Valley runners make history in annual Fairbanks event

FAIRBANKS — Cold wind, rain and mud isn’t enough to stop the Marvin couple from making running history, hundreds of miles from home.

The Equinox Marathon hosted 472 marathon and ultramarathon racers and 110 three-person marathon relay teams from all over the United States — and Canada — this past Saturday. In all its 52 years, never has the 26.2-mile race up Ester Dome and back from the University of Alaska campus been completed as quickly as when run by Christy Marvin this year.

She had planned to break the record months ahead of time, she said, but waited until after the race to reveal it, just in case.

“The only way you’re ever going to achieve goals is by setting them,” she said. “I don’t think many people break records by accident.”

Marvin ran the marathon in 3 hours, 17 minutes and 10 seconds this year, just more than a minute faster than the previous record set by Fairbanks runner Susan Faulkner in 2002. Faulkner’s was the longest standing women’s record.

Despite what other racers perceived as “horrible” weather, Marvin claimed it was “really not that bad” and “not ideal, but it could’ve been worse.”

“When I first read the race description about the Equinox Marathon I was prepared for something like the Mat Peak Challenge,” she said. “People said it was ‘really scary’ and you had to be so careful, (but) as soon as I got out there I said, ‘OK, it’s really gnarly if you’re a road racer, but it is nothing if you’re a mountain racer.’”

Like her predecessor, the new record-holder is part of the event’s “Sub 3:45 Club,” with 2014 marking Christy’s third year in the club and her third top-five finish. She became the 14th woman in race history to win multiple championships and the ninth woman to win back-to-back championships.

Her husband Ben finished the marathon in 2:58:03, three minutes behind Matias Saari, Marvin’s longtime friend and rival. Ben missed hopping on the record board for “25 Fastest Men” by just three seconds.

“I don’t think either year I have felt like I had the leg speed I really want,” Marvin said.

But with moose on the loose and a family to feed, he had his reasons for not training as much as other marathoners.

“My falls are usually filled with hunting trips and getting wood and otherwise not paying attention to running,” Marvin said.

Saari may also have had the advantage, however, originating from Fairbanks and having run the race many times. Saari has finished the marathon in less than three hours 10 times, and placed in the top five 13 times. In contrast, this is Marvin’s second time running the Equinox Marathon.

Still, it’s a friendly competition.

“He and I just run and chat for the first 13 or 14 miles,” Marvin said, of Saari. “I key off him for the pace.”

Not only that, but the runners inspire each other, too.

“Matias is 44, so that gives me hope that I have another 10 good years of running ahead of me,” Marvin said.

There was more than one local runner vying for a top spot this weekend as

Palmer High School and UAF graduate Cody Priest — “Mr. Consistent,” according to Marvin — finished third, just 12 seconds behind Marvin. Wasilla runner AJ Shirack finished fourth in 3:08:43.

But running fast isn’t the only way to break records. David Johnston, an ultra-runner from Willow, ran just under 90 miles a day to get to the race.

According to his wife and head of the Willow Running Club, Andrea Hambach, Johnston wanted to make the trek from one University of Alaska campus to the other — Anchorage to Fairbanks — and finish with the Equinox Marathon, just to make it that much more epic. Johnston’s friend and fellow runner, Harlow Robinson, encouraged him to complete the feat, Hambach said, and even though Robinson was not able to join him, Johnston decided to do it anyway.

Both Johnston and his wife thought, “wouldn’t that be interesting and fun?” Hambach said.

“He started Monday morning (Sept. 15) at 8 a.m. and finished Friday evening around 6:15, so it took him 4 days, 10 hours and 12 minutes,” she said.

And then he ran the Equinox Marathon in just over 5 hours and 11 minutes the next morning at 8 a.m., in the pouring rain, after running through the same weather all day Friday.

It wasn’t “spitting sideways” on the day of the race like it did five or six years ago, Hambach said, but had to be one of the worst weather days anyone could remember in the history of the race.

Still, many spectators and volunteers lined the trails and roads last weekend, just as they do every year, to cheer runners on or offer water and Gatorade at the aid stations located every two miles along the course. Some — or at least one — like Colony High graduate Allan Spangler, decided not to enter the race, but ended up running 28 miles that day anyway, taking photos and chatting with fellow runners along the way.

After that many miles in any weather — whether it be 350-plus like Johnston, 40 for the ultra-runners, 26.2 for the marathoners, or 8.5 for the relay teams — perhaps a runner deserves a dinner of pizza, salad and beer, as was served at the awards ceremony Saturday evening.

For complete results and other information regarding the Equinox Marathon, visit equinoxmarathon.org.

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

Valley Finishers:

Women’s Marathon

1. Christy Marvin, 3:17:09, Palmer; 18. Jill Aho, 4:22:29, Palmer; 49. Amber Rinella, 4:59:27, Palmer; 50. Cathleen Lee, 4:59:30, Palmer; 54. Natalie Cadieux, 5:04:31, Wasilla

Men’s Marathon

2. Ben Marvin, 2:58:03, Palmer; 3. Cody Priest, 2:58:15, Palmer; 4. AJ Shirack, 3:08:43, Wasilla; 98. Cory Jones, 4:53:37.3, Wasilla; 118. David Johnston, 5:11:23, Willow.

Ultramarathon (40 miles)

6. Lance Kopsack, 6:36:48, Palmer; 9. Kyle Emery, 6:51:37, Wasilla; 10. Tony Covarrubias, 6:53:16, Palmer; 12. Ray Hafen, 7:45:16, Wasilla.