Sandy Runs

A lot of people running marathons in all 50 states choose to finish in either Alaska or Hawaii. These are "bucket list" states that are expensive to travel to and are a once-in-a-lifetime trip for most people. For Scot and I, travel to Anchorage, Alaska was just another long marathon weekend, albeit an amazing one. We redeemed frequent flyer miles to travel to Alaska, so that made the trip affordable. We made all our travel plans in secret and didn't tell any of our running buddies that we were going. You see, the 2013 Mayor's Marathon was to be the 50th state finish for our friends Eddie and Jc. We thought it would be fun to surprise them in Alaska. This blog is as much about our entire Alaska trip as it is about the marathon, and it's got lots of photos. View from the air as we approached Anchorage Welcome to Anchorage! This was a long weekend trip, but because of red-eye flights, we had most of 4 days in Alaska, even though we are only staying for 3

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, and Scot and I once again participated in the SOME Trot for Hunger 5K . It was Scot's third time doing this race, and my seventh! I blogged about it last year and can't say much was different this year. I saw some of the same people dressed in the same costumes (the pink bunnies and the guy in the full body turkey outfit). We ran the same course with the long stretch down Pennsylvania Avenue from Freedom Plaza to the Capitol. Before the start We didn't get there early enough to see the one mile kids run, but arrived in the huge corral just a few minutes before gun time for the 5K. There was a big bottleneck to get across the starting mat, and Scot and I probably started nearly 10 minutes after gun time. After we got started, I ran the whole way, expect for the few times I stepped onto the sidewalk to take a photo. We had to bob and weave through the throngs of walkers with their strollers and their dogs, walking 5 abreast. This is the