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Christy Marvin glanced at her watch when she crested Crow Pass early Saturday morning and received inspiring information — she had another shot at Nancy Pease's revered race record in the annual backcountry marathon.
Marvin covered the race's first four miles, which climb 2,000 feet in elevation, in 37 minutes, 18 seconds. That was roughly 90 seconds faster than she hit the Pass in 2014, when she won her Crow Pass debut, came within 24 seconds of Pease's standard and delivered the second-fastest women's time in race history.
"And I didn't feel like I was hurting,'' Marvin said. "I thought, 'All right, it's going to be a good day.' ''
[Bees, bears and a bull moose all part of the Crow Pass race experience]
And indeed it was — just not a record day.
Marvin, slowed by slick footing from recent rains and by luscious vegetation that shrouded technical, single-track portions of the trail from near Girdwood to the Eagle River Nature Center, easily won her third consecutive title.
The 35-year-old, stay-at-home mom of three young boys in Palmer clocked 3:29:32, the fifth-fastest time in race history. She owns three of the seven fastest times in the race's 33-year history.
The other four fastest times belong to Pease, who won the race a record nine times and whose race-record 3:26:20 has stood since 1990. That was the year Pease and her friend, four-time men's champion Bill Spencer, tied for the overall title.
[Photos from the 2016 Crow Pass Crossing]
[Scott Patterson pounds the Crow Pass men's field]
Pease and Marvin are the only women in race history to finish in less than 3:30:00.
Marvin became the fourth woman to win at least three straight titles. Pease won six consecutive crowns (1985-89), and four-time champ Kjerstin Lastufka (1996-98) and Kiersten Lippman (2011-13) each won three straight.
Marvin said vegetation draping over single-track sections of the trail was so high and thick she literally employed a swimmer's breast-stroke motion to aid her vision of the trail. That was necessary because the single-track is littered with raised rocks, tree roots and mini potholes — Marvin called them "landmines'' — that can easily cause even the most agile runner to stumble or, worse, go splat.
Marvin said she passed six men in the second half of the race after each one took a tumble.
"It was by far and away the most overgrown of any time I've run it,'' Marvin said. "It's out of your control. You just can't afford to go down on those rocks.''
[Check out coverage of Christy Marvin's 2015 win at Crow Pass]
Although racers agreed recent rains made footing perilous, the women's field nonetheless produced a record six women who finished in less than four hours. The previous women's record for the most sub-four finishers was five in 2011, and only four times in race history have four or more women eclipsed the four-hour barrier in the same year.
National champion nordic skier Caitlin Patterson, 26, of Anchorage, earned second place in 3:44:23, an improvement of nearly 18 minutes over her race debut in 2011, when she finished sixth.
Katie Krehlik, 26, a former UAA runner, seized Rookie of the Year honors with her third-place finish in 3:44:39.
Denali Strabel, another rookie, clocked 3:52:11 to place fourth; rookie Ann Spencer took fifth in 3:56:28; and Clare Cook bagged sixth in 3:56:38, lopping off nearly 34 minutes from her 2015 time.
Patterson said she stuck with Marvin for about two-thirds of the climb to the Pass before thinking it prudent to dial down her pace.
"It was, 'Oh, this pace is comfortable,' then, 'Oh, this hurts a little bit,' '' Patterson said.
Still, Patterson, who like many racers endured stings from bees or wasps, had ample incentive to get to the finish line quickly, and not just to gain a personal record and a high finish.
Patterson's younger brother, Scott, a national champion nordic skier who won his fourth men's Crow Pass title, furnished her transportation, and he needed to get back to Girdwood by 1 p.m. to be in a wedding.
"If I didn't get here by four hours,'' Caitlin said, "I was going to miss my ride.''
Krehlik, who made her marathon debut with a runner-up finish at the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks in September, was thrilled with third place, just 16 seconds behind Patterson.
“I wasn’t expecting anything,’’ she said.
Krehlik glimpsed Patterson going up the final hill to the finish, but the order of finish was set.
“Coming up this hill, the hardest part of the race, someone said, ‘C’mon, she’s right there, you got her,’ ‘’ Krehlik said. “I thought, ‘There’s no way I’m going to catch her.’ ‘’
Marvin, meanwhile, never had another woman near her after she topped the Pass and began the descent into Eagle River Valley.
She often ran in the company of men, who literally became comrades in arms when it came time halfway through the race to ford the rushing, bone-chilling waters of Eagle River and negotiate the slippery, uneven footing of the riverbed.
The 5-foot-7, 115-pound Marvin said she asked Craig Taylor and Erik Johnson if she could link arms with them on the river crossing. Their aid proved essential when the rain-soaked river, which reached Marvin’s belly button, swept her feet from beneath her. Taylor and Johnson held her tight and were able to help her regain her footing.
“I would have been swimming down the river,’’ Marvin said. “A very cold, and very scary, swim.’’
Crow Pass Crossing
(Approximate distance: 22.5 miles)
1) Christy Marvin 3:29:32.6, 2) Caitlin Patterson 3:44:23.9, 3) Katie Krehlik 3:44:39.4, 4) Denali Strabel 3:52:11.8, 5) Ann Spencer 3:56:28.9, 6) Clare Cook 3:56:38.1, 7) Annie Liotta 4:03:55.7, 8) Shawn McTaggart 4:07:31.7, 9) Emily Evans 4:11:04.9, 10) Rachael Posey 4:15:30.8, 11) Kate Fitzgerald 4:18:11.9, 12) Christi Schmitz 4:19:33.2, 13) Annie Connelly 4:25:23.8, 14) Mariah Graham 4:27:25.7, 15) Jane Boer 4:29:17.6, 16) Sarah Johanson 4:35:30.3, 17) Katie Green 4:36:32.8, 18) Hannah Booher 4:39:19.0, 19) Jennifer Benna 4:40:28.7, 20) Danielle Gerik 4:43:10.5, 21) Tammy Weaver 4:51:36.7, 22) Laura McDonough 4:58:57.4, 23) Susan Casey 5:00:08.5, 24) Kimberly Riggs 5:06:50.9, 25) Justine Reese 5:09:00.8, 26) Amie Wu 5:14:24.2, 27) Kristina Storlie 5:21:59.3, 28) Leah Legate 5:28:18.2, 29) Elizabeth Knapp 5:30:27.6, 30) Cynthia Shidner 5:51:19.7, 31) Michelle Hollander 5:54:44.3.