I just got back from vacation in Alaska, and since there are about a million trails there, I thought some info might be relevant for the club.

While there, I ran the Mayor’s Midnight Sun marathon. It has about 10 miles of trail and several of the other miles are on a paved hike and bike. It is in Anchorage. By marathon standards, it was pretty challenging, but nothing like a hard trail run. Very pretty views throughout and awesome weather for the summertime (high of 60!!). My husband had a run in with a moose at a spectating point on the course, and seeing moose and bears is common. I could not find an ultra there except for one in the winter where you tow survival gear should you need it for sub-zero temps. Doesn’t sound fun to me, but some folks might think it is fun. There is another marathon in August called Humpy’s, put on by a local pub. The course is mostly on a paved hike and bike, but I might try that one next time, because you can’t go wrong when a pub puts on a race.

I was lucky that my parents live in Anchorage, and my father has a surplus of miles on Alaskan airlines, so it was a very inexpensive trip for me. I do think that this would be a great trip for a trail runner/ hiker, even if it is a little expensive. There are trails everywhere you look. Anchorage is covered with miles of paved hike and bike, and Nordic skiing trails that are gravel. They are literally everywhere. My parents had several trail options right from their front door. I stuck with the paved hike and bikes since I was alone, and bears are a real threat. Many of the trails in town still took you to beautiful views or along the coast. There were also plenty of hills.

If you venture to some of the national and state parks, there are a ton of trails. I did a little walk on the trail at the Eagle River nature center. The views were just beyond words, and this is the finish line of a 24-mile trail race in July that follows part of the Iditarod dog-sled racecourse. Apparently it is pretty difficult. I could not find a website, as I think they use old-fashioned paper entries. There is a huge state park called Chugach state park that is all around Anchorage, with miles and miles of trail. We only went to one national park, Denali. There are several short trails near the visitor center that would be easy to run on. You cannot take your private car into the park and must take a park bus to go further in. We went about 65 miles in, and at any point you can get out and hike in the tundra. It is a little scary not having a trail if you tend to get lost like I do. One thing I thought was neat, is aside from Denali (aka Mt McKinley, 20,000+ feet!), you are not at very high elevation. The tree line ends at only 3000 feet, since it is so cold. So, you feel like you are very high up, but you have no effects of altitude. Pretty cool.

Another really cool thing if you are a runner was summer solstice. It didn’t get dark at all while we were there. At 1030 at night, the sun was a bright as the middle of the day. I got up at 400am one morning to run before a long train ride. The sun was bright and it definitely made getting up that early much easier, not to mention I felt safe running in the sun, when normally it would be dark. I saw runners and bikers all day and night. It also doesn’t get much colder at night, since it doesn’t get dark. It was 50-60 degrees the whole time we were there. While it felt cold at first, after the Texas heat, I really think that is an ideal running temp.

So, if this is a place that appeals to you for a vacation, you could easily do a lot of running. There is way too much to see and do for one trip, as the state is overwhelmingly massive. I’ve included some pictures just to highlight some of the unique landscapes.