The good news: I’m still running. The bad news (or more good news?): I’m eating like a pig. Seriously. Thursday I had two dinners. Not two helpings, mind you, but two separate dinners. I was starving. I’m always starving. I think it’s the combination of a vamped-up training schedule plus the horrific knowledge that in […]

My apologies, but I must first interrupt this posting for a moment of silence. My beloved iPod Shuffle has died. RIP, my lovely iPod My sister gave me this iPod almost five years ago and I’ve run with it in Seward, Homer, all around Anchorage (except on the trails; I never run with music on the trails), Nebraska City, Philadelphia, […]

Oh, oh, oh–how I love running in mud! Our Wolverine Trail/Middle Fork/Powerline Pass run served up so much mud that by the time we finished, I was pure mud past my ankles. My shoes weren’t even recognizable. It was cold mud, too. Cold and mucky and smelly. We initially set out for a four mile run up […]

Yesterday I found myself with that itchy feeling of being stuck inside too long so I headed out to run Flattop Peak. It was nice in town, a warm autumn day in the low 50s, a running-in-shorts-for-the-last-few-weeks kind of afternoon. That changed as soon as I drove up the Hillside to the Glen Alps parking […]

Yesterday I pulled myself away from my writerly isolation (is there such a word as writerly? I dunno. Maybe I just made it up) and drove out to Alyeska Resort in Girdwood to visit MM, who was staying at the lodge for three days for a work conference. I’ve been at the resort but I’ve never […]

When the sun peaks out and the birch leaves glow yellow, autumn in Alaska is the best place in the world. The air is crisp and the sun is warm and you can smell the scent of berries and leaves and the soft, damp odor of the ground. On such days, it’s impossible to stay indoors. And […]

It’s rutting season, and you know what that means? All over the city male moose are pumped up on mating hormones. And I mean pumped. They want to find a female, and they want to find one NOW. I didn’t think I’d have to worry while running on the paved Coastal Trail. Yeah, it weaves […]

I’m in the second week of post-injury running and so far, so good. My foot is holding up, though it aches slightly the first mile or so. Maybe I need to stretch out my arch first? Here’s how it’s gone down the past couple of days: Saturday: Swimming: 92 lengths of the pool (I think […]

Well, I ran my 6-miler too fast the other day (um, almost race pace. Couldn’t help it; it felt so good to move), and decided to take today off and swim instead. I’m starting to love swimming more and more, especially since I’ve been lifting weights and my puny arms can now put a little heft in my strokes. […]

Guess what I’m doing again? Hello, Brooks! Did you miss me? Yep, I started running this past weekend. I was excited, and I was scared, too, because I didn’t know how my foot would hold up or how I would hold up, either. I hadn’t run for eight weeks. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. […]