Shine on: New records in annual mountain race

GOVERNMENT PEAK — Eric Strabel and Christy Marvin no longer hold the record times for this annual mountain climb.

In the Alaska Mountain Runner’s Government Peak Climb Saturday, up-and-coming Anchorage mountain runner Jim Shine bested Strabel’s 2014 record of 44 minutes, 20 seconds by almost a minute, for an unofficial finish time of 43:29.

Strabel arrived a little less than two minutes later, followed by Matt Shryock — who set a new record in the 8-mile Turnagain Arm Train Run May 12 — about 18 seconds after that.

“I got lucky,” Shine told a fellow runner after the race.

Shine’s strategy, he said, was to “regulate effort” for the first half of the race, “tuck in behind someone” and let them do the work until they got out of the trees.

But that didn’t go quite according to plan.

“Matt and Eric led the race for the first half and they set a really tough pace, so I wasn’t saving as much energy as I had hoped to,” Shine said.

Still, he managed to push past Shryock and Strabel before reaching the last checkpoint, and sped along the ridge to the finish.

Shine took second to Strabel last year for his first run of the race with a time of 45:15. After that, Shine won the Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb (Bird Ridge) and took fifth in the Mount Marathon race (after buying his way in via the pre-race auction) in 2014.

This year, he set a record in the 8.5-kilometer Kal’s Knoya Ridge Run May 28 — Shryock took third, Strabel fourth — and now he owns the record for Government Peak.

Strabel wasn’t too heartbroken, however. While he does like to claim Palmer as his hometown, he said, he didn’t grow up on the mountain. His parents, whose bed-and-breakfast used to be the starting point for the Government Peak race, moved to that location after Strabel moved to Anchorage, so it doesn’t have as much significance to him as some assume.

“I’m pretty happy with it,” Strabel said, of his race. “I was pretty tired, but it still was not bad at all.”

And he’s been “training really hard for a while now,” he said, “so it’s just a matter of getting my body to (transition from) training well to racing well.”

“It’s taking a little bit more work than I thought,” Strabel said.

On the women’s side, new record holder Najeeby Quinn is finding herself on top of her game at 35, after breaking a years-long hiatus from mountain running last year. Quinn ran the Government Peak race in 2007 and 2008, then came back in 2014 with a finish time of 53:08. Former record holder Christy Marvin beat her with a time of 52:30 that year.

But Marvin tore her plantar fascia in February, and though now recovered, elected to climb the mountain with her oldest son, Coby.

Rather than making Quinn hopeful of the win, however, Marvin’s absence up front disappointed her a little.

“I tend to race better if I have a female with me, right behind me or ahead of me,” Quinn said. “(There’s) just something different about the girls.”

But she settled in with the guys and found a worthy racing companion in young Miles Knotek, who placed 12th in the men’s Mount Marathon race last year, ninth in 2013, and first in the juniors’ race in 2012. He came in 15th at Government Peak on Saturday, finishing 10 seconds behind Quinn.

“It was so helpful just to kinda have him right there, ’cause you tend to kinda get in la-la land if you’re just up on a ridge by yourself,” she said.

And though she said she “started out a little hard” at the beginning of the race, apparently, it was worth it. She beat Marvin’s record by nine seconds, for a finish time of 52:21.

“I’m super happy ’cause I didn’t feel like I raced as hard as I did with Christy last year, and I did break her record today,” Quinn said Saturday.

And she can take credit for introducing Shine to mountain running, he said, as she encouraged her former college teammate to race with her.

“The training is more fun, and (you’re) less likely to get injured because you’re not doing as many miles,” Quinn had told Shine.

And if done right, that training might just earn you a record.

For past results of all Alaska Mountain Runners’ races (including Grand Prix series scores), visit alaskamountainrunners.org/archives.htm.

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

2015 Government Peak Climb

Government Peak Recreation Area

Saturday, June 6

Men – Top 20

1. Jim Shine, 43:29 (new record); 2. Eric Strabel, 45:21; 3. Matt Shryock, 45:39; 4. Kenny Brewer, 46:08; 5. Cody Priest, 48:14; 6. Lyon Kopsack, 48:32; 7. Ben Ward, 49:24; 8. Erik Johnson, 49:55; 9. Michael Kelly, 50:06; 10. Allan Spangler, 50:23; 11. M. Monterusso, 50:32; 12. D. Kane, 50:57; 13. B. Griffith, 51:28; 14. L. Jager, 52:04; 15. M. Knotek, 52:31; 16. F. Mahlen, 52:56; 17. H. Wolfe, 52:58; 18. C. Taylor, 53:03; 19. A. Stavich, 53:05; 20. C. Kirk, 53:08.

Women – Top 20

1. Najeeby Quinn, 52:21; 2. Nancy Pease, 56:20; 3. Sheryl Loan, 58:28; 4. Briana Sullivan, 58:40; 5. Lia Slemons, 1:00:47; 6. Ann Spencer, 1:00:50; 7. Tsaina Mahlen, 1:01:02; 8. Jaime Bronga, 1:02:18; 9. Angela Diberardino, 1:02:36; 10. Katelyn Stearns, 1:02:55; 11. C. Cook, 1:03:19; 12. W. Sailors, 1:03:38; 13. A. Connelly, 1:05:09; 14. J. Barnard, 1:06:27; 15. C. Bennett, 1:06:32; 16. H. Booher, 1:06:49; 17. K. Colburn, 1:06:54; 18. A. Kopsack, 1:07:11; 19. P. Westbrook, 1:07:14; 20. L. Varys, 1:07:16.