Two More DON'Ts and Your Alaska Scenery Fix

Friday workout: 6 miles, 11:52 average, Pace Gloves

Saturday workout: 8 miles, 10:20 average, Pace Gloves

Sunday workout: 5 miles (planned)

I'm glad you guys enjoyed my disastrous Mayor's (half) Marathon experience from another runner lifetime, but I totally forgot to tell you the funniest part! Two addenda to the DON'T list:

DON'T let your mom accidentally sign you up for the wrong race.

As I mentioned, I wasn't even going to race because I was sick and hadn't trained for it. Once my mom told me how disappointed everyone in her office would be to hear I DNSed (what? Why do these people know who I am?), though, I reluctantly agreed to do it on the condition that she go to the expo and register me (I hate expos). She kindly went in my stead and got me registered.

When she told me how much I owed her for the race entry, I was surprised it was so expensive but since I was a race newbie didn't think much of it. I also didn't think much of the fact that my bib said "marathon" on it. The race is called Mayor's Marathon so I assumed all bibs said "marathon" on them.

No. Wrong. Way wrong. Yet another demonstration of my complete lack of common sense.

We were hanging out by the half start the morning of the race (the half starts a couple of hours later and in a totally different location than the marathon) and literally 30 seconds before I had to line up, my dad suddenly goes, "Why is your sign a different color than everyone else's? And why does everyone else's say 'half' on it? Oh my god, YOU'RE SIGNED UP FOR THE MARATHON."

F-ck. With those parting words, I headed off to crash my first race. Looking back, though, I hope people were more sympathetic when they saw me walking later in the race, assuming I had just run 20+ miles instead of 8.

If all that wasn't enough (it most definitely was), here's one more DON'T:

DON'T neglect to attach your chip timer to your shoe because you don't know what it is.

I'm not even kidding. I don't know when chip timing was invented, but the only other race I'd ever done (the inaugural Middlebury Maple Run, earlier that year) hadn't used it. When my mom gave me my stuff, she told me I needed to make sure I had ______ with me on race day, but she couldn't remember what it was she had been told I needed. I also saw the chip in my goodie bag (it was the kind you loop around your shoelace) but totally ignored it. Again with the common sense, Jeano!

I don't even know that my time would have been counted since I was running the wrong race, but in any case my final time according to my Timex was somewhere around 2:15 (I was aiming for 2:00), which I didn't exactly want to be broadcast to the world. Thus, I suppose it was all for the better. That's also why, if you were to try to find my name in past years' results, you wouldn't be able to.

And now that I'm cracking up at these newly resurfaced memories, let's move on.

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This ridiculously nice (but toasty!) weather we've been having continued into the weekend. The forecast has us at a high of 86 tomorrow which, surprisingly, is the same as the highest temperature ever recorded in Anchorage (in 1993, I believe?). We'll see if it manages to get up that high. As of right now, Saturday's weather is looking pretty decent, but I don't want to say any more about it in case I jinx it.

I ran in a beautiful place yesterday. I was tired of the same ol' and wanted to check out a path I remember biking on a few years ago that runs parallel to the Seward Highway south of Anchorage. I didn't remember having to drive 15-20 miles out of town to access it, but in the end it was worth it.

This is turning into a pretty word-heavy post so I'll let the pictures do all the talking:

You throw railroad tracks in any picture and it's going to be a win. #lifetipsfromJeano

 So lush and mosquito-filled!

And let's not forget the real beauties of this run...

My shoes, not my freak tan. I'm so obsessed with this color scheme. Usually the presence of "primary red" is a no-go in my fashion book (which would be approximately half a page long if it existed), but I think it works here. These colors are only sort of true to life (let's pretend the same is true of my tan).

I know, I know, I'm so lucky to live in such a beautiful place. Feel free to spew jealousy all over the comments. Speaking of which, there's been a spambot invasion recently. I'd reinstate a word verification system, but a) I always get those wrong and if I can't do something, I certainly can't expect you to, and b) I find the spambot comments to be hilarious. I'll reconsider if things get too out of control.

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Quick weekly round-up:

Monday: 9 miles with 6 x 1 miles

Tuesday: rest

Wednesday: 12 miles with 10 tempo

Thursday: 6 miles, easy

Friday: 6 miles, easy

Saturday: 8 miles, LR pace (10:20)

Sunday: 5 miles, easy (planned)

Total: 46 miles

46 miles the week before a marathon, huh? I can't claim that I feel "recovered" and "ready to race," but we've got another five days for semi-reduced mileage to work its magic.

Happy Fathers' (Father's?) Day!