Arctic running

Annual training for my Army Reserve unit was at Eielson AFB and Ft. Wainwright up near Fairbanks, AK this year. Even though my wife was born in Alaska (and even went to school at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks) I had not yet made it up and was excited for the chance to see a new place.

Unfortunately this is just a running blog post and not a fishing blog post as we went in April. It’s a slightly sad time of year where there’s not enough snow to go skiing or snowmobiling (or snow-machining as they say in Alaska) but too much snow to hike or fish (and the salmon aren’t yet running).

Eielson running

In spite of being an Army unit, we were staying on the air force base. The inn on base had a rather nice welcome packet that suggested a 1-mile, 5k and 10k routes.

This was a pretty good place to start although I found the 10k route to be closer to 5.2 than 6.2 miles. All routes were on roads with good shoulders or sidewalk and reasonable traffic.

For longer runs I found that running out past the power plant on base brought you to a nice open road that goes past the fuel farms, to the covered range where you come to a Y (64.655706°, -147.002964°). If you go right you get to the ski hill (Iceman Falls), a sheet range and a nice set of cross country trails (64.649480°, -146.979207°). These trails were a bit muddy for the time of year when I was there so I did not run any of them.

The base also had a nice indoor and outdoor track as well as an obstacle course / trail.

Beach Bum 5k

We were there over one weekend which happened to have the University of Fairbanks hosting a race. In traditional fashion I wanted to get there an hour early to get parking and have ample time to warm up. I need not have worried as there was about 50 people at the race.

Starting area of the race

The course made most of its 170 ft of elevation gain in the first mile. Once it leveled out on the north side of campus we got some great view of Denali before heading back through the center of campus to the start. It was a perfect low-key race to break up the annual training.

Charles and I at the finish

Hoodoo Brewery Run

The other running highlight of my time in the area was the weekly 5k fun runs from Hoodoo Brewing. The run was organized by Running ClubNorth. About 75 – 100 runners did an out-and-back course from the Brewery. Both times we went down to the Chena River but one week we went east the other week we went west.

While it was a fun run there was an advantage to getting back earlier as the beer line quickly got long.

Post Run Brews

Hopefully I get to go back and explore Alaska in the summer when there are more trails and salmon. Until next time.

States that I've raced in