Palmer runner earns 11th top-3 finish in Mount Marathon women's division

With Seward stuffed with people for 97th running of the Mount Marathon Race on Friday, Anchorage’s Klaire Rhodes, 27, got a little unexpected alone time.

Rhodes defended her title in the race up and down the 3,022-foot race point on the mountain by building an unexpected and comfortable lead on the uphill, then running a controlled downhill.

Her time of 50 minutes, 31 seconds, is the seventh fastest in race history. It’s also only a second off the famous 50:30 of Nancy Pease, which set the course record in 1990 and stood all the way until 2015.

Rhodes, who last year became one of four to go under 50 minutes in the race, was expecting a stiff challenge on the uphill from Kendall Kramer and Rosie Fordham, a pair of 23-year-olds fresh off decorated endurance careers for the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Last year, Kramer led Rhodes at the top by running the third fastest uphill time since 2006. Rhodes then won on the downhill.

Kramer also defeated Rhodes this year in the uphill only Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb at Bird Ridge on June 15.

“I expected it to play out similar to last year, with Kendall and maybe Rosie being right with each other,” Rhodes said. “I expected to work together all the way to the top and then get a gap on the downhill.

“I was surprised to find myself alone for a lot of it.”

Rhodes was first to the top in 36:59, 32 seconds off her time from last year as the sun got out from behind the clouds during the climb and set temperatures into the low 60s. Kramer didn’t summit until 38:34, though, giving Rhodes control of the race.

Kramer and Fordham finished ninth and 10th respectively after conservative downhills that left them unscathed for ski training.

With a busy summer of trail racing planned, including September’s World Trail Running Championships in Spain, Rhodes didn’t have to take big risks on the downhill.

“I’m always trying to toe that line and go just fast enough,” she said.

Rhodes knew she couldn’t relax too much with the talented downhill Palmer duo of Christy Marvin, 44, and Denali Strabel, 35, in the field.

Last year, Marvin was limited to biking before the race due to a foot injury and fell out of the top three for the first time in 11 starts.

“This year, I was able to at least hike train,” Marvin said.

Marvin got to the top in third place, then had the top downhill in the field to take second at 51:22.

With her 11th top-three finish, Marvin draws even with Nina Kemppel for the all-time mark. She extended her record to most finishes under 60 minutes to 12, but even more impressive is that all of Marvin’s finishes have been under 54 minutes.

“I was super happy to be back a little closer to my normal form and just to feel strong,” Marvin said. “We had amazing conditions today, so it was super fun to have a fast race.”

Marvin’s time is her second fastest. Her PR is 51:02, run in 2016 during one of her three victories. Marvin also broke the 40-49 age group record of Inokuma, who ran 51:59 last year.

She said one reason for her continued success is the running community in the Matanuska-Susitna valleys. The Valley had three of the top five in the junior boys race, while Meg Inokuma, 45, of Palmer was fourth in the women’s race and Strabel was eighth.

“We have an amazing group of parents and athletes — adult athletes and kid athletes alike,” said Marvin, a mother of three. “Unlike a lot of places, we really like to join together and work as a fun community.”

Inokuma, who hit her fourth top four in four tries at Mount Marathon, said she joked with a friend “that a way to run faster is you have to be in your 40s, have three kids and move to Palmer.”

Strabel, a 2008 graduate of Seward High School, said it’s not only Palmer that’s going fast. She said she heard some runners disappointed at not getting a PR Friday, but said it’s time for some perspective.

Strabel’s eighth place came with a time of 55:14. In her career going back to 2008, she’s had better finishes with times of 1:01:26 and 59:07.

“I could be upset, like, ‘Oh, I used to do better, but I can’t be upset,’” she said. “It’s so amazing to be in women’s running right now.”

There were 21 women that broke an hour. Last year, 22 women broke on hour, snapping the record of 15 from 2022.

Anchorage’s Taylor Deal, 31 and a 2012 graduate of Kenai Central, finished 11th with a PR of 56:51. She has three top 10s with times that are all at least a minute slower than that.

“I think if I’d been top 15 today, I would have been really happy, given how competitive this race has gotten,” Deal said. “I just wanted to push myself all the way up and down, and knew I’d be satisfied if I did that.”

Ellyn Brown, 72, of Anchorage and former champ Patti Foldager, 67, of Hope both finished for a 42nd straight time to extend their record.

The Golden Racer option lets those 70 and over race halfway up the mountain. Margaret Spencer, 71, of Anchorage won in 1:11:50 and also broke the 2018 record of 2:06:16 by Vickey Knudson.

Non-binary runners race in the women’s race but have their own division. Ace Wilder, 38, of Tucson, Arizona, won in 1:12:42 to break the 2024 record of 1:16:01 by Madi Sudweeks.