In-Person Race Day Details for June 8, 2024

Distances

• 5-mile timed & untimed
• 1-mile untimed
• Start/finish: UAA Campus near Cuddy Quad 3400 Seawolf Dr. Anchorage 99508

Event Schedule

• 6:45-8:15 a.m. Bib Pick-Up; Registration for untimed events only; Merchandise sales
• 7:30 a.m. Yoga Warm-up with Melissa Becker
• 7:55 a.m. Survivor group photo under start line arch
• 8:00 a.m. Staging all events
• 8:20 a.m. National Anthem by Victoria Fraser
• 8:30 a.m. 1-mile run/walk start
• 8:45 a.m. 5-mile run/walk timed start
• 9:05 a.m. 5-mile run/walk untimed party start and strollers
• 10:15 a.m. Zumba workout with Suzy Spackman
• 11:00 a.m. Awards Ceremony begins!
• 11:30 ish Door Prize Drawings (must be present to win) and Annual RFW Raffle Drawing (you DO NOT need to be present to win)

Race Day Festivities/Door Prizes

Join the festivities with family and friends before and after the race! Yoga warm-up, free Kaladi coffee, free snow-cones at Murray Orthodontics tent, photo booth at Imaging Associates tent, The Alaska Club’s obstacle course, refreshments post-race including Great Harvest Bread Company, Zumba workout, and the awards ceremony honoring elite runners and breast cancer survivor competitors.

Special door prizes will be given to lucky Run participants! Enter the drawing to win a free trip for two to anywhere Alaska Airlines flies or a 90-Day Gold Family Membership from The Alaska Club! Your bib has a tear away section with your bib number on it. Write in your name and drop it in the entry box near the sound stage. MUST BE PRESENT TO WIN. Drawing following the Awards Ceremony. 

Wave Starts & Staging

All participants will be staged based on the race category for which they have registered. Staging will begin at 8:00 a.m. for all events.

It is each participant’s responsibility to be in her start corral 30 minutes prior to event start time. Participant bib colors will match the start corral colors as shown on the map. Look for the colored flags in your start area.

• 8:00 a.m. Staging all events
• 8:30 a.m. 1-mile run/walk start | Corral at 8:10 a.m.
• 8:45 a.m. 5-mile TIMED run/walk start | Corral at 8:15 a.m.
• 9:05 a.m. 5-mile UNTIMED party run/walk start | Corral at 8:35 a.m.

Elite Corral

An elite corral is reserved for runners who completed a previous Alaska Run for Women in 35:35 or better (pace 7:07/mile). Runners with elite status will enter the starting area via the 1-mile corral and be escorted to the starting line after the 1-mile race is underway. Runners who have not participated in the AKRFW may email run@akrfw.org with documented race results to petition for access to the elite corral.

Entertainment on Race Day

A big thank you to all the wonderful volunteer entertainers who add fun out on the course and on the UAA Campus at Cuddy Quad.

If you are interested in providing entertainment on the course, email run@akrfw.org

PRERACE

• Yoga warm-up, Melissa Becker
• National Anthem, Victoria Fraser

ON THE COURSE 

• Pepper Kit
• JazzMom Melissa Fischer
• Rick Zelinsky Jazz
• Anchorage Scottish Pipes & Drums
• Tomodachi Daiko Drummers
• Knock on Wood, Marimba Ensemble
• The SpeNerds
• The Empty Nesters: Jim Kerr, Denise Martin, Carole Ann & Jim Wolfe
• Mary Shallert Group
• Button Box Gang

ON THE CUDDY QUAD  

• April Powers and Mark Murphy are back in the announcer’s booth!
• Alaska Career College Massage Therapy Student Sports Team
• Suzy Spackman, The Alaska Club – Zumba workout
• Be sure you visit all the booths hosted by our donors and grantees!

2024 Honorary Race Starter

Mary Katzke

We are extremely pleased to introduce our 2024 honorary starter. As executive director of Affinityfilms, a nonprofit educational media production company based in Alaska since 1982, Mary has been on our radar for decades. She lost her mother to breast cancer in 1983 and was then diagnosed herself in 1992. She participated in the inaugural Alaska Run for Women (AKRFW) in 1993, and has been a fixture at the event for nearly every year since.

As an organization AKRFW has long supported the work of Affinityfilms through our grant program. Mary states that they have produced approximately 10 projects around breast cancer awareness ranging from photography exhibits to 5 documentary films to many PSAs and health awareness calendars.

Mary learned that she carries the BRCA1 gene long after she started her advocacy work. As a media maker she vows to continue creating meaningful media for as long as she can. Her company is currently working on a multimedia project designed to raise awareness of the realities and concerns of women living with Stage 4 breast cancer with a focus on the importance of genetic testing and community education. Mary said, “We will share what it means to have this incurable disease, and how to respond to us who have a recurrence and how to help us face this.”

In addition to her media work and advocacy, Mary stays engaged and very busy hiking with friends and her dog, Mali, global traveling, staying connected to the independent film world through festivals, workshops and conferences, and writing (always writing!).

When asked if she had any words of encouragement or inspiration for our participants, she said, “As much progress as we hear about in the news headlines, we are still losing as many women to breast cancer now as when I lost my mother in 1983… that’s a quarter of the 240,000 diagnosed. Our work is simply not finished. We must KEEP ON MARCHING FORWARD, especially with research, and providing comfort and support for those on the frontlines facing medical treatment and clinical trials. Events like this are necessary to keep moving forward, and for providing the critical support we need. You lift spirits for all of us. Emotional support is half the game. THANK YOU for showing up well after the cause is no longer the flavor of the week, because we cannot yet see the light at the end of the tunnel. YOU are our light.”

Mary, we see you, we care and we appreciate all that you do.