Running the second-fastest time in race history, Scott Patterson claimed his third Crow Pass Crossing championship in four years Saturday.
The 23-year-old Anchorage man turned the marathon-length wilderness run -- one of Alaska's most iconic races -- into a time trial.
Patterson shed his pursuers early, forging a two-minute lead over defending champion Allan Spangler on the 2,100-foot climb up Crow Pass that marks the beginning of the race.
He finished in 2 hours, 56 minutes, 12 seconds. The only faster time is the 2:54:44 race record set by Juneau's Geoff Roes in 2010.
Patterson won by more than three minutes, a margin that in no way diminishes the accomplishment by Spangler, the runner-up. Spangler clocked 2:59:23, the fifth fastest time in the 32-year-old race.
Crow Pass is a rugged trail that many hikers take two or three days to complete. Besides the big ascent at the start, there's a river crossing at the midpoint and untold hazards and challenges between the start near Girdwood and the finish at the Eagle River Nature Center.
Until Saturday, only two people had finished the race in less than three hours -- Roes and two-time champion Eric Strabel.
"There's only four of us now," said Spangler, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer. "Scott was the third and now I'm the fourth."
Ideal conditions made for a fast race. The trail was dry, the Eagle River water level was mellow and temperatures were fairly low for the frontrunners, who finished well before noon.
Third-place A.J. Schirack trimmed eight minutes off his personal best with a time of 3:04:47 that ranks as the 11th fastest in race history. Seventh-place Lyon Kopsack, 19, threatened the 19-and-under age-group record with a 3:14:28 that ranks second to Max Treinen's 3:13:15 record in 2008. Finishing one spot ahead of Kopsack was 48-year-old Harlow Robinson, a two-time champ whose time of 3:13:27 was more than 10 minutes faster than his effort a year ago.
None of them saw much of Patterson, who races for the Alaska Pacific University ski team and works part-time as a mechanical engineer. Spangler said he spotted Patterson coming down the pass but didn't see him again until he finished.
"Scott's an amazing athlete," Spangler said. "I knew he would be a great climber, but I thought, 'Hopefully I can reel him in at the river.'
"I was getting the craziest splits. I'd hear '45 seconds,' then 'Three minutes' and then '30 seconds.' The point is, I'm losing."
Patterson's swift ascent of Crow Pass is a tribute to his many years in cross-country skiing.
He was one of the nation's top junior racers while competing for South High and the Alaska Winter Stars, he was an All-American at the University of Vermont and now he's part of a strong men's team at Alaska Pacific University.
"At the start I didn't feel all that great but I pushed the uphill because that's my strength," Patterson said. "I was hoping someone could go with me, but that didn't really happen."
Despite the lack of competition, Patterson kept pushing, spurred by the desire to challenge Roes' record and lingering disappointment from his victory in 2013, when he missed breaking the three-hour barrier by less than 45 seconds.
"I definitely wanted to beat the record, but getting under three hours was really critical," he said.
Despite his comfortable lead, Patterson never played it safe on the hazardous trail -- an approach that's a key to success in races like Crow Pass, Mount Marathon and Alaska's other extreme running races.
"You've gotta be willing to fall," he said.
You've also gotta be willing to get up and keep going after you fall. Though Patterson had a fall-free race Saturday, he's had two bad accidents in the last nine months that may have sidelined less resilient or motivated athletes.
He had a truly scary Halloween last year. He was skiing down a hill behind APU teammate Erik Bjornsen when Bjornsen crashed and broke one of his skis. The broken ski impaled Patterson in the thigh, near his femoral artery.
"Three inches wide and three inches deep," he said of the gash. During surgery that same day, pieces of the carbon fiber ski were extracted from his leg.
Five days later, Patterson was back in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism -- a blood clot in his lung. He was hospitalized for three days and couldn't do much in the way of training for weeks after that.
"I walked around the block for about a month," he said.
He came back strong and was able to post some top-10 finishes at the U.S. cross-country ski championships this winter. But his training took another hit in late May when he broke three ribs while roller-skiing. His pole went into a crack in the road and whiplashed him to the ground, he said.
He came back from that too, and was able to join his APU teammates for an on-snow training camp earlier this month at Eagle Glacier. Now he's a three-time Crow Pass Crossing champion who is eagerly looking forward to another ski season.
"The setbacks make you want to do it more," Patterson said. "When you get back to racing, it's so enjoyable. It really keeps you going."
Crow Pass Crossing
23 miles (approximately)
Men's results
1) Scott Patterson 2:56:12.9; 2) Allan Spangler 2:59:23.4; 3) AJ Schirack 3:04:47.1; 4) Kenneth Brewer 3:09:42.1; 5) Cody Priest 3:10:11.8; 6) Harlow Robinson 3:13:27.8; 7) Lyon Kopsack 3:14:28.9; 8) Forrest Mahlen 3:25:01.1; 9) Willie Stoll 3:25:29.1; 10) Tyson Warner 3:26:50.4; 11) Sam Tilly 3:29:55.0; 12) Colin Wolfe 3:30:44.2; 13) Keegan Rankin 3:31:02.0; 14) Ben Spiess 3:33:15.5; 15) Joseph Nyholm 3:35:26.2; 16) Miles Knotek 3:35:58.1; 17) Mike Monterusso 3:37:38.3; 18) Steve Lee 3:38:47.2; 19) Levi Younger 3:39:18.7; 20) Sam Severin 3:40:31.2; 21) Garth Schulz 3:43:51.6; 22) Alexander Hone 3:44:58.9; 23) Jim McDonough 3:47:28.1; 24) Lance Kopsack 3:47:39.9; 25) Soren Wuerth 3:49:33.8; 26) John Weddleton 3:52:58.5; 27) Jon Clark 3:53:30.0; 28) Brian Pautzke 3:57:02.2; 29) Thomas Wells 3:57:16.6; 30) Roan Hall 3:57:20.0; 31) Scott Gage 3:57:23.0; 32) David Apperson 3:58:14.9; 33) Tony Slatonbarker 3:58:42.3; 34) Jonathan Burgess 3:58:46.7; 35) Liam McMahon 3:59:27.7; 36) John Scott 4:03:16.1; 37) Daniel Myer 4:03:18.6; 38) Ethan Ross 4:04:43.4; 39) Michael Vander Lugt 4:05:09.6; 40) Aaron Ostrovsky 4:05:30.7; 41) Matt Bonney 4:11:31.2; 42) Matthew Anderson 4:11:46.5; 43) Kevin Knotek 4:12:23.3; 44) Andrew Dougherty 4:13:23.3; 45) Jeremy Weber 4:13:25.5; 46) William Timmons 4:14:26.6; 47) Chris Wood 4:15:02.5; 48) Jason Walsh 4:16:38.4; 49) Jack Ginter 4:17:28.7; 50) Mike Wahlig ) 4:19:36.1; 51) Darren Hull 4:20:23.5; 52) Chester Gilmore 4:21:55.9; 53) Mark Brady 4:22:02.4; 54) Thomas Nenahlo 4:22:16.3; 55) Derek Nottingham 4:26:44.7; 56) Michael Michener 4:27:01.8; 57) Mark Hansen 4:27:48.7; 58) Rick Hansen 4:29:07.2; 59) Timothy Carlson 4:29:31.0; 60) Wes Hoskins 4:32:11.9; 61) Jeremy Weaver 4:32:23.9; 62) Justin Hickel 4:34:03.3; 63) Marc Johnson 4:34:07.7; 64) Gavin Kentch 4:35:24.6; 65) Douglas Ketterer 4:36:23.1; 66) Kimball Forrest 4:38:29.4; 67) Daniel Virgin 4:38:56.1; 68) Maks Zemtsov 4:39:05.9; 69) Ted Stille 4:39:58.7; 70) Joel Brandt 4:40:15.3; 71) Evan Patteron 4:40:26.5; 72) Robb Kulin 4:42:20.8; 73) Andy Shidner 4:50:16.2; 74) Matthew Shidner 4:50:17.2; 75) Benjamin Stolen 4:50:18.4; 76) Braun Kopsack 4:51:10.4; 77) Jon Edwards 4:54:58.8; 78) Tom Paynter 4:55:11.7; 79) Billy Yang 4:55:20.3; 80) Sean Casey 4:55:33.1; 81) Sean Zumwalt 4:57:18.4; 82) Martin Byrne 4:57:19.5; 83) Tom Hepler 4:57:42.3; 84) Christopher Walker 5:00:59.2; 85) Jose Gross 5:02:38.7; 86) Justin Smole 5:08:04.4; 87) Karl Bruening 5:10:41.3; 88) Rich Stromberg 5:16:17.5; 89) Jordan Bancroft 5:19:41.0; 90) Barclay Roeder 5:22:18.3; 91) Aaron Christie 5:24:24.3; 92) Dorian Gross 5:25:10.4; 93) Ricky Pico 5:26:21.2; 94) Jared Kern 5:27:29.3; 95) Alan Smith 5:30:14.8; 96) Evan Steinhauser 5:40:56.1; 97) Doyle Woody 5:46:25.6; 98) Roger Kemppel 5:50:13.3; 99; Max Kullberg 5:57:13.2; 100) Bjorn Sveinbjornsson 5:57:14.0; 101) Bruce Sherry 5:57:14.9; 102) Dustin Glazier 5:57:47.8.
Top 10 times (all time)
1. Geoff Roes 2:54:44 2010
2. Scott Patterson 2:56:12 2015
3. Geoff Roes 2:57:11 2009
4. Eric Strabel 2:58:30 2009
5. Allan Spangler 2:59:23 2015
6. Eric Strabel 2:59:41 2010
7. Geoff Roes 3:00:28 2011
8. Scott Patterson 3:00:44 2013
9. Allan Spangler 3:01:45 2014
10. Eric Strabel 3:02:14 2011