Spring break , March 6. I never could have imagined as I was heading out that day on the ice road to Bethel to catch my flight to Anchorage that the world would literally go to hell by the following week. I flew in that night and slept in the next day. I headed downtown on Saturday the 7 th in the afternoon for the Running of the Reindeer. It’s just a fun thing where you run about 300 m and they send the reindeer to chase you.
This was the last semblance of "normal".
I was just beginning my spring buildup for my summer racing season I had planned split between Moscow and Anchorage. The following Tuesday, I hit The Dome for a decent interval workout. I had planned to run the Shamrock Shuffle the following Saturday. It never happened. By Thursday, it was cancelled and the Dome and everything else shut soon after. I got a call from my principal that Friday saying spring break had been extended a week as the governor had shut schools due to Covid. He said to just be back in the village a week later it was up to me if it wanted to stay out longer. Of course I stayed put at home where it was safer and went back a week later. Meanwhile, borders shut and my summer plans went to hell. For the first time in 21 years, I would be parking my ass and not making it back to Russia. There would be no season, demotivation ensued as did retirement by default. Not racing an entire season would mean at least two years away from real racing. That compounded with not getting any younger is just something you don’t claw back from. I race to be perform, and if that’s not happening, there really isn’t a point. I can just hit the trail on my own.Adding insult to injury, thanks to the damn border closings, that wedding at Arctic Valley just like the race is in the toilet until further notice.
I returned to Tuluksak at the end of March and completed my work for the kiddos for the rest of the year. All we could do was send them home with weekly packets because they have no internet access at home. I walked into my classroom and March 6 was on the board. It was a Pripyat moment. Everything was left in place frozen in time on that last day of “normal”. On April 7, we were given the green light to telework the rest of the year if we had a somewhere else home to go to. I flew out the next day with the principal and two other teachers. I had just procured a doctor note just in case as my backup plan to go out on medical if needed. I’m high risk especially after that bout of pneumonia and pleurisy I had in 2014.
I remember flying in from Bethel and arriving in Anchorage under the new travel restrictions. In and out of state arrivals were separated much like it is when you enter the USA and citizens snd residents are separated from visitors. That’s because out of state arrivals had to test for Covid and quarantine.
I parked my ass in Anchorage the rest of the summer. Everything was still shutdown so I didn’t bother to drive my car for two weeks since it needs to be in storage mode at least 30 days before pulling it out unless I want to pay another month of insurance...With Instacart, and good takeout and adult beverages around the corner, I didn’t need the car right away. Running? Well it’s 800m to the track, 1 km one direction to the trail. Need hills? Go the opposite direction to Kincaid. April is a shitty month for trails because of spring breakup, so I mostly did a hilly loop on the roads around Kincaid until May. That’s about the time the track got unlocked. I didn’t want to hop the gate because others had done that and pawed it up, so I waited for contactless track access.
With no racing on the menu, I was not going to bust my ass and train my ass off, get in to form, and peak for what?? That’s like getting all dressed up snd nowhere to go! I did do a mix of intervals and hills though for maintenance. Getting lazy and morphing into a whale was not the answer either.
Well if I was going to staycation, avoid people, what else to do? Get high! I took my rest days from running and did just that! I climbed... a lot! I started putting the names of local peaks into a jar and drawing them out once a week and taking a hike usually on Friday-my running rest day. Here are a few pics-I will do a separate post on my summer staycation pics. Some of the hikes I did were gorgeous. Portage Glacier and lake in Whittier were beautiful, I am just shocked at how much the glacier has receded in the last 15 years. I literally did not recognize it in 2015 after being gone ten years.
By mid- July, Skinny Raven had managed to put on the Her Tern Half with an in person option. The way they had it spread out at the start made it more than safe with small wave starts. I decided to do it as a tempo run since 1. I hadn't been training all out 2. I chose to carry water to be safe and therefore that would slow me down. I did manage to win the masters in what would be the only in person race of the year.
I would spend August-mid November back in Tuluksak. There was no in person school in August due to a covid case in the village. If not for having a treadmill in my place there, this quarantine situation was not going to work. It's a 14 day Covid Jail quarantine where you have to actually stay home when you enter most villages. OK, I get it- obviously there should be no visiting, no interacting with people, no going into public buildings etc, BUT my daily runs out ALONE on the airport road are a threat to no one. I have no interaction with anyone or anything but occasional wildlife. Taking away outside is hell as it's the only thing keeping my mental health barely above water. This was the one thing the mayor in Anchorage made a point of not doing-closing the trail system. Even when everything else was shut down, the trails and outside were open and specifically so people could get outside for mental health. With at least two more trips out, I'm looking at at least six weeks of such jail this year. Even two weeks on a treadmill is enough to drive me batshit.
"School" lasted until October 26th when the entire region was effectively shut down due to now having one of the highest per capita Covid caseload in the country. Having in person school, is at this point, reckless endangerment of students and staff. With things shut down, and my own scheduled medical in Anchorage approaching, I left on November 13-a week earlier than planned just to make sure that I got all the medical taken care of before the end of the year and the stupid insurance starts over with out of pocket sky high deductibles. I cannot wait until borders reopen. The American healthcare system is pure highway robbery and my not being able to get back to Europe this year for medical, has left me learning how to exist on 2 meals a day since July to pay for all this shit. The American healthcare system is hopeless, I'm not even pretending to care anymore because it will never get better in my lifetime. My only saving grace for medical is being able to get back to Moscow and or Latvia to have things attended to. It is absolutely criminal what they charge in the US for basic healthcare.
I spent December playing outside as much as possible. I ran, snowshoed, snowboarded. Yes, the slopes have opened and have Covid safety measures in place thatI'm totally ok with. Your car is your"lodge" therefore the issue of entering a packed building is not an issue. Passes are now got online and everything is contactless and you can ride the lift by yourself. Outside is safe, it's anything indoor that I just refuse. I have not even gone to the Dome for indoor track this year. Thank the gods my passes do not expire! It must truly be the Apocalypse if I am opting out of indoor track workouts. There is a stretch I use around Taku Lake and then go to the outdoor gym that appeared between August and November for strength workouts. It's the perfect 4k warmup and cooldown distance to the lake too.
It is now the end of December and this horrific shitball year is finally coming to an end. Fingers and toes crossed, I am due to be vaccinated on January 4. Vaccinations have already begun for elders and essential workers in the Bethel area and villages. Rural teachers are actually getting access ahead of those on the road system. I have a doctor note that would allow me to stay out longer, and my plan was to lollygag in Anchorage and wait to get vaccinated before returning to the village. It looks like Indian Health and Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp got priority allocation and rightfully so as the case numbers continue to be some of the highest in the country. The villages did a pretty good job of keeping Covid out for a long time, but when it finally started getting bad in October, it got nasty. Most people live in crowded multigenerational homes. Many villages do not have running water to boot. There are many elders in the villages and I am glad to see them at the front of the line for vaccination.
