Alaska weekend - Part I

This is going to take too long to do one post, so I decided to break it up in to sections. So here goes part I:

Thursday, June 16:

My mom dropped me off at the airport where I met up with the rest of my teammates. We all checked in together & got on the plane to Anchorage around 5:30. That was one LOOOOOOOOONG ass flight... about 7 hours. Someone said that a flight to London is only an hour longer. That's just crazy! I slept for a good portion of the flight, but when I wasn't sleeping, I was bored out of my mind. Thankfully, since we had over 50 people on the plane, it wasn't hard to find someone to talk to & help pass the time.

We landed in Anchorage around 9:00 pm. It was as bright at 9:00 pm in Alaska as it would be at 3:00 pm in Houston. CRAZY! We all boarded a bus to the Hotel Captain Cook. We checked in, got our room assignments & roommates, & dropped our stuff off in the room. Some people were tired enough to go to sleep, but I was wide awake. It was just after 11:00 pm & still bright as day out, so I went for a little walk & talked to my friend Kim on the phone for a while. Eventually I made it back to the hotel where my friend Adrienne had found the bar. Several of us hung out there until about 1:00 am, which is when I finally got tired. Coincidentally, it was at about that time that the sun FINALLY set. It was weird though, because it never got completely dark. It was just twilight... a deep dark blue sky with hints of purple & red at the horizon where the sun had "set".

I crawled into bed around 1:30 & crashed. I only woke up once around 4:30-5:00 am & that was because the sun was rising & the room had this deep orange glow from the light coming through the crack in the curtains. I simply rolled over & went back to sleep.

Friday, June 17:

My roommate, Miranda & I woke up around 8:30, showered & headed downstairs to the lobby at 9:30 to meet the rest of the team. We then all walked the 12 blocks to the Sheraton where the marathon expo was held so we could pick up our bib #'s & timing chips. There were all sorts of tables set up with all sorts of running goodies to buy, as well as info about Alaska & the area. I ended up buying a pair of nifty sunglasses & some cool running socks. They have "26.2" written all over them. I love them! Originally I was going to wear them during the marathon, but I decided instead that I wouldn't wear them until after I actually completed the race. After checking out all the merch. tables, my friend Adrienne & I had our picture taken with a guy in a giant moose suit. It was pretty silly & just the beginning of our moose-filled weekend. We then gathered up Adrienne's mom (we all called her "Mommy" for the weekend. She was the BEST!), & our teammates Kevin & Marcia & decided what to do for the day. We'd heard about all the giant salmon fishing that was going on, so Kevin drove us to the river & dropped us off (he was going to visit his sister). We walked around & finally met up with a bunch of our other teammates on the bridge overlooking all the fishermen. We watched as they tried to catch the giant salmon. I've never seen such HUGE fish in all my life. It was bizarre!

After watching the fish, we all decided to walk back to downtown & grab a bite to eat. We had a super yummy lunch, followed by a walk in the town square park where they were having a summer solstice festival. It wasn't too exciting, so we just walked around downtown Anchorage & did some shopping. It was such a beautiful day with absolutely perfect weather. It was nice to just stroll around town w/ my friends. We laughed SO much. After lots of shopping & general silliness, eventually we made our way to a pub where we sat out on the deck overlooking the water & had a few drinks (I skipped the beer & had just water). Then we walked back to the hotel. Some people went to take a nap, but Adrienne, her mom & I went back to her suite & decorated our TNT singlets. They came out SO cute. (side note: everywhere I went this weekend, people commented on my purple hair. It was hilarious! By the end of the weekend, I was the most popular "tourist" in Anchorage!)

By the time we finished our shirts, it was time to head to the pasta party. A group of us all walked over together. As we neared the venue, we could hear the cheering & screaming of all the TNT people. When we finally got to the front door, there we saw our 2 coaches holding open the doors for everyone & yelling & cheering, followed by a line of TNT staffers on each side, all with noise makers, funny hats, & megaphones, & all cheering & yelling as each team member walked in. It was quite a sight to see & gave me a chill & a lump in my throat as I walked in. I was surprised by how many people were there. In all, we had 1330 TNT members running in the marathon. The dinner was ok (basic pasta & sauce w/ a tiny salad, so-so rolls, & big cookies for dessert) but it was nice to see so many people there for such a good cause. There were various speakers from TNT with the main one... a guy nicknamed "The Penguin" was pretty damn funny. He gave a great speech about the various stages of running a marathon & I'll be damned if he wasn't right on the nose about everything (particularly the "bite me stage"). The killer speech was given by a woman whose husband died of Leukemia a mere 6 months after diagnosis. It was a heart wrenching story about how they spent their last days together & how with the help of the LLS, he was able to live long enough to write letters to his daughter for all the big occasions in her life that he would miss... birthdays & holidays, her high school graduation, prom night, wedding day, etc. She then went on to say that she had his ashes separated into 3 urns, to be scattered in his home town, in the town they lived now & some place else that I can't remember. She said she'd only spread his ashes in his home town but couldn't bring herself to let go of the rest. When she heard about the marathon in Alaska, she remembered that Alaska was one of those places she & her husband had never been to, but always said they'd go to "some day". A friend told her "he's already been to Alaska" & informed her that when she ran the marathon the previous year, he was there with her because she ran in his memory. That's when she decided to run the marathon herself this year & to scatter his ashes in Alaska. After her story, there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

The other amazing thing about that night was seeing all the cancer survivors who were there to run, including my friend Marcia. Thanks to a bone marrow transplant 9 years ago, she was able to survive Leukemia. She is now a bone marrow transplant nurse at MD Anderson here in Houston. She told me that the research done by the LLS helped find a drug that helped keep her alive long enough to have her transplant. Proof positive that what we do helps save lives. I was even more glad I made the decision to do this race & raise that money. The Houston/TX Gulf Coast Chapter of TNT had 48 runners in this race & we raised $260,000 for the LLS. All together, TNT had 1330 runners in the race, all of whom raised $5.5 million!!!! How amazing is that??? It gave me chills just hearing that. And that's just for one race! And the Alaska marathon is a small race in comparison to others. In the last year alone, we raised almost $100 million. That just blows my mind!!

After the dinner, we all walked back to the hotel where we had a team meeting & shirt decorating party. It was nice to be together with all my teammates one last time before the race to get fired up for everything. It was also fun to see all the ways everyone decorated their shirts. Everyone had the names of their honored patients & the names of people who have died on their shirts. Everyone has been so touched by these cancers. It's so sad. But it makes everything we've gone through so much more worth it.

After the decorating party, I went back to my room & set all my running gear out for the next morning. I was so jazzed for the race the next day that it was hard for me to get to sleep. I just wanted to get out there & finish that race.

Next up... race day!