White Grass to Cascade Canyon

I’ve been trying to make the most of my time in the sun visiting Jackson from the rainy north of Alaska. The weather has been perfect and the smoke of the summer cleared out for me. With several different partners I’ve spent the week exploring familiar and unfamiliar terrain while logging 24 hours of training time over the first 7 days. That’s about twice my best week this summer in Anchorage.

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Alyeska Climbathon Race Report

Looking down the tram line to the hotel and start.That’s a wrap, folks. My first competitive mountain running season is officially over. I went big at the end, too. As you know, if you read my previous post on the race, the Alyeska Climbathon took place last weekend - up the North Face trail and down the tram as many times in 10 hours. I was dreading it. Mainly because I knew there was going to be unpleasantness at some point during the day. Not the usual anaerobic discomfort but the kind of pain that comes only on long outings. This one didn’t disappoint.

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Matanuska Peak Challenge Race Report

Matanuska Peak (L) from Lazy Mountain in the fall"The best race pace is a suicide pace and today is a good day to die."

- Steve Prefontaine

I've been waiting for the Matanuska Peak Challenge mountain running race all season. It's unique in our series of mountain races up here in that it's long and hard. Most of our races, aside from the more typical trail races, are uphill affairs and generally under an hour. So, Mat Peak is special since the winners come in around 3 hours and the vertical gain is nearly 9,000 feet. Additionally, it doesn't end at the top. Nine thousand feet of descending greet competitors before the finish. The event requires attention to both smart pacing and nutrition/hydration, concerns absent in shorter events. I love these aspects of the game.

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