Tuesday night races are back!

The city of Anchorage does a great job throughout the year of providing opportunities for outdoor recreation - not only passively by providing lighted trails, groomed ice rinks, open spaces and the means to access the legitimate wilderness of Chugach State Park (technically within the municipal boundary) - but also by organizing a number of events throughout the year. One of my favorites is the Bonnie Sosa Tuesday Night Race series.

For 8 consecutive Tuesdays in the fall, volunteers set up race courses throughout a variety of the city's parks - 5 different parks in this year's version. These courses are just combinations of existing trails that are temporarily flagged for the event. That can include paved trails, wide gravel or dirt trails and narrow footpaths through the woods, sometimes with stream and swamp crossings thrown in for good measure. Separate routes are flagged for the Munchkin League, Farm League and Lightning League to allow runners of varying degrees of fitness (Olympians to expectant mothers pushing strollers) and competitiveness to all participate. The lengths of the races aren't known until the volunteers set the courses, but each group has a range of distances that are expected - 1-3K for Munchkins, 3-10K for Farm and 4-12K for lightning. Because of the rapid change in daylight during the race season, the longer distances are usually found in the first few weeks and the shortest distances found at the end of the series. While runners await the start of the races, the course setters briefly describe each course over a loudspeaker. The runners can then choose which course they want to run that day. or sometimes they will make a wrong turn while following the crown and find themselves on a different course. It doesn't really matter either way.

Each race begins with a mass start for the Farm and Lightning Leagues, followed 1 minute later by the start for the Munchkin League. Oftentimes there are bottlenecks as the race first transitions from the starting area (often a soccer field or the like) to a trail, or when a trail narrows significantly, but these usually clear out relatively quickly and towards the end of the race you may find yourself jogging through some lovely woods with just a few others running at the same pace nearby.

The cost of the races is just $5, or $35 for a season pass, which is far less than any other race I've ever signed up for. Although there are no water stations, there is often some form of snacks or drinks available at the finish. Whether there are snacks or not, many runners mill around after the races, chatting and waiting for friends to finish.

I missed the first race this fall, since Beth and I had just returned from our packrafting adventure/deathmarch late the previous night (actually, early that morning). So last night was my first race and actually just my second run in over a month as I've been fighting the aftermath of a nasty cold. I was actually quite pleased and surprised to see my time online - a bit under 40 minutes for 8.8K.

*As a side note these races show just how crazily athletic the people of Anchorage are in general. Late in my time in Boston, I came in 12th out of about 1200 runners in a 5K. Yesterday I was 36th out of just 97 runners, despite generally being in much better shape now.

Anyway, I love getting out once a week to do these runs. They're the perfect example of a benevolent government. Fortunately I get to reap the benefits of that beneficence year-round up here. Once the races end it will only be a few more weeks until my next weekly program, sponsored by the city, begins!