My Own Personal Mount Marathon

Run 15 miles

Today was the 80th running of The Mount Marathon Race in Seward, Alaska. Despite what the name might imply this is not a marathon, nothing like a marathon really. This is a 3 mile race that climbs over 3,000 feet in 1.5 miles and then turns around and heads back down the mountain and finishes in the middle of town. From what I hear this is the 2nd oldest foot race in North America, second only to the Boston Marathon. Just got word on the Anchorage Daily News website that Brad Precosky won the race again this year. This is his 6th time winning and 2nd in a row. I had the opportunity to race against Brad in several races last summer and he's a great guy who has almost certainly done more than anyone to shape The Alaska Mountain Running Grand Prix into the great series of races that it has become. Usually I like to see underdogs and new faces winning big races like Mount Marathon, but in this case I couldn't be happier to see that Brad was the first one back into Seward and across the finish line where 20,000 or so spectators welcomed him in.

If I had been luckier in the lottery drawing back in April I would have been racing up Mount Marathon today. Instead I did my own nice climb here in Juneau while daydreaming about Mount Marathon. I was hoping to get up to 3,500 feet but snow stopped me about halfway to that mark. In all I put in a nice 15 miler (long approach to the section of steep climbing) with lots of total elevation gain and quite technical (lots of rocks, roots, and mud). I was planning to go a bit further today but once I came back down the mountain I ran through town where all the holiday festivities were going on and I instantly felt so uncomfortable by all the people in such a small area that I just wanted to get home as soon as possible. It was probably just as well because I feel really tired out tonight and another 5 or 10 miles would have probably done more harm than good.