Home ... Travelogue ... Equinox Marathon 2008
The Equinox Marathon is an annual event held in Fairbanks, Alaska, where I live. I ran the marathon in 2008. It was my first marathon since moving to Alaska in 2003. Previously, I'd run the Raleigh marathon a couple of times.
I completed the marathon in 4:48.02, averaging 11 minute miles. This placed me 19th in the men's 40-44 age class (out of 30) and 115th out of 220 men, from among 444 total marathon finishers (there were another large group people who participated in a three-stage relay).
I was happy with the race. I didn't do marathon-specific training, but have been on the cybex or stairmaster 7 days per week for nearly a year, which helped with my preparation.
The Equinox is known as a tough race due to being very hilly, and with squirrelly weather. While the hills might prevent championship runners from achieving their personal best speeds, I didn't find the hills unpleasant...they gave a nice variety to the course, which was overall about 1/3 on trails, 1/3 or a little more on paved roads, and the rest on dirt roads.
At the top of Ester Dome there was freezing rain, strong wind, and fog. It reminded me of my Andes Montain Traverse in 2001, though not nearly so extreme. Still, fairly miserable for a mile or two.
The Web site for the Equinox Marathon sucks pretty badly, and there is no good way to get advance information about the race other than trying to find someone to ask. Some items I wondered about, that I now know answers to (at least for the 2008 marathon):
Somewhere in the first third of the marathon, we ran though a hoard of angry wasps, which had presumably been disturbed by an earlier runner. Nasty! I picked up two bad stings which still hurt the next day, one moderate sting that was itchy the next day, and four or five smaller stings. A whole bunch of us ran through the wasps, and then picked up speed to get away. A little girl was behind me, and I could hear her crying to her mom. That was perhaps the low point, and the stings bothered me for the whole rest of the run.
Otherwise, it was a pretty smooth run. I walked for two brief steep uphill sections, where it was faster to walk than to run. Down the "chute," a very steep 1/3 mile power line descent from the top of Ester Dome, I walked/scrambled. Otherwise, I slowed to a walk to drink the powerade, but otherwise kept running the entire time. I had some snacks with me in a buttpack, but really didn't need them as there were snacks at the 2nd half water stations.
Many people wore runner's tights or even full sweatpants and shirts. Others just had a top, including some rain gear. I opted for shorts with a long sleeve polypro running shirt, so that I could pull up the sleeves when things got warm. I had a sweatband on my head and both wrists, some light polypro glove liners, and double socks (polypro liner under heavy Fox River wool hiking socks). My shoes were New Balance 811 trail running shoes, replacing my venerable but retired model 806. (Size 12, for the record.) This was a good mix of gear for me, and I could remove my gloves and carry them in the buttpack.
On the coldest and windiest section of the trail, I could have used a hat, so might bring one next year (especially if it's colder).
Overall, it was a nice marathon to run. Lots of cheering people at the sidelines, helped by the transitions among the relay teams (where the rest of the team would be waiting around the changeover location). Very good trail support for directions & water, including folks with flags and stop/slow signs to help manage traffic.