More than a thousand runners are set to scramble up and back down Seward's Mount Marathon on Friday for the 97th running of the oldest mountain running race in North America.
Also known as "the toughest 5k on the planet," it starts and ends downtown in front of a raucous crowd celebrating Independence Day. But competitors say parts of the route up the 3,022-foot peak feel like any mountain trail in Alaska.
One of those past competitors, former Olympic skier Holly Brooks, a two-time Mount Marathon champion, is commentating for the race live stream. Brooks says there's a lot to love about the race.
Below is the transcript of an interview with Brooks on Alaska News Nightly. It has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Holly Brooks: You know, it is maybe one of the most unique races in the world. I would say the camaraderie amongst the competitors is really incredible. The number of spectators that are here, and just the fact that, you know, the race started as a bar bet in downtown Seward. You can run to the top of a mountain, you can see the top of the mountain from the finish line.
So it's this really unique combination of road running, uphill running, you know, on a pitch that averages 34 degrees, and then downhill, technical running, where the bottom, you're really running through an active waterfall. And so it's just a really unique combination of all of those things. So that, combined with the fact that the race is almost 100 years old, is pretty incredible.
Casey Grove: Yeah, let's start with those women contenders this year. I was reading up on this. How are people looking at the contenders there in the women's race?
HB: It's going to be a great race this year, and we have nine of last year's top 10 athletes returning. The only one missing from the race roster is two-time race champion Hannah Lafleur, who's out because she's pregnant.
But Klaire Rhodes, last year's champion, is definitely the race favorite, and she is really only the fourth woman in history to break the 50-minute mark. The competition isn't going to make it easy for her. You know, last year, 23-year-old Kendall Kramer, who is from Fairbanks, she just had her senior year at UAF, she is going to be amazing on the uphill, and we'll see what she's willing to risk on the downhill.
You know, almost double Kendall's age is Meg Inokuma. She's 45 years old, and she's finished third, second and fourth in the past. And so she's definitely hungry for a win. And then, of course, we have 44-year-old, three-time Mount Marathon champion Christy Marvin of Palmer. She, last year, she finished fifth after spending six weeks off her feet from running due to an injury. But before that, she had a 10-year streak of being on the podium.
And then, of course, we have some other awesome competitors, Denali Foldager-Strabel, April McAnly, Sophie Wright, Rosie Fordham, and then we have a race rookie, a professional trail runner from Squamish, B.C., Kalie McCrystal, and you never know what an outsider can pull off. So it's going to be an amazing women's race.
CG: Yeah, it sounds like there are a few contenders in the women's race and certainly some in the men's race. But I was reading up on on it, through the race guide, and I think the headline of the story about the men's race, previewing the men's race, was like, "Can anybody touch David Norris?" Is that kind of the question to answer this year?
HB: That's the question of the day. You know, he's five for five. Every time he's entered the race, he's won. Last year he won by over two minutes. And so, you know, it's really his race in a lot of ways. If he wins this year, he'll be six for six, and he'll join some pretty, pretty good company and a few other male competitors who have won the race six times: Brad Precosky, Sven Johanson and Ralph Hatch. Bill Spencer still has him beat. He's won eight times.
But David, last year, set a record of 40 minutes and 37 seconds, and he made it look easy. And so, you know, the other question that everyone's wondering is, "Will he break 40 minutes?" right? I don't think that anyone ever thought that the 40-minute barrier would be broken on Mount Marathon, but it's definitely possible with his fitness and his experience on the mountain.
CG: Yeah. And I think I was reading, too, that he was making adjustments, or he's thinking about places on the course where he could be faster, and part of that was on the pavement part of course. You know, people leave from downtown Seward, they head up Mount Marathon, come back down, and he, I guess, had been training to run faster on pavement. Which brings me to, you know, maybe the fun part, I think, for the spectators, is mostly there, right? And could you just describe that scene for me?
HB: Yeah, the pavement is pretty intense. There are parts of the gut, the downhill, where you feel like you're alone, and then you come off the cliffs. And first of all, there's thousands of people cheering at the base of the cliffs, music, an announcer, and then there's a cop car waiting for you at the base of the mountain. And you kind of run behind this cop car that has lights and sirens, letting all the spectators know that the race leader is coming.
So you go from kind of being what feels like in remote Alaska for maybe two, three minutes to just thousands of people. It's a tunnel of noise. And it's a lot for your adrenaline, your excitement. Usually there's some drama on Main Street, if there's a close race.
