Altitude Training

I felt a lot of culture shock when I went to Alaska with the intention of running at altitude for four days before going to California for a wedding. My flight being canceled repeatedly made me feel more culture shoxk being with my little cousin on an Alaskan Island way longer than I had signed up for. My biggest problem was never having cell phone reception anywhere other than the house when the internet was connected. The other issue that I had was accidently crossing a boarder on running trails. Plus there were really not a lot of people to be friends with all the way out there. In the end, I wish I had not made the trip for personal reasons, but thinking if that had been just to train at altitude, camp in the Adirondacks would have made more sense. Both places do not have any cell phone reception and I always like to call people to pick me up on a run, because it makes me feel safe. I am someone who needs cell phone reception without depending on high speed internet. My advice is to make sure your phone will always work before traveling to remote locations, a lot of runners do that to train at altitude. Going from working in NY and being in college lectures to a remote location without a working phone was too much for me to experience. Would you be able to live without cell phone reception? Even in the airport in Kodiak there wasn’t cell recption for me to use a virtual ticket in my phone like every other airport I have ever been to. The Ithaca airport is small like Kodiak's, but eveything is modern and there’s internet. I was so upset it couldn’t even be funny like a Hallmark movie about going from NY to Alaska, very upsetting for me. A huge reason my boyfriend and I broke up that summer was me being stuck in Alaska on that island waiting for a flight back to civilization, it was the worst experience of my life I have to say. He thought I just stopped talking to him one day, and I was pretty mad to come back and find that out…. Then, I came home and a friend told me their cruise was not allowed to get off and walk around Kodiak because of things like cell reception not being availible, it gives us horror movie chills… I still have no idea how my mom’s family member could actually live out there, I could not last a week. On landline phones you need to punch in a code before the number to make a call, it was a shock to my brain. Four days of helping my cousin with her life turned into really damaging mine being stuck in the middle of nowhere. It was like going to another planet, I never imagined could exist in the modern world. Some of my bigger trips have made me feel like Florida is the safe place to go on a vacation. Incidently running at sea level has always been more fun for me than running at altitude. I was really vocal about these issues as soon as I came back from my trip, with the airline and actually law enforcement as well. I still feel like there should be a warning before flying somewhere with a different way of life, I would not have gone to Kodiak if I knew my phone would not work or the only hotel would not feel comfortable letting a woman have a room, I could have paid that hotel anything and they would not let me stay there alone. Where I went as an alternative to a hotel, the 'ex-family friend’ charged me twice over what they make in a week or maybe even two up there working in Kodiak, and I still feel like it sketchy letting them have that check, that trip was a living nightmare on nightmares. I would be happy to go the rest of my life literally never thinking about those old family friends post that hustle, nor my ex uncle who probably just wanted my boyfriend to break up with me and make my phone not work, because my life was too perfect before that trip. Being punished for helping my little cousin get into college off the island just a year earlier, it blew their minds. A real life game of would you rather, waiting for it to not be too foggy to fly to Anchorage. Terror Lake to Bates Motel to going out to a restaurant ordering dejourno pizza… I travel all the time and do not have those issues.

Yeah, my silver lining to a nightmare trip was altitude training, but it is scary to think my phone never worked running around those mountains. Something to think about.

All my scandals keep this blog interesting.