Palmer mother, son win Mount Marathon titles

Palmer’s Christy Marvin, 42 and a mother of boys 16, 14 and 11, overcame a muddy lower mountain and a gusty, cold and rainy top half to capture her third women’s Mount Marathon Race and first since 2016.

But the most impressive thing Marvin did Tuesday in Seward is get Palmer’s Denali Foldager-Strabel, 33, to the start line of the 95th running of the footrace that rises and falls about 3,000 feet in 3.1 miles.

Foldager-Strabel’s twin sister, Rubye Mayflower Blake, died May 5, 2023. In the Mount Marathon race program, Foldager-Strabel wrote fondly of growing up with her sister in Seward, where “Mount Marathon is the backdrop of your childhood.”

“I almost didn’t race,” said Foldager-Strabel, who ran 54 minutes, 21 seconds, to finish third and bag a ninth top-10 finish in 13 women’s starts. “Twenty seconds before the start, I was like, ‘I’m not going to race.’

“And Christy saw me crying and took me away and made me pretty much follow her. So I’m really thankful for her.”

Some years, the tone in Seward on the Fourth of July is set by international and national professional runners setting rub-your-eyes records. Other years, pandemic or wildfire hold sway.

In 2023, thanks to the race winners and race conditions, MMR was intensely local.

Already one of Mount Marathon’s favorite sons for snatching the men’s record back for Alaska from Spanish superstar Kilian Jornet in 2016, Fairbanks native David Norris, 32, joined Kenai’s Todd Boonstra for fifth on the all-time list with four men’s victories.

The junior races had a family feel. Rising Colony junior Coby Marvin, Christy’s son, won his second boys race, while incoming Soldotna sophomore Tania Boonstra, Todd’s daughter and sister of 2015 girls champ Riana, captured her first girls title.

Showers shrouding Seward’s scenery and a midweek race day that reduced crowds only added to the distilling effect.

“I had to work yesterday and I’m working tomorrow,” said Seward’s Erik Johnson, 46, who was 17th in 50 minutes, 28 seconds, in his 11th men’s race. “It’s not the same as if it’s on a weekend.

“I feel like this is the real Mount Marathon. I feel like everyone here had to bring their Alaska game, even if they weren’t from Alaska. Show if they had grit or not.”

Anchorage’s Julianne Dickerson, 35 and raised in Kenai, got a similar feel as she raced to sixth in 58:43, her best finish since taking third in 2019.

“I guess this year really did have really good local race vibes,” she said. “The conditions are a little intimidating today, so it kind of felt like the crew against the mountain.

“Definitely a celebration of relief at the end.”

Women’s race

In her 10th race, Marvin joins two Seward legends — Patti Foldager and Cedar Bourgeois — with 10 top-three finishes. Only Nina Kemppel, with 11, has more. Kemppel and Marvin now lead with 10 finishes under 60 minutes, while Marvin also is the second oldest woman to win following 46-year-old Grace Hoeman in 1963.

Turns out the secrets to longevity — passion and hard work — really aren’t that secret at all.

“I think that a lot of my consistency with racing Mount Marathon is that I love this race,” Marvin said. “I love the way it brings family, friends and community together.

“My heart is always in it. I’m always excited about the race. I’m always excited to train for the race. I’m always excited to race the race. I think a lot of people just sort of lose the love after awhile. And I still haven’t.”

That love carries into training.

“A lot of people slow down because they slow down,” Marvin said. “I know that sounds silly, but they start losing the love. They don’t care as much. They don’t work quite as hard.

“And then that just kind of compounds itself. If you keep training like you did when you were young, I think you keep racing just like you did when you were young.”

The race was a duel between Marvin and Palmer’s Meg Inokuma, 43, who smiles as quick as she climbs.

Inokuma won the climb by 38 seconds, but Marvin gradually reeled in Inokuma on the mountain portion of the downhill. When the racers hit the road, Marvin hit her stride and passed Inokuma with two blocks to go.

Marvin finished at 52:52, with Inokuma 15 seconds behind to improve on her race debut of fourth place last year.

The two Palmer racers in their 40s shared a warm embrace at the finish. Inokuma said they continue to inspire each other.

In 2022, Inokuma won the Matanuska Peak Challenge, missing Marvin’s 2016 record by just two seconds. The next day, Marvin broke the course record at the Crow Pass Crossing.

“That inspired her and she broke the record the next day thinking that, ‘OK, I’m not old yet,’” said Inokuma, who lived on the central peninsula for the summers of 2014 to 2016.

Foldager-Strabel was next, and more warm hugs ensued.

“As I always said, this running community in the state is like a big family,” Foldager-Strabel said. “But through this grieving process, it really has become a big, big family event.

“And when I came running down the street, they’re acting like I had won.”

Foldager-Strabel said Marvin, in particular, has provided guidance, inspiring Foldager-Strabel to race at a high level after having her son, Stig, two years ago.

“We’re just proving that life isn’t over after being pregnant and having kids,” Foldager-Strabel said.

Foldager-Strabel ended with an apology and a thank you.

The apology came from when she reached the summit and dropped a giant F-bomb.

“I can’t believe my sister’s gone. It’s stupid and I hate it,” she said. “I just screamed a giant F at the top. And then I remembered I was in a race. I’m sorry if I offended anyone.”

And then the thank you.

“Everyone’s been so kind, so awesome and so heartbroken,” Foldager-Strabel said. “I just thank you. That’s what I want to say.

“I’m just so happy that I grew up in this town and that I stayed in Alaska and that I live here. I don’t ever not want to have this as my family. I love this place.”

Foldager-Strabel’s mom, two-time champ Patti of Hope, also was talked into the race after initially not wanting to do it. Both Foldager and Ellyn Brown of Anchorage finished to extend their women’s longevity record to 40 races.

Also in the women’s race, Taylor Deal, a 2012 graduate of Kenai Central, finished ninth in 1:00:34 in her sponsor’s bib to earn another one-year exemption next year.

Men’s race

Norris has had quite the last six months, despite taking a step back from a full schedule of competitive skiing to coach juniors in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

In late February, Norris broke away from the field just three kilometers into the 50-kilometer American Birkebeiner in Wisconsin to win the largest and most prestigious ski marathon in North America for the second time.

He then hopped the pond to finish 22nd in the 50K classic at the World Championships in Slovenia and 17th in the 50K skate at Holmenkollen.

Getting to run victoriously down Fourth Avenue in Seward, ski victoriously down Main Street in Hayward, and race in the steep hills outside Oslo cheered on by throngs of ski-mad Norwegians are some of the most iconic experiences in endurance sport.

How would Norris compare them?

“What I love about Mount Marathon is it’s a reunion of so many great friends,” Norris said. “I see so many faces I know.

“Holmenkollen, the crowd is incredible and stuff, but it’s not like I’m saying, ‘Hi,’ and 50 percent of the crowd is my friend or someone I’ve met before. So this is hard to beat here.”

Norris has still won all the Mount Marathons he’s entered. His time of 44:51 was his slowest due to what he called “next level” mud, but still 22nd in race history and more than enough to top runner-up Darren Thomas of Reno, Nevada, and his 46:35.

The MMR victory also came after Norris had finished second on Saturday in a Cirque Series race in Snowbird, Utah, that was 8.7 miles and 3,566 vertical feet.

Not only did Norris say he’s in some of the best shape he’s been in, but he’s also more relaxed than ever. Running down Fourth Avenue, he took the time to dole out hand slaps to blocks of fans.

“I’m reminding myself to just really enjoy everything versus thinking of it like a job or obligation,” he said. “Like at the Birkie, when I got to Main Street, I just felt the relief and excitement to be there, versus grinding all the way to the line.

“At the World Championships, when I was on the start line, I kind of just took a second to look around and enjoy it because I don’t know how many more of those I’ll get.”

Anchorage’s Lars Arneson, a 2009 graduate of Cook Inlet Academy, finished in the top three for the third time in six men’s appearances. Arneson was at 46:44.

Seward’s Johnson and Pyper Dixon, 32, continued their yearslong duel with Dixon just a place, at 18th, and 26 seconds behind Johnson.

Jordan Theisen, a 2015 graduate of Kenai Central, was 20th in 51:13 in his race debut. Theisen petitioned the race committee to get a spot in this year’s race, but had to finish in the top 10 to earn another one-year exemption next year.

“It was just a brutal race,” he said. “It’s slippery out and everyone else out there is just so seasoned on the mountain. I was really humbled, honestly.”

Theisen said he was confident in his fitness due to his work with the Army National Guard biathlon program, but an early route-finding mishap cost him places.

He would love to find a way back into the race next year.

“This is still what feels like home, the community and everything like that,” he said.

Anchorage’s Taylor Turney finished ninth in 48:45, doing the downhill in 9:54 to break Eric Strabel’s 2013 record of 10:00.

Seward’s Fred Moore, 83, completed his 53rd straight race, crossing the line at 1:49:20.

Junior races

There was talk of Coby Marvin going for Bill Spencer’s record of 24:30, but the muddy conditions made sure that didn’t happen. Marvin, who ran 26:39, can go for a third straight boys victory and the record in his final junior race next year.

“If the Lord wants me to get it, it’ll be drier,” Marvin said of the record. “Bill’s record stands another year. I’d like to get it, but it’s kinda cool he’s had it for so long.”

Soldotna’s Jacob Strausbaugh was the top Kenai Peninsula finisher in the boys race, taking 14th in 34:26.

After winning the climb to the top last year, then losing the lead on the way down, Tania Boonstra dominated the uphill this year to almost assure victory.

Boonstra was 22:31 on the uphill, while recent Kenai Central graduate Jayna Boonstra was next at 25:02 and 2022 champ Rose Conway of Anchorage was at 25:39.

Tania won at 34:18, while Conway was second at 36:40 and Jayna was seventh at 39:01.

“I was definitely trying to go up fast so I had a little bit of a lead,” said Tania, who has two junior races left.

Seward’s Olive Jordan placed fourth in 38:22.