WOW! It's been TWENTY FOUR YEARS (and a bazillion age groups ago) since I ran this in person! I have always been traveling in and out of Russia at this time or just gone. The last time I did this was in June of 98 before I started grad school at Moscow State a couple weeks later! Back then I was 12th. Top 15 get overall awards at the finish and this is very competitive. Top women are often Olympic skiers, top college runners, Olympic Trials qualifiers in the marathon, etc. This year, was the first time they had changed the course running at UAA. So there would be no objective comparison of my 98 performance to this one. At registration, I also learned they now have an elite corral for the start and that I qualified. So, I decided to accept.
I always do the breast cancer races for mom, but this year, I lost one of my best friends , Julie Mahmoud to breast cancer in late January. She was only 51. She was on the US 100k team and a national champion. She had been running a training camp in Uganda doing awesome things for athletes there. We trained together in the early and mis 2000s before I moved to Moscow. She was an awesome snowshoer too and we raced together there there too qualifying for Nationals more than once. We stayed in touch even after I moved away and I miss her lots. We trained for the Little SU 50 and Susitna 100 together doing epic long runs on that trail with her sweet husky-Buddy. To this day, I have yet to find a training partner willing to go run 4-5 hours on the snow just because.
Race day- I warmup and head for the start. Oh dear, I am old enough to be the MOM of most of the elite ladies. What am I doing here? Beth Bragg- now the retired sports writer was doing the start. I do have to say that coverage of local running events has gone down the toilet this year since she retired. What a loss. to journalism-she was very good.
After a 25 minute or so delay, we were finally off. I could still feel the effects of Arctic Valley in my legs, but managed to finish 13th overall eeking into the top 15. IN 1998, I was 12th, so really hadn't lost much since then :)
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