Mayor’s Midnight Sun Marathon
Anchorage, Alaska
Saturday, June 21, 2008

The race started at 8:00 AM and the sun had been up almost 4 hours already. The temperature was around 50 degrees and did not get above 55 during the race. There was little wind; however, it drizzled for the first 2 hours of the race. The course was very difficult as there were 7 miles of loose gravel road and 3 miles of dirt trails. There was around 6 miles using the paved roads and the rest of the course was on paved bicycle paths. There was plenty of continuous up and down with the altitude varying from 50 feet above sea level to 550 feet above sea level throughout the race. Water - Ultima stations were approximately every two miles and there were plenty of volunteers. There were police controlling traffic at the few intersections along the way. The few roads we traversed were open to traffic on one side and open to the runners on the other side. There were about 1500 participants in the marathon and except for the loose gravel I enjoyed the challenge.