Surviving Our First Homer Winter

It's been so long since I've updated the blog that you may think we got buried by a blizzard.  While that is technically true (more than once, in fact), we have officially survived our first Homer winter.  Honestly, at times it felt like the darkness and snow was swallowing up our days, but we managed to get out and enjoy lots of unexpected Alaskan winter surprises. Now that the days are (much) longer, we have a new appreciation for the extra hours of sunshine that we took for granted last summer.  While we still have a couple of feet of snow at our house (and about 7 feet at the top of the mountain behind town), we can feel spring coming in the mud puddles (ponds?) on the streets and the need for fewer layers of clothing.

This winter we learned that we had never truly experienced cold before.  We thought we had in New England, but Alaska was hit with an especially cold and snow season this year.  The entire month of January was spent below zero.  Sometimes TWENTY below.  For Homer, that's unusually cold.  We also had a ton of snow (maybe it followed us from Connecticut, where we had record snow last year?).  Anchorage is thisclose to getting record snowfall for the year.  Anything above 10 degrees now feels warm.  Crazy.  The LT escaped to Hawaii on the ship for "training" for seven weeks of winter, during which we had several back-to-back blizzards.  School closed once.  I learned to drive in whiteout conditions with drifted snow that felt like sand dunes.  I love my Honda Pilot.

Snowshoeing on Christmas...3 degrees

Post-blizzard Homer harbor

Right about the time that I couldn't take another morning spent plowing through the 5-foot drifts on our driveway and chasing hungry moose away from the preschool door, we joined The LT for a week in the sun in Honolulu.  What a fabulous family vacation...we lived in bathing suits and went through three bottles of sunscreen.

Top of Diamond Head

We went from a world of gray and white to Technicolor

All of the snow has its pluses.  Our whole family learned to cross-country ski this year.  Homer has a surprisingly fabulous network of groomed ski trails, with our favorite starting just 5 minutes from our house.  We also saw some spectacular sunrises (even if they weren't until after 10am).

Also a rarity for living this far "south", we we able to get the kids out of bed at night to see the Northern Lights.  Twice!  And I learned how to photograph them.  But photos don't begin to describe it.  You'll have to come visit in winter and see for yourself.

Now that we're back in the light, I have started planning our summer adventures.  We are already due to move again next summer, so we have to treat this summer like it could be our last in Alaska for quite some time.  The LT will be spending much of his time cooling off in the Arctic Circle (see this article and this article for more on that), so I will be going solo with the kiddos as the Adventuresome Three to see all that this huge state has to offer.  Stay tuned for our itinerary.

On The Run

Over the past year, I have become a runner. At first it was mainly to get in better shape, but over the months of training I have actually grown to like it. I ran my first half-marathon in October, and said I wouldn't do another one. Over this long, snowy winter I changed my mind. Needing a new goal to force me to get to the gym regularly, I signed up for the More Magazine/Fitness Magazine Women's Half-Marathon in April. That the course is entirely in Central Park sealed the deal for me! I even signed up on a team with my local running store, soundRUNNER, to keep me from backing out of it.

Every Saturday I get up early and drive the 40 minutes to the store to do my 8am long training run with the store's group--on the schedule for this week is 10-12 miles. I have never run outside (on purpose, anyway) when the temperature dips below 60 degrees until this winter. The day of the first group run in January, it was 10 degrees. I told myself that it couldn't possibly be colder than that, so if I could run in 10-degree weather it could only get better from there. The next weekend it was 8. I have actually grown to LOVE running in the cold air. Good thing, considering the climate of our new home. I also love training with a group. It pushes me to go further and faster than I ever would on my own. I completed my first half-marathon in 2 hours and 18 minutes. My only goal this time around is to beat that time.

Hartford Half-Marathon, October 9, 2010

With all of the rain, snow, and ice we have had lately, I have had to do much of my training on the treadmill, which gets really boring. The conditions are slowly improving outside, but I still managed to roll my ankle last week by slipping on gravel left behind by plows and melted snow. After several days off to let the swelling go down, it was back to the treadmill this week. I recently put this sticker on the back of my car, mostly to remind myself to keep going. With all of the moving stuff we have going on, it would be really easy to give up in the next month or two.

Luckily, all of the schools The LT needs to complete before the big move (nearly 6 weeks worth) have been scheduled and none of them conflict with April's race. I am reminding myself that this is the last time for the next two years that I can count on him being around so I can fit in my training runs and plan ahead for races. I'm hoping to complete a half-marathon in each state that we live. Surprisingly, there are several options in Alaska! The Mayor's Midnight Sun in June, the Skinny Raven Half-Marathon in August, and the Kenai River in September. Maybe I'll have some company on at least one of these races while we're stationed in Homer! Any takers?