Midnight Sun Run weekend including the 10th anniversary of my 29th birthday

I had a great summer weekend in Fairbanks. You wouldn't expect it since its Alaska but the weather was outstanding. It started Thursday. I drove our Boaters ed instructor up to the airport then headed to Barnes and Noble. I sat by the fireplace and read for a couple hours before rugby practice, enjoying a vanilla latte and answering call after call wishing me happy brithday. So many calls, I stopped trying to read and just sat enjoying my coffee waiting for the next call. It was amazing to be reminded how many people care about you. Facebook helps too. I got probably 50 posts, pretty cool. I headed to rugby practice. We ended up playing touch 7s and I scored 4 tries. The old man still has some moves. After practice we rolled into The Marlin bar and at some point started singing rugby songs on the deck. I got a birthday bar serenade. Warms the heart. The only downers on Tursday were getting stepped on during 7s. Broken left big toe. Ouch. And just before we left I was stepping down and hit a small ledge I didn't see sideways and totally rolled my ankle. Ouchie wah wah. I did however find out that the Marlin has killer hotdogs and frisbee players cheat during boat races. Rat finks.
Friday I got up early and started moving. First order of the day was Breakfast. I hit the farthest north Denny's on the planet. I had the all meat scramble but made it a diet cheat day with a sourdough pancake. Bad dan.

Then I ran around town looking for a place to register for hte Midnight Sun Run. It took me 4 stops over about 2 hours to finally find the registration point out back of a hair salon. Go figure. $20 got me a t-shirt and a cool number to wear. Then it was off to run errands. I dropped off my bike to get a tune-up, hit play it again sports to buy some weights for my new garage gym I'm working up, stopped by Crossfit to talk to the owner about bumper plates and see how the gym is doing, then grabbed lunch at a Chinese place then off to a movie, hangover 2. Not as good as the first, a little less believable, but still pretty funny. Friday evening was another book and short nap at Barnes and Noble before heading to the Falafel stop on College. I chilled in a bedouin tent and read a book while munching on a killer falafel pita. Love that middle eastern, not Paleo but definitely something I can't get in Delta, so worth every tasty carb. After the Falafel, I headed to the campground. My knee was throbbing from a mixture of the running and the broken toe, flaring my gout just a bit. I spent an hour dipping my feet in the river (45 degrees)  next to the downtown state park in Fairbanks. I was tired so I racked out in my truck at the campground about 9pm and didn't crawl back out until 9am, well except to pee. 

Saturday morning, I hit up the Farmer's Market and saw my friend Brooke, she got in a little late, so I helped her set up her fresh aqueezed lemonade stand then wandered around the market sipping on a thai tea. heavenly. I had a reindeer dog and pad thai for breakfast. The dog came from Delta, but I didn't mind, it was delicious. The Market had lots of fresh veg and crazy handicrafts. Lots of pictures and knitting, woodcrafts, your usual small well maintained farmer's market. I said my good lucks to Brooke and headed out to walk around and see if my knee and feet would feel better to no avail. We planned on doing a river run, so I figured I'd be fine for that and would figure out what to do for the run later. Around lunch we met at the park in front of ProMusic downtown in Fairbanks and started unloading boats, grabbing paddles and lathering on the sunblock. The temperature was a balmy 75 with solid sun. Be-a-you-ti-ful! We got on the river and relaxed with a couple of PBRs and some beef jerky. The river snakes through the heart of Fairbanks, passing under car bridges, walking bridges, backyards, it's a very scenic paddle/float. The river was up from melt from the warm days so huge piles of trees and debris were floating by including some wicked big logs, root balls and all. The water was cold, but felt good to cool off from the direct sun from time to time. We stopped at the Botel Bar half way down to dry out a bit and play some horseshoes. It was the halfway point. We kept on going and passed Pioneer Park, the campground I stayed in the night before, a few more highway bridges and when we were a couple hundred yards form the take out Dave flipped Schu and Kayla. By the time Kayla crawled out of the water, she was shivering like a leaf. Did I mention the water was cold?! We ended at the Pump House, a restaurant on the river, and had a couple plates of nachos and lots of water. We had to run shuttle to get our vehicles form the other end. We made it back just in time to change and try to make the race. We got there just as the start happened. I kept up for the first half mile but decided to get good pictures, I'd head to the finish and walk it backwards to the rugby guys at the back of the pack. The plan worked great (4 pages of pictures follow this post.)

The Midnight Sun Run is a great event. it's a 10K run/walk through the heart of some really fun neighborhoods. Spectators line the streets and bbq, listen to music and cheer runners on. Half the runner s wear costumes, those that aren't overly worried about their times. The winner every year finishes with a time of under 30 minutes. That's sub 5 minute miles for over 6 consecutive miles. Very impressive. The walkers finish usually in under 3 hours and since the whole things starts at 10pm the sun still hasn't gone down when the last ones come in. The light up here can put a zap on your head for sure.

All in all a great weekend, great birthday, great float trip, and great fun run. Needless to say I had a wonderful time all around except for those pesky foot problems.