Great Alaska Maritime Marathon Week

I brought my laptop with me on my Alaskan trip thinking that I would blog daily. After opting to not fill out a loan application to pay the $$$ per minute internet charges on board the ship, I opted to put this all in one post. It was an awesome experience.

Sunday, June 22nd: Can You Hear Me Now?

The flight to Seattle went smooth as well as embarkation from Seattle aboard the ms Westerdam Sunday. Check in for the Great Alaskan Maritime Marathon (GAMM) went smooth as well. There are 80 participants in this years event.

We must’ve crossed another time zone before dinner because I missed our first group dinner by an hour last night. What I thought was 8 pm (per my Verizon cell phone) turned out to be 9 pm. Oh well, there will be at least 5 more group dinners. After eating at 9 I headed back to the cabin and was knocked out by 10:30.

Tomorrow morning we will be running a 2 mile run on the Promenade deck of the ship. This is a 3rd level deck; we will run 6 times around the ship to get the 2 miles in. Aside from no wind in the back and a crosswind in the front there should be wicked headwinds down one side and tailwinds down the other. We’ll see how that goes!

The Achilles tendonitis has been bothering me; I need to quit taking the stairs…..I hate waiting for elevators.

Monday, June 23rd: Stage One: 2 Mile Deck Run

This morning was the first stage of our staged marathon. At the briefing before the run, the strategy for the week was revealed. First, we were not allowed to wear watches this morning. We had someone timing and counting our laps onboard for the 2 miles. The 2 miles we ran this morning will give us the pace that we need to maintain for the whole week. The person that comes the closest to their average time today in the 3 remaining stages will win that stage and the person that comes closest overall will win the entire event. Similar to the Tour de France, yellow GAMM hats will be given to the stage winners. Oh and no Garmins allowed the rest of the week to try and get to today’s average mile pace.

Given all that I opted to run a slow pace onboard this morning. My target mile pace is 9:58 per mile. Wednesday mornings ½ in Juneau has rolling hills; rolling hills can be mountains to flatlanders like me. Thursday mornings 5 mile run will be adventure type race in that we will be given maps and directions and will have to find the mile markers for the event. Each mile marker will have a local running club individual marking our bibs. Thursdays 10k trail run should be the most scenic of the events. Like the ½ in Juneau, it also has rolling hills. Sounds like a fun week.

We had a strength and training flexibility seminar this afternoon. There was some overlap with the core workout that we’ve started doing with Woodlands Fall Fit.

Tuesday, June 24th: Cruising Glacier Bay

This morning at 2am the ship had a time change. We are now on my cell phones time that it adjusted to back Sunday. I’m sticking to the wake up call feature on the cabin’s phone for my official time.

Today we entered Glacier Bay National Park late in the morning and cruised around until late afternoon. We saw the Lamplough, John Hopkins, and Marjorie Glaciers while in the park. Weather was cool and overcast; I had on a wool cap and gloves. I stayed out on deck quite awhile taking advantage of the cool weather that I know I wont see again for months.

This morning we had a session with John Bingham entitled “Running For Your Life.” It was John’s story of how we went from overweight couch potato to running. I first heard John speak at the pre race pasta dinner before the Mini marathon in Indianapolis in May 2004. Quite entertaining.

Wednesday, June 25th: Juneau AK ½ Marathon

Just talking to a few of fellow GAMM participants, there appear to be some metronome pace setting runners here. I think I’ll forgo the attempted stage win in order to make it back in time to catch the 10am bus back versus the noon bus. With an 8am race start, I should be able to run the ½ in time to catch the 10 o’clock bus but that will be faster than the 9:58 2 mile deck run pace that I established Monday. Then again the Achilles may slow me down not to mention the rolling hills….. We’ll see. Headed out now for a 6am run briefing.

It was misting when we got to Juneau but not for long. Perfect weather in the 50s I would imagine. We bussed from the ship to Douglas Island where we ran the ½ marathon. From Douglas Island we had an excellent view of Mendenhall Glacier at the start/finish line as well along the route. The mayor of Juneau came out today as the race starter. The Juneau Empire was out as well covering the event.

My Achilles was feeling fine and the cool weather was awesome for running so I ran fairly hard today. I’m probably over 25 minutes under my goal pace after just the 2nd stage of the GAMM. I was the first male finisher and finished in 1:43:53. Not a PR but it was a sub 8 pace that I was able to crank out more often than not last year and had not yet done this year.

We got back to the ship around 11; I had a quick shower then headed up to grab more pasta for lunch. I took around a 3 hour nap after eating then headed back ashore to see some of Juneau. Walked through/by gift and T-shirt shops to try and loosen up the legs.

Thursday, June 26th: Stage 3, Sitka 5 mile run

GAMM participants caught the first 2 tenders from the Westerdam to Sitka for our 9am 5 mile run start. It was overcast and cool in Sitka; I was probably dressed with fewer clothes than anyone else but I felt fine in shorts and a short sleeved running shirt with a running cap. We received Sitka maps as well as turn by turn directions at our 7am race briefing while still on board the ship. The map and directions were both really straight forward and the mile marker individuals in orange vests were easy to spot. A local high school had the setup for this race and students were in groups of 3 marking mile numbers on our race bibs.

It took about a half mile or so to get my left Achilles loosened up but it felt good again today and I dug a deeper hole in finishing well under my target time that I set with the 2 mile run Monday. My time for the 5 miles was 36:58….not exactly a 9:58 per mile pace.

We last tender left at Sitka at 4:30 and we are now sailing to Ketchikan. We will run the final stage of the GAMM tomorrow morning; a 10k trail run. I believe we will be bussed a good ways out from where the ship docks. Sounds like a great way to see parts of Ketchikan that most tourists never see.

Friday, June 27th: Stage 4, Ketchikan 10k trail run

We arrived in Ketchikan at 7am this morning. School busses picked us up about 15 minutes later and bussed us to Tongass National Forest where we met members of the Ketchikan Running Club. Like Juneau, the Ketchikan mayor met us for the race today; however, he actually ran with us.

The course started and finished on pavement, was mostly run on crushed rock, and also included some dirt. The rolling hills here made Huntsville State Park look flat; I ran my slowest time today at 52:58. Unlike Juneau, the 2 busses stayed together and we didn’t head back to the ship until everyone finished the race. It was after 11am by the time we got back to the ship; with an all aboard time of 12:30pm I opted to get back on board, cleanup and grab lunch rather than hang out in Ketchikan.

I don’t know if anyone mentioned it, but we actually have run 26.3 miles rather than the 26.2 marathon distance. Could this be an ultra? Several of the GAMM participants including myself will be doing the ON DECK FOR THE CURE 5K WALK at 9 am tomorrow morning. The walk raises money for the Holland America Line Foundation to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Saturday, June 28th: 5k Walk

There must have been at least 25 GAMM participants that walked the 5k this morning. It was really foggy but not too rough walking 9 laps on the same deck where we ran our 2 mile pace run Monday. Weather was still nice and cool; probably lo 50s. We docked in Victoria, BC around 7 this evening for our last port of call before arriving back in Seattle Sunday morning. It was sunny and noticeably warmer than it had been all week. Still long sleeve shirt weather but not nearly as cool.

Sunday, June 29th: Seattle Marathon

No, I didn't run it but was told that it was run earlier this morning. Actually it was the VM Team Medicine Northwest Marathon and 1/2.

I had time to kill so I went on my only excursion of the week on the Best of Seattle tour. My 5:30 pm flight was delayed and we encountered headwinds back to Houston so we didn't land until around 12:20 am. After baggage claim, it was off to a very crowded Parking Cents to get my car.