FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) - Like many Interior Alaskans, Stacy Fisk’s journey north was unexpected. She sat down with the News-Miner for an interview morning after leaving her job at the United Parcel Service warehouse. Typically, Fisk would be transferring to her other, more public job - run manager at Goldstream Sports. But today she’s preparing to drive down to Denali National Park with her husband, and maybe go for a bike ride.
Originally from South Bend, Indiana, Fisk first visited Alaska while on a honeymoon cruise around the Panhandle. She and her husband talked frequently about returning to see more of the state.
A different opportunity arose in 2013, when Fisk was working a warehouse job back in Indiana; her company offered to transfer her to Fairbanks.
“Within two weeks, we were moved, sold our stuff and were here,” Fisk recalled. Soon, another opportunity too good to pass up came around.
Three months after Fisk moved to Fairbanks, the run manager position opened up, a perfect job for Fisk, a former collegiate runner. The 36-year-old Fisk has an impressive running resume from Mars Hill College - a Division II school in North Carolina.
She was a two-time South Atlantic Conference Runner of the Year, four-time First Team SAC, led her team to three conference titles and competed in nationals twice. Eventually, Fisk went on to earn a master’s degree in athletic coaching education, which teaches how best to optimize athletic performance through physiology, kinesiology, biomechanics, diet and other factors.
Fisk is probably best known as the shoe guru at Goldstream Sports or as host of the weekly HooDoo Beer Run and Walk. Last year, she took over as Equinox Marathon race director.
“Running is my life. That’s what I’ve been doing for 20-plus years,” she said, even though she was more interested in basketball while growing up in Indiana.
Fisk started running track in seventh grade. Though it took a full season before she could run two consecutive miles, she never looked back. Fisk has fully injected herself into the core of Fairbanks’ running community in just a matter of years, but it’s part of her personality.
“I’m full throttle. Anyone will tell you that the more that’s on my plate, the better I do,” she said.
Now, her goal is to get as many people as possible involved in running - in large part by letting them know it’s not all about speed.
With that goal in mind, Fisk reinstituted the historically popular hiking division in last year’s Equinox Marathon - which she said was very successful.
“It’s not always about being out in front. A runner can be a jogger. A runner is considered a walker, jogger, in my eyes, even a hiker,” she said.
The correlation between hiker and runner stems in part form Fisk’s experience doing ultra-marathons - typically anything longer than 26.2 miles, which inevitably requires hiking by even the fastest racers.
Unfortunately for Fisk, “Any race I’m in, I bring the worst weather and worst conditions,” she said.
On Jan 13, her history of unlucky conditions took a drastic turn. She had just pulled into an aid station during the Hurt 100 in Hawaii when the now infamous ballistic missile false alarm was triggered.
At first she thought it was a joke, in part because the aid station was pirate-themed. Then she realized it was no joke.
“Locals were jumping down manholes, they didn’t know what to do. As a race director, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Thinking she might die, Fisk called her husband to say goodbye. Eventually, after about 30 minutes, racers were sent on their way.
“It’s funny now, but it wasn’t funny at the time,” she said.
Back in Fairbanks, the rural small-town feel is perfect for Fisk and her husband, who both shy away from technology and hate big cities. They graduated from the dry-cabin life and recently bought a house, indicating they may be around for a while.
“Fairbanks is Fairbanks. Everyone gets it, you know how it is. It’s always the same story - you come here as a transplant, then 20 years later, here you are. Four years later, here we are,” she said.
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Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com
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