I have never claimed to be much of a runner and I have even claimed to be much less of an uphill runner. Nevertheless, as the new kid in town I decided that I should get out into the Anchorage community a little bit and not just wait around for new friends to come find me down the Burkholders' secluded, gravel driveway so I headed down to do the Bob Spurr Memorial Hill Climb up Bird Ridge this morning. Three miles up with about 3500' of elevation gain makes it a rather challenging race. As people keep telling me, Anchorage has a thriving population of Mountain Runners-- people who train for mountain running as their primary sport and do everything else as cross training. An interesting idea. I, however, will never be esteemed among the mountain runners ranks because I, well, I walked.

Regardless of the realization that I am maybe not cut out for mountain running, I was psyched to get in my first hike up an Alaskan mountain (um, or ridge-- details-schmetails) and hopefully will get out onto the trails some more. I also confirmed that there are lots of crazy people in Alaska but the ones I met were all very nice.