Bouyed by encouragement and advice from the reigning Mount Marathon champion, Laura Brosius of Fairbanks conquered a trail she had never stepped foot on until Saturday to win the 26th edition of the Crow Pass Crossing.
She became the first woman to break four hours since 2004 and the third in nine years, finishing in 3 hours, 57 minutes, 31.5 seconds.
Brosius was almost seven minutes ahead of defending champion Eeva Latosuo, who was second in 4:04:20.8, but more than a half-hour off race legend Nancy Pease's 1990 record run of 3:26:20.
Rookie winners aren't a rarity at Crow Pass, but victories by runners completely unfamiliar with the marathon-length wilderness trail are.
"I got lucky," Brosius said with a laugh. "I had gotten pretty detailed trail reports from friends who had a lot of advice."
One of those friends is Matias Saari, the Fairbanks man who won Mount Marathon earlier this month in Seward. "He has a lot of confidence in me. He pushes me," Brosius said.
And he provided tips on what to expect and how to navigate certain parts of the trail. He urged her not to worry if she wasn't the first to reach Eagle River, and to be aggressive if she was in the lead.
The information helped Brosius defy conventional wisdom, which says experience on the trail is what makes a Crow Pass champion and that people who have never been on the trail shouldn't enter the race.
"That's what the race director said, essentially," Brosius said.
Undaunted, the 24-year-old prevailed by using the speed that put her on the track and cross country teams at the University of Michigan, and motor that made her last year's Equinox Marathon champion, and the knowledge of trail running she's developing in Fairbanks, where she's a graduate student in biology at UAF.
Not that her race was a breeze.
A couple bees stung her along the way. And she panicked a little after taking a couple wrong turns, including one that allowed Latosuo to claim the lead.
Brosius found her way back to the trail, regained control and opened up a comfortable margin over Latosuo, but in the final couple miles her novice status played havoc with her head.
"I had no idea where the finish was. I had no idea how far I had to go," she said.
Even when the rugged trail gave way to gravel, signalling the end was near, Brosius didn't know how near it was. There are no mile-markers on Crow Pass, nor is there a marked trail, aid stations or volunteers pointing the way when the trail is obscured by dense vegetation or someone picks the wrong route.
"Mentally it was pretty arduous," Brosius said. "There wasn't a proverbial wall like you hit in a marathon, but there was a mental wall where I was ready for it to end and I just had to whimper and keep going."
Abby Rideout of Anchorage, in the race for the second time, said her past experience probably helped trim about 12 minutes from her previous time. She placed third in 4:05:24.7.
"I knew the trail a lot better, especially the last six miles. It all looks the same but if you know the landmarks, it makes a difference mentally," she said. "You know where you are."
Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.
2009 Crow Pass Crossing
Approximately 24 miles
1) Laura Brosius 3:57:31.5, 2) Eeva Latosuo 4:04:20.8, 3) Abby Rideout 4:05:24.7, 4) Amy Schenck 4:11:39.3, 5) Alisa Kincaid 4:12:39.6, 6) Paula Lee Hope 4:12:50.2 7) Chrissy May 4:14:25.3, 8) Jamie Blythe Wood 4:23:01.3, 9) Amy Koehn 4:25:09.7, 10) Laura McDonough 4:27:22.0 11) Amanda Compton 4:28:31.1, 12) Helen Cortes Burns 4:32:41.5, 13) Amber McDonough 4:37:07.0, 14) Meaghan Kuklok 4:37:14.9, 15) Shelly Schwenn 4:37:49.7, 16) Ellyn Brown 4:38:32.3, 17) Sherrie Soltis 4:40:36.7, 18) Cassie Smith 4:40:40.3, 19) Dorothy Shearn 4:41:32.6, 20) Susan Casey 4:44:10.7, 21) Letta Stokes 4:44:54.9, 22) Jody Oyen 4:48:05.2, 23) Keri Koger 4:49:54.6, 24) Emily Grossman 4:52:01.8, 25) Lara Hildreth 4:52:57.7, 26) Krystal Muller-Stubblefield 4:53:54.0, 27) Kjerstin Lastufka 4:54:08.3, 28) Rachel Skime 5:05:32.3, 29) Erika Eaton 5:08:17.5, 30) Heidi Conway 5:11:50.3, 31) Sue Sears 5:12:24.0, 32) Heather Bell 5:23:44.6, 33) Jennifer Payne 5:27:44.4, 34) Karen Williams 5:28:55.4, 35) Misty Pekar 5:30:09.7, 36) Darinda Congdon 5:30:38.9, 37) Wendy Shaw 5:33:16.8, 38) Jody Kamrath 5:53:05.1.
By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com