As you get older in life, it moves fast as you get wrapped up in your family life, career moves, business trips and late nights. Personally for myself the past few years I have been lucky to have a job in which I travel often, something I’ve always wanted as part of a career and love doing. New adventure in every project and city. However this doesn’t help with a set routine as with early starts, long flights and not always having access to healthy food options somewhat lead to an unhealthy lifestyle on the road.

Traveling and being in 2 to 3 different cities in a month does not help to maintain good healthy habits.

I personally really dislike the gym, so keeping in shape and doing exercise can be a chore. This is by no means a health blog but its important to try and keep a healthy lifestyle, with a good diet to keep active so you can live life to the fullest and travel the world!

Health

Even though I don’t go to the gym, I enjoy walking everyday and listening to podcasts. Especially as you get older your metabolism slows down, and its more difficult to shred the extra pounds to maintain your target weight. Since I like walking daily I started researching half marathons around the USA to try something new. I researching with only 2 criteria:

1. It is possible to walk the half marathon with enough time limit

2. Its somewhere new which I haven’t visited before

As I was researching I saw a race coming up in a couple of months the Totem to Totem half marathon in Ketchikan, Alaska. This really caught my eye, and intrigued me. I looked at the website and saw the course which appeared really nice along the coast, and amongst wildlife. I thought why not and then signed up along with my wife for the is adventure. We had never done a half marathon before but I really wanted to challenge myself.

I try to live outside of my comfort zone at times, so I can really see what I am capable of achieving! I think most people would benefit from this mentality

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Travel

So I booked the flights from San Jose, CA to Ketchikan on Alaska Airlines, the flights went through Seattle and on the way there we had a night stopover. As this was the case I booked a hotel close to the airport. Everything started on plan, we flew to Seattle spent the night and had dinner close by to the hotel. We woke up early to catch our 8.30am flight direct to Ketchikan. As we arrived to the terminal before 6.30am, plenty of time to go through security with only hand luggage. We planned to visit the lounge for quick breakfast and board the flight. Everything was going well, until it wasn’t…

Security

During the trip my wife was updating her passport to her new married name, so she didn’t have it on hand. So I had to book the flights under her new name which matched her drivers license. Therefore at the airport we had to use the regular security lines. 

Top Travel Tip – I recommend to sign up for Global entry which includes TSA pre check. You can benefit from expedited security lines and save a lot of time

Of course being a good husband I went with her, even though I still had my TSA pre check. We didn’t realize it at the time but we were in this line for over 30 mins and not moving! I started counting and estimated there was at least 100 people in front of us. The terminal was hectic, with the security line wrapping around several times. Travelers rushing up to anyone they thought worked at the airport to jump the lines and demand what’s going on. Stressful times for the staff

Everyone around us was panicking, but nobody really knew what was going.

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Keep Calm

I like to keep calm, as there is no point fussing about what you can’t control. It was evident at this rate we were going to miss our flight. I quickly went on the Alaska app, and saw that there was another flight at 1.30pm to Ketchikan. I transferred us to this new flight but there was no seats available so I had to put us on stand by. We did have things planned for Ketchikan, but we were lucky in the sense that we didn’t have to be at the new destination urgently, unlike some travelers

Eventually we went through security after a couple of hours from this ordeal and went to customer support. The lady on staff was very helpful and let us know to come back around 11.30am to get a seat assignment. We hung around the terminal going to a lounge and then a restaurant to have a couple of light beverages. I don’t like to stay in one spot for too long, i enjoy just walking around terminals and seeing what shops/bars there are. Also it is very convenient to travel between different gates in Seattle through the train and we had 3 hours to kill so might as well explore.

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Flight

At 11.30am we went to the support desk, and luckily, we got 2 seats in the last row! We had things planned for Ketchikan if we had taken that 8.30am flight but that was all forgotten about as we just wanted to get there. The most important thing we needed to do was visit the sports center to pick up our race packet. We boarded at 1pm and actually this was a unique flight that had 3 stops and the last one was to Anchorage. First stop in Ketchikan, then Juneau and then to Anchorage. We arrived in KTN under the pouring rain, very rough winds and bumpy landing. Many passengers stayed on to go to Juneau or Anchorage.

Ketchikan

KTN airport is on a small island, so you need to come outside of the terminal walk across the road and then catch a ferry to the main city. It was $6 each to get the ferry which luckily had an inside waiting area and covered us from the downpour temporarily. It was pretty brisk cold weather and when boarding started we had to run to get inside the ferry all the while getting soaked from the rain.

At this point in the journey my wife exclaimed ‘where the hell have you taken us?!‘

‘On an adventure and somewhere new‘, I said smiling

After taking the ferry across to the main side, only a 5 minute boat ride we got outside and caught the shuttle to the hotel. The hotel, the landing was a very cozy place, with a couple of restaurants, log fire and fitted with an outdoor wildlife theme. We were glad to get inside the warmth! After check in, we soon took the hotel shuttle to the sports center to get our packet including T-shirt, badge number, goodies etc. This hotel shuttle will take you and pick you up within 10-15 mins around from the hotel, which is very convenient.

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Salmon Capital

The driver showed us the main river on the way from the sports center, where the salmon come up throughout the fishing season. This is the salmon capital of the world he exclaimed! He added that at the end of the season some unlucky fish die and the smell brings out the wild bears into the town looking for food. Maybe this is a interesting and spectacular sight but best viewed from a distance! Later we ate at one of the restaurants in the hotel and relaxed before the race; I always remember it was late 10pm at night still raining a lot but light outside.

It was very surreal but we finally made it to Alaska!

Race Day

The next morning was the race and we took a taxi to the start for our challenging adventure. We had prepared weeks for this walk by training and eating right. The first several miles of the race was gorgeous, we were walking by the pacific ocean one side, and green forests on the other side. In the ocean there were other islands, fjords and mountains off in the background, it was really beautiful and scenic.

Almost at halfway we walked through the downtown area, then yet again the heavens opened and it rained the rest of the race.  It was really surreal or unusual as we entered downtown, a cruise ship docked and a bunch of tourists were outside exploring. As we were walking by on our half marathon, a group asked us where the town hall was. Obviously, we had no idea, so we just pointed them in the direction where other tourists went. We continued walking along the course by counting the totems as we went by.

finish

The second part of the race was difficult not only due to the weather, but it was uphill with an uneven terrain. Also to add to the situation the course at this point was by the highway, so as cars sped by there was water spray from the road. There was water stations throughout the course, manned by local volunteers who braved the elements. We also carried energy drinks plus electrolyte tablets throughout the race to keep us going.

We eventually finished the distance of 13.1 miles in 4 hours and 15 minutes. The time was not too bad for our first attempt, and a really rewarding experience to complete. At the end of the course we got our medals, and actually received 2 tacos with a beer to help replenish our energy!

After the race we took the free bus back to the hotel and relaxed, icing our feet in the bathtub. We had an early dinner with some drinks at the hotel bar, trying the salmon which was excellent and fresh. For the evening we just wanted to rest and recover from the race and adventure.

Beautiful scenery

The next day, the sun was shining and it was a really beautiful view. To describe the sparkling ocean, the radiant green forests and mountains with their snowy tops is difficult to do with justice. The air was crisp and fresh, definitely better quality than we are used to. There were a few small watercrafts taking off and landing back on the water. We had breakfast at the hotel, with a full American breakfast including eggs, ham, bacon and hash browns. Following this we took a quick scroll to downtown, not too far from the hotel. In the town there are many gold and jewelry shops which Ketchikan actually hosts events where people fly in from around the world to buy gold.

There are some saloon bars and restaurants, just like you see in the old western movies. One activity we had planned for Friday and recommend was the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show, which is very popular. Unfortunately we didnt see it and will hopefully catch it next time. After this, it was our time to head back home. We had to board the ferry again to the airport terminal, but this time standing outside in the beautiful sun and taking in the gorgeous views.

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On the way back we stopped in Seattle for 3 hours, and we went to the Amex lounge. We had access through the Amex platinum card. Its a large spacious lounge, always great drinks and food. The design incorporates natural light and local artwork, creating a relaxing environment away from the hustle and bustle of the airport. We continued our journey back to San Jose and lucky everything was on time this day.

This was one memorable adventure, combining travelling and keeping healthy. Definitely something I recommend to all and will do again in the future. Please let me know any marathons you may have taken, or any remote places you have been to?

Bon Voyage, JetLad