Hi everyone! Happy last Friday of the summer! Here in Anchorage it’s already feeling and looking a lot like fall, so I’m really excited about today’s Friday Five with Mar, Courtney, and Cynthia! Today’s theme is “Five Fall Races” and I’ve already got quite a few on my schedule!
1. Klondike Road Relay: Um, this is NEXT WEEK. How did that sneak up so fast?! This time next week I’ll be driving in an RV with 9 other people on our way to Skagway, AK for the start of the Klondike Road Relay! As a team, we’ll run all night and all day until we get to Whitehorse in the Yukon. It’s my very first international race! I’m so excited for this race but I’m always nervous with long drives through Alaska and the Rockies…who remembers my insane road trip up here last spring? I’m hoping we don’t crash into a snowbank or pop a tire in the middle of nowhere again!
2. De-feet Diabetes Trail Run: I’ve been saying all year that I wanted to run a trail race, so I was excited when this race popped up on the Alaska Runner’s Calendar! It’s a 4 miler in Kincaid Park (lots of hills!) but what attracted me to this race was that it used to be a walk to raise money for diabetes and it got upgraded to a run this year. This means that it’s probably not a super hardcore trail run like all the other ones in Anchorage, and since there will still be a lot of walkers I won’t feel bad if I need to take this one really slow. I need to ease into this trail running thing!
3. Frightening 4k: This is a fun halloween race in downtown Anchorage and I’m so excited that I’m doing it this year! Not only is it going to be so much fun to run in a costume, it’s an automatic PR! Any good runnable costume ideas?
4. Skinny Raven Turkey Trot: This is the one and only Thanksgiving race in Anchorage, and I feel like this is going to be part of my Thanksgiving routine every year!
5. And for my fifth race of the fall: I’m still not sure. I know I want to run an awesome and exciting race…I just don’t know what that will be or if I’ll even be able to do it! So far my options are:
- The Kenai River Half Marathon: It’s two weeks after my 9 mile Klondike Road Relay leg, so a lot of people are telling me to just go for the half since I’m mostly trained for it. It’s flat and there’s free reindeer dogs at the finish! But long distance running is so tough and I don’t feel nearly as prepared as I did for Her Tern, so I’m not really sure if I want to do this.
- Ragnar Las Vegas: One of my teammates from Ragnar Colorado won a free race entry and I’d just have to pay my way to get there. Am I crazy for even considering another Ragnar?
- I’m open to suggestions! Anyone running a west coast fall race and looking for a running buddy?
And before I wrap this post up, I wanted to let all of my hardcore basic ladies out there know that Starbucks is letting rewards members start purchasing PSLs TODAY!!!!! Time to start eating all the pumpkin!
What races are you running this fall? Have you ever run Ragnar Las Vegas and would you recommend it?
Mom in the Mtns 
A costume race is always good fun. I’m sure you need something warm in Anchorage. We also love running turkey trot races on Thanksgiving. It makes me feel less guilty about all the food gluttony later in the day!
That’s so true about the turkey trots! I always feel so much better about eating all that food 🙂 And yes, I’ll definitely need something with long sleeves for my costume. I have no idea what to wear!
Oh my gosh I love the Halloween race! That’s amazing! Wow you got some great races planned! Yay! Very exciting! Happy Friday!! 💗
Thanks! I’m hoping for a awesome fall full of fun races!
The Klondike Relay sounds like fun. Now that I’ve been to AK, I have sense of where you are when you describe the cities 🙂
Haha yeah, that’s the hardest part of describing Alaska to other people. Our drive to Skagway is going to take 17 hours!
Enjoy the Klondike race! I visited Skagway last year and went up the pass by train to hike on the Laughton Glacier. It was stunningly beautiful! I’m sure the run will be even more amazing.
That’s awesome! I’m so excited to go to Skagway and I heard the run should be beautiful so I can’t wait!
do the ragnar vegas! how fun would that be – especially because you just have to pay to get there! 🙂
I know! I”m still trying to decide. I’m not a big fan of Vegas so I think it would be cool to just cross that off my bucket list right now and get it over with, but I also don’t know how I feel about going into another overnight relay and then having to recover from it again. We’ll see what happens!
All of your races sound so fun! I would love to visit Alaska one day…I can’t even imagine how beautiful it must be!
I heard the Vegas half marathon is a lot of fun!
Alaska is awesome! You should definitely come up here for a visit. And I heard that running in Vegas is fun too. I really want to do it, but I haven’t made any decisions yet!
I see you’ve fallen down the Ragnar hole. 🙂
All those races sound amazing! I can’t believe there’s only 1 turkey trot in Anchorage. There’s at least 3 in this area. I can’t do them because we’re always traveling on Thanksgiving.
Actually, I COULD do them, because I usually run at home, but it just makes the day too hectic for me.
Yep, totally on the Ragnar bandwagon now. It’s hard not to be! And yeah, our one and only turkey trot is put on by our one and only running store in Anchorage. Even though we have 300,000 people in the city, luckily only a couple thousand run on Thanksgiving and we can fit them all into one race! I think no one wants to compete with the running store for race entries. Back in Philly I ran a different one every year because there were so many to choose from!
I think we’re only about 50,000-100,000 but there are 3-4 to choose from. Big ones, little ones, maybe someday . . . right now it’s too hectic a day for us. We might actually be traveling thanksgiving this yr, but maybe not.
wow these races sound great!!! #2 sounds like the perfect trail run to start with! I want to run it!! lol! Do you have a good running costume for the Halloween one? I’m running in a Glow Run in Philly in October that I’m super pumped about! I have my glow sticks all ready and am excited for the blacklight glow crazzyness!
Haha fly up here and run it with me! 🙂 I don’t have a costume yet but would love suggestions. And that race sounds awesome! I’ve never run a race like that and I’m super jealous!
These are some really cool races. I love a good Turkey Trot. I do need more costumed races as well.
I say if you can swing the cost to get there, do the Ragnar. One of those opportunities that when they come up are fun to take advantage of.
That’s how I feel! I also feel like people think I’m insane signing up for so many out of state races, but strangely it’s pretty cheap to fly from Anchorage to Vegas – and they have direct flights! So it’s still a pretty big possibility…
How exciting your Klondike Road Relay is next week! That sounds like a lot of fun. Maybe you should let other people drive the RV. LOL. Just kidding. I’ve never done a relay. That’s on my bucket list.
Hahaha! I actually wasn’t driving when those things happened, my husband was! When we crashed it was during a pretty bad snowstorm, and then he popped the tire a few days later because he was driving too fast and the highway is a hot mess out there. But yeah, I really don’t want to drive so I might pretend I did those things so no one trusts me 🙂
I went to Starbucks on Friday for a pumpkin spice latte…..only to be told they wouldn’t be selling them until Tuesday. Fail:(
Oh no! Are you a rewards member? I would have dove across the counter and begged for one!