RENEE’S LAST RUN: Wasilla women honor deceased friend with epic climb

SEWARD — Excitement and nervousness run high on Mount Marathon every year, but two Wasilla women were feeling more than most this Fourth of July.

In the five months since the deaths of Wasilla woman Renee Millard and her 10-year-old son, Dean, climbing mountains has been more than a physical struggle for friends Amber Hays and Natalie Cadieux, who often drew encouragement from Millard.

Mount Marathon and the race up and down it in particular, they said, was one peak they avoided until this past weekend.

“Her last words (to me) were, I’ll get you to do it with me someday,” Cadieux said through tears in downtown Seward on Monday.

Little had she known Millard’s promise would come true only after her death.

Moving mountains

Not long after Millard’s cremation, her husband, Alvin Millard, approached Cadieux and Hays with the idea of spreading his wife’s ashes around all her favorite mountains — including Mount Marathon, on the Fourth of July, with thousands of people watching.

“I was like, ‘hell no,’” Hays said, not wanting to brave the 3,022-foot peak without her key motivator.

Millard conquered Mount Marathon four times, seeing her fastest finish last year with a time of 1 hour, 17 minutes, 32 seconds. She placed highest in 2014, when she finished 78th out of 264 women.

Hays said Millard coached her from the couch to the starting line in 2013, letting the trail running veteran drag her up Lazy Mountain in Palmer just about every weekend in the months leading up to the race. But by the time they made it to Seward on July 4, Hays doubted she could accomplish the feat for which she had trained.

“People like me don’t run mountains,” she said, referencing her 6-foot height. “I was looking around thinking, ‘I don’t belong here,’ I was a road racer.”

However, completing the epic climb had been “a bucket list thing” for some time, Hays said, and Millard pushed her on.

It wasn’t exactly fun — “It’s a pretty brutal race,” Hays said — but she and Millard were proud finishers that year.

“It’s pretty rough being here without her,” Hays said before the 2016 race. “She was on my right-hand side, like, my encourager.”

Cadieux said she, too, drew strength from the extroverted Millard.

“She liked to race, but I’m not a racer,” Cadieux said. “I hike at five in the morning so I don’t have to run into people.”

Making it happen

Ultimately, the two surviving women decided they couldn’t deny Alvin Millard his request, and petitioned the Mount Marathon race committee to allow them to enter the 2016 event.

Since Hays had gone more than one year without racing, and Cadieux had never won the lottery to gain entry into the race, they wouldn’t have been able to compete without auctioning in — spending $200 to $4,500 for two of 10 slots — or filing a petition.

Though rumors of people having spread the ashes of their loved ones on the mountain before circulated throughout Seward last weekend, Seward Chamber of Commerce Event Coordinator GeNeil Flaherty said the race committee had never known of such a practice.

“All of the eight people at the committee meeting said they had never had anybody request this before,” she said.

As the committee debated, Hays thought of bailing out, but when she and Cadieux got the OK — Hays and Cadieux would each wear one bib for themselves and one for Millard — Hays accepted her fate.

“I didn’t wanna blow it,” she said.

Never again?

When July rolled around, Hays again had misgivings about the race, having been unable to make it up the mountain without crying, she said. Once again, though, the committee let the women tailor the race to their needs, granting Hays permission to head up the mountain before the start of the women’s race, alone. Cadieux would run the race as normal, meet Hays at the top, then wait for her at the bottom and cross the finish line together.

“They have been so kind and caring toward us,” Hays said of the committee.

Hays did not receive an official time in the race, but that never mattered, she said. What did matter was the fact that she was able to carry some of Millard’s and her son’s ashes — in her sports bra — to the top of the mountain.

“She’ll appreciate that,” Hays said, smiling and sniffling.

Meanwhile, Cadieux’s pre-race anxiety had skyrocketed Monday morning, but she was determined to put those feelings in a box — for hers, and Millard’s sake.

“She’d be pissed if I were over here falling apart,” Cadieux said, chuckling. “I hope she thinks this is hilarious.”

Cadieux finished her rookie race in 1:21:14 this year, placing 130th out of 287 women before running back up the road to meet Hays, hand-in-hand with Millard’s husband, a few minutes later.

After cooling down with ice packs and wet washcloths, Hays and Cadieux lingered in the finish area grinning for photos with friends. They had done what they set out to do, but Hays, at least, was not looking for a repeat performance.

“I never wanna do this again,” she said. “I’ll hike it every year with my friends that do it, but I have way too much emotionally tied up into this race.”

“Maybe someday,” though, Hays said, she’d consider it.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.

CORRECTION: This story formerly reported in the lede that Hays and Cadieux were from Palmer. They both live in Wasilla.