Mayors Midnight Sun 5 miler - Anchorage, Alaska

What a beautiful HOT day for a run...ugh.  After our awesome race at the Run for Women, Hannah and I were ready to take on the Mayors Run!  Our goal was to beat our last year's time of 55:19.  We almost missed the start of the race because we thought we started after the 1/2 marathon started.  Luckily, we got up to the start and asked someone just in case!  The countdown complete and we were off.

We got off to a really fast start, and boy was this a big field this year.  It took about 2 minutes before everyone had thinned out enough to not be elbow to elbow.  We ran the first 2 miles in the blaring sun, so it was a relief to get into the shade.  When we got to the drink station at mile 2, I took a drink of my water and threw the rest onto Hannah's head.  She squealed and said, "THAT felt GOOD!!"  Seemed to cool her off enough to regain some energy.  Mile 2.5 to 4.5 was in the shade, so we were able to stay on pace.  Hannah was doing awesome and many racers were cheering her on along the way.  At mile 4 we reached another drink station.  Tossed some more water on us to cool down again before we started the killer mile up hill at the end of the race.

We reached the top of the hill and we were both wishing another drink station was waiting for us.  BUT the end was near...Hannah beat me in the last two races right at the end as she usually has energy stored for the last stretch.  Good thing I didn't wait too long in that last stretch as she finished two seconds behind me for a finish time of 52:36.  Hannah was 1st place in her age group!  Much to my surprise, I finished 8th in my age group.  Uncle Greg ran the 1/2 marathon again and finished 16th overall.  It was a great run for everyone, but boy was it hot.

Run for Women - Anchorage, Alaska

The Alaska Run for Women is one of our favorite runs because there is pink EVERYWHERE!  After the Twilight 12K, we were ready for this run.  It's only 5 miles :)  Hannah set her time goal for this race as 45 minutes, which is a very reasonable goal I was hopeful to meet.

We weaved our way close to the starting line as this was not a mat to mat timed race.  This means everyone's time starts at the same time even if you are a quarter mile from the start line, which is quite possible in a race with 2000 other women running with you!  We were off at 8:45am and had a slower start than usual.  Hannah was dragging and I later learned she decided she was not going to eat breakfast.  Need food for that running body :)  Once we got to the coastal trail, I set our pace at a 9 minute mile so we could stay on track to meet our coarse goal of 45 minutes.  Hannah needed some moral support so we ran holding hands for about a mile and a half.

We reached mile 3 at about 27:45, not bad!  Mile 3 to 4 was the hardest, but once we got to 4, Hannah got a second wind.  She pushed it the last half mile and beat me AGAIN by about 20 seconds.  Hannah finished in 45:55, which put her average race pace at 9:11.  She made her goal and we were soooo excited!  This time was 5 minutes faster than last year, but her age group field was much larger this year.  Her time placed her 4th and boy were there some fast runners in her age group.  These girls are going to be her competition when she gets into Junior High and High School.  Good job girls keep it up!

Eagle River Triathlon - Eagle River, Alaska

Wow!  It's hard to believe this is the third year Hannah and I have done this event together.  This event was the first race we did together and marks two years of training.  We have both come so far!  Hannah continues to learn and grow as a runner.  She still loves running just as much as when we first started.  We are now going to increase our weekly mileage.  Our goal for this year is to run 400 miles.  We have some catching up to do since our mileage decreased at the end of my pregnancy.  I can't wait to see if we can beat her personal best of 27:15 for a 5K. 

Hannah has been taking swimming lessons and rocked the first leg of the race.  Grandpa rode the bike with Hannah while I waited at the transition to finish the run with her.  After running the 12K 2 days earlier, the run was like running with lead weights for legs for both of us.  We made it to the finish though!  This is such a fun event for the kids and the race organizers do a great job.  Thanks again for another awesome year!

Twilight 12K - Anchorage, Alaska

Hannah at the start of the race

This race was our first competitive race of the season...My sister told me that Hannah decided she wanted to do the 12K because the boy she really enjoys running with in the Bonny Sosa series was running the 12K.  I asked Nicole how far a 12K was and she said...I don't know, like 6 miles, so I agreed to run it!  I later looked it up online and found out it was 7.4 miles!!  Oh man...Don't tell Hannah :)  Time to psych myself up for our longest run ever.

Grama, Daddy, Owen, and Hannah waiting for race start

 

Auntie and Hannah Pre-Race

Ready to run!

Hannah and I were so happy that the weather was better for the race than last year.  It was a sunny day with a slight breeze.  Hannah and I have always gotten close to the start line for all of our races because I have found that we are actually safer and less likely to get trampled.  As we were lined up at the start line, some lady made a snide comment to me about being close to the front.  I just smiled and replied "we do this all the time."  The gun went off and off we went!

And we're off!

 We took off hard and fast...maybe a little too fast.  The cool thing about this race was that we got to run in an area of Anchorage that we haven't run in before, down by the port and through Government Hill.  As we were re-entering down town Anchorage (approaching mile 3) we ran past a lady who was not feeling well.  Knowing Hannah is a sympathy barfer, I tried to get her to go by without watching.  Silly child she wouldn't take her eyes off of the lady as she passed by.  Of course, Hannah started saying "Auntie I think I am going to be sick!"  Thankfully, Hannah did not barf and we were able to change the subject.

Owen coming in for a strong finish

 We then got onto the Coastal Trail, which we run on for just about every race in Anchorage.  It was nice knowing how much farther we had to go.  Hannah was really pushing it and doing awesome.  We finished out the downtown part of the coastal trail right about mile 6 when Michael caught up to us.  Hannah learned that we still had 1.5 miles left, so the timing was perfect.  Hannah enjoyed running the last part of the race with Michael and provided the encouragement she needed to finish.  Auntie, on the other hand, was running out of steam quickly.  Just one more mile, come on, you can do it!!!  Hannah passed me with a half mile to go and finished the race right behind Michael.  I finished about 20 seconds behind her.  I can't believe the energy this child has at the end of the race, which tells me she can certainly run faster :)

Kaelyn's first time as race spectator

Justin and Kaelyn

Justin and Owen ran the 6K for this race and Owen beat his dad!  Owen finished Hannah crossed the finish line in 1:15:34.  Sadly, Skinny Raven changed their age groups and the youngest group was ages 12 and under for this year's race.  Hannah finished 8th out of 11.  The top 5 finishers were ages 11 and 12.  Even so, this was our longest race ever and Hannah did AWESOME!  I am so proud of her.  We are starting to make our weekly runs longer so that we can start chipping more time off of our finishing times.

Hannah and her running buddy

Next race up...Alaska Run for Women!  See you there  :)