After hitting rock bottom in 2002 and 2003, which ended with a tonsillectomy and about eight weeks of no running, I gradually made my way back in 2004. However, by January and February I was running pain free up to four or five times a week. Most of the runs were short, in the 3-5 mile range, but I felt good. As tough as it was to get those tonsils pulled, a bonus was I felt that I could breathe deeper, get in more with each intake and exhale more. That may or may not have occurred at a significant level but breathing sure did feel easier, not to mention not having those perennially sore and pocked tonsils in my throat.
In February I did my first ever snow shoe race at Eldora, and cross country skied a couple 10K skate races–my first ski races since 2002. I was nowhere near top shape but it was great to be huffing and puffing at 8,500 to 9500 feet elevation!
Late in the month my boss walked with me across the CSU campus and asked if I would be interested in moving to Fairbanks, Alaska as an environmental planner. The incumbent had recently left the position and they were looking to fill it. Think about it, he said.
I did not take him that seriously, but mentioned to my wife and kids over dinner that night. We kind of laughed it off. Her parents and my mom lived in the Denver area, less than 90 minutes away, and we figured we would be staying in Colorado for years to come.
A few weeks later, my boss brought up the transfer again. This time less in passing, in fact he was direct. The environmental project that we had worked on for two-and a-half years was wrapping up, and at that time there were no big projects on the horizon. The Alaska job would be more stable, if not indefinite. Our client, the US Army Alaska would need a couple of planners on its staff just for day-to-day operations. He could not guarantee a long-term stable position in Fort Collins, but the Fairbanks position was there for the taking. He sweetened the offer which would give me a substantial raise, plus cost of living, to move to Fairbanks with my family. He offered to fly me up there to talk to my co-workers, whom I had already worked with for a couple of years and knew fairly well, and suggested that I bring Tamara along. So we took a late March trip to the north.
It was a record breaking 82 degrees F when we boarded our jet from Denver to Seattle, then Fairbanks. We arrived at 2 AM amid light snowfall and -26 F in Fairbanks. I thought no way, would she want to spend any more time in the north than this four day trip. However, we explored the area, contacted a realtor and looked at houses, and went to dinner with the co-workers. They really wanted me to move up and work with them. By the second day we were sold on the idea. A huge step to make when you are in your 40s and have two kids in school.
Spring Racing 2004
By late March I was running five or six days a week and picked up a copy of Pete Pfitzinger’s Road Racing for Serious Runners, and decided to do the Colorado Half Marathon in May. I had been running consistently for three months and had built up to 40 miles a week. I had not run a half marathon in five years, and in fact had only done one other half in the previous 15 years! I knew I could finish, but figured I would be well off my altitude best of 1:13, as well as the 1:19 I had run five years prior.
I built up to 50 miles a week, more or less following the plan and in April did a 5K and 5 mile tune race, about two weeks apart. Although I was well off the times I had been running in 1998-2000 (sub 17, low 28 respectively) it was great to line up healthy and to see what I could do. I ran 18:13 for the 5K in Loveland. And then at the 5 mile Cherry Creek Sneak (once a seasonally huge race in Denver, with 20,000 participants racing three distances) I ran just over 29 minutes and placed in my new age group.
At the half in May, I knew I wasn’t yet ready for prime time racing, but gave it my best shot. I ended up running just under 1:22 and placed third in the masters division, which was a surprise because northern Colorado boasted a deep contingent and this was one of the biggest springtime races in the area.
Although I have done a ton of racing in the years since, including huge races and national or international races, still have that plaque and it sits on the top of my bedroom bookshelf signifying my comeback.
North to Alaska
A few days later I loaded my car with gear and a bunch of scientific journals that I had collected in 1990s (I still had some hope then of returning as a research biologist), and drove up to Alaska. After a few weeks I flew back and picked up the family and we drove north together.
I kept up my running, but scaled back and missed a lot of days, maybe doing only 25-30 miles a week. Just a week after after arriving back in our new home of Fairbanks I entered the Midnight Sun Run, Alaska’s biggest race, with some 4,000 participants. I expected something like Bolder Boulder, which was 10X as large, but the Midnight Sun Run, starting at 10 PM on the summer solstice weekend, was more like a mini-version of Bay to Breakers.
I did not expect much out of myself competitively, maybe a top 15 or 20/ After just 2 miles I found myself in the top 10, and by 4 miles I was fighting for a top 5! I ended up finishing 6th place and as first masters in about 36:50. My first age group win in five years.
The running club there held a seven race series every year and I jumped into the track mile (5:08), another half marathon, this one mostly off-road (1:22), and a tortuous 16.5 mile race that dropped 1800 feet on trails and back roads. I made some new friends in the masters running community and all they could talk about was Boston Marathon–which they had done many times each, running 2:40 into their 40s–and the upcoming Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks, it was Alaska’s oldest and toughest marathon with 18 miles off road and trails, about 8 miles on pavement, and 3,300 feet of elevation gain and loss. Totally gnarly, and a Fairbanks institution.
Over the summer, despite huge historic forest fires (over 5 million acres in Alaska burned that summer), I was able to build to 70 miles for couple weeks and was in the 55-65 miles per week range for more than two months. I been on some hilly back-country long runs, up to 23 miles.
It was in this summer that I decided that I would not back down from training and racing in the future. Both of the long-term injuries I had endured in my late 30s and mid-40s had followed an extended break from training, although I had run some I had only done minimal miles. In the future I vowed that unless I had to ease up due to injury or illness, they’d have to drag me away kicking and screaming from running.
I also changed my approach. Rather than a modified Daniels with two or three quality workouts on an otherwise mid-mileage week (50 had been the standard for more than 15 years) I embraced the easy lopes on forest trails and roads, with usually just one workout a week. But even then, I found Pfitz’s quality workouts to be a little too taxing. I did his 9 miles of tempo at half marathon pace and 14 at marathon pace in an 18 mile run, but recovery was slow from those efforts.
The work paid off for the Equinox, as I finished top 5 overall, and ran 3:12 on a very cold morning (never even got much above freezing).
The rest of the way
We spent nearly 11 great years in Alaska. I ran the Midnight Sun Run 10 times, winning my age group each one. I did the local series at least six times, and never won it but had several top fives, and ran the Equinox five times, winning my age group on four of those occasions (the time I didn’t win it was a big deal, the times I did win it wasn’t–local personalities and such came into play), and I set an age or age group record on each of those races.
Plus I skied as much as anyone could want. In fact, I think by 2014 I’d had enough and had carried the skiing as far as I desired. It was time to move on with work and sport.
I moved back to Colorado at the end of 2014 and Tamara followed six months later while our younger son was finishing high school. Moving back to altitude, with better weather, allowed for more consistent year-round training. The skiing became a cross-training add-on just 15 times or so a year. For the most part, I have stayed healthy (save a very painful shoulder injury and surgery). I have run in nearly 30 USATF national road and cross country championships, dozens of local races, and several top tier road races across the country, including Boston and Chicago Marathons, the Lilac Bloomsday, Bix 7, Utica Boilermaker, as well as the World Masters half marathon and 8K cross country.
Career-wise it was a good move (for the most part), and definitely for running.
I have run about 45,800 miles from the beginning of 2004 through 2023, and have put in over 100,000 miles in my lifetime. I haven’t really wrapped my head around that one yet!
In 20 years?
Can I keep running? How long? Will I keep racing and training? I can’t answer these, but hope to keep it going for as long as I can and as long as I enjoy the grind.
rrunnin234 