Location: Knik arm of the Anchorage Harbour
Distance: 42km, run time 4 hours
Altitude: 0m 🙂 to 224m
Track me live at: https://share.garmin.com/sea2summit7
Song of the day: don’t worry bout it- Kings “run free boy run free”
Thankyou: My epic support team of Mike and Rich, all of my Sponsors, my family and partner, everyone following this journey, God and the Mental Health Foundation of NZ.
Notes: After over a year of training, planning and preparation the moment had finally arrived to dip my toes into the sea in Alaska. I had been dreaming of this moment for years! and then I saw the ice filled Knik arm and suddenly wasn’t so pumped about the whole idea. Normally I have started on sun baked coasts and run early to avoid the heat of the countries but due to the nature, location and length of this expedition I found myself standing in a giant frozen coke like harbour at sea level. 
After scrambling through snow, mud and scree to get back to the road and lace up my Inov8’s it took about 5km to get the feeling back in my feet. I wasn’t really concerned about this as I was totally distracted by the mind blowing terrain I was blowing steam through. I was running past frozen lakes with iced in boats waiting patiently for the harbour to thaw and planes with skis instead of wheels as well as I dodged Moose kaka on the footpath. Countless hours were spent planning my route on google and dreaming of how different it would be compared to running from Otahuhu to Botany Downs Secondary College, so my expectations were extremely high! But Alaska you delivered in spades.
To date this is by far my biggest challenge both physically and technically. Getting ready for this while trying to work full time as a teacher has been a real struggle and I know I have let my colleagues, students and loved ones down at times by spreading myself too thin. The old cliche that life is about balance couldn’t ring more true and when you are doing too many things at 80% it starts to impact you mentally. There are many things in my life that I love and when you become too busy, instead of enjoying these things you find yourself tirelessly trying to maintain them to you feel some form of order which results in the fun demininishing and resentment creeps in. The problem is that you do not gain perspective on this until you are completely removed from it all.
The thought running through my head for the majority of today was, is it better to be a jack of all trades and master of none or be in expert in a field you are most passionate about?
What are your thoughts?
Take the Path less traveled
Dave
Sea2Summit7 