warm by the 9am start-hot...pushing 15C and sunny. Oh dear, it's HOT...really HOT. Keep in mind, I awoke to sideways sticking snow in the village 2 weeks earlier. I felt good on the uphill. The lady that finished 3rd at the half last week hung with me the first 4k or so then began to drop back a bit. At the turnaround, I had about a 2 minute lead. I knew I needed to haul ass down in case she was a fast downhiller. My climb was a couple min faster than last year. I hauled and hauled 3.40-55 km all the way home. I could not see the second lady but wasn't sure how much a lead I had. With 2k to go, I couldn't see a soul behind me and knew I had thi but had to keep hammering it in. 2 guys were ahead of me and that was it. I finished 6 min up on the next lady, but she was only a couple min slower than my time from last year so definitely a climber. I shaved 4 min from my time from last year. Smart training and those hill sessions did their job! Another A+ to the race directors. These guys are awesome. They do a great job and I should mention do NOT charge ridiculous entry fees that seem to be the trend at more Anchorage races lately. 15$ entry 15$for a shirt. The Glacier Half is also very reasonable in this regard.
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