AK Cruise

My wife's extended family wanted to get together and go on an Alaskan cruise for Janet's grandparents 65th wedding anniversary.  I wasn't sure if I'd be the cruise going type but, but since we stopped in a few scenic places that I could run and they had beer on board I figured: why not?!  Besides, back in college a competitor at UPS (Davis) went off on a boat for a semester and came back waaaaaaay fast!  Would it work for me?  Well, I can tell you I didn't mind putting in the mileage on a 1/3 mile deck loop of a 950' boat, but I sure wouldn't want to do it for a semester!

I had one run, in particular, that was spectacular... not quite Max King doing the 3 sisters spectacular, but it was still pretty cool.  In Juneau, I took off from the boat and headed into the mountains... past the old gold rush site, past the 'WARNING: Grizzly Bears' signs, past, well, pretty much any sign of civilization.  Check out the map I uploaded, it pretty much shows where I went, but I got up into the snow and a glacier around the 3000'-3500' elevation point and almost made it up to the ridge where I could have seen back into Alaska and Canada onto the ice sheet.  The problem was, nobody knew where I was (rule #1 not to break), I didn't have anything with me except shorts, socks, running shoes, a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt and a cell with a dead battery (rule #2 not to break) and I was alone in bear country (rule #3 not to break).  So, I didn't want to push it too hard.  I will say that it was probably the most fun 17.5 miles I've run in years!  If there was no other reason to stay in shape since college, being fit enough to run into Alaska at 6:30-7:00min pace easily was enough for me.

As I neared the boat, I stopped in a few gift shops to look around.  After being out in the mountains running for 4.5 hours(ran for <2, but I had to stop & look around!), I was real popular with the crowds... he, he, he...