Seward July 5

We are in Seward  for the next 5 days, staying at the Army Resort Camp. What a nice facility with free hot showers, cheap laundry, power and water, and TV if we want it. There is also the opportunity to go on one of three MWR charter boats for bottom fishing (Halibut, yellow eye (red snapper) and other species). We rode our bikes into town on the fourth , a two mile ride, had lunch, watched the Mountain Marathon, talked to locals and had a grand time. Lets talk about the Marathon. It really is not a Marathon, but a race for juniors, women and men, all in separate times slots and races. The racers start out on Main street at 50 foot  above sea level and run up Mount marathon to the top which has  an elevation of 3228 feet and a 70-80 degree slope. It is an all out event in each of the mentioned groups. The trail? goes up thru woods, then onto a rock, shale and  mud course to the top. There is no set trail, so if you think you can get ahead of your competitors, go for it, but most follow each other to the top. You are all at each others heels, so those behind those in front are getting hit in the face with rock, mud and the feet of the person in front of them in their face and body. Once at the top the runners run around a rock, race officials take your tag number and then you head down. Let's talk about coming down. The runners then jump onto  a snow/ice field and slide on their butts down appox 800 feet of  ice field with their hands behind them at 20-30 MPH. They have on gloves with steel tips on the fingers which they use to lift them over rocks or boulder's in the ice field. At the bottom of the Ice field, is an area of shale which they can  jump over or slide  down  another several hundreds of feet until they use a trail? to continue the downward run. Then near the bottom as they come out of the tree line to civilization again, there is a rock wall that they must negotiate by jumping over, or run around. The winner will come down from the top to the finish line in 10 minutes!!!. The men winner will complete the course in 40 minutes and the woman winner in an hour. There are broken bones, lacerations, missing teeth and scrapes of all kinds and all are covered with mud. Each runner competes in a lottery each year to obtain a spot until they have completed 10 years in a row of running then they get to run each year afterwards with out going thru the lottery. The committee holds 10 slots out for 10 runners to be auctioned off the evening before the race to  the highest bidder. The dollar amounts are in the $450-550 dollar range for the slots. There is no prize money, or medals given out, only the opportunity to run and and say they made it. The race has been run  for 83 years in a row. It was started in a local bar between two guys who bet each other that they  could beat the other to the top and back again. ONLY IN ALASKA!!!!

 In the first picture, if you enlarge it, you can just make out a trail to the left of the icefield and then the one to the right. The runners come up on the left, go across the ridge to the top and then slide down the  larger ice field you can see in the picture.

While I hunt for fish, Carol is hunting for younger men!!!!!This is one of the runners. Air temp is 52 degrees!!! Boy they make them Strong in Alaska. This runner did the race in 50 minutes!

There was also a parade! Get aload of this.

The Parade Queen

This whole experience of the race, parade and talking to locals was a lot of fun. This town is a wonderful stop and full of so much to see. Everyone we have met in Alask has been warm, gracious and open about the lifestyle and what it takes to live here. It is so different than the lower 48.