After a year off because of the pandemic, Mount Marathon will return next week with a new presenting sponsor and a smaller crowd of runners.
More than 20% of the 1,100 racers entered in the 93rd running of Seward’s famous mountain race chose to defer their entries, race director Matias Saari said Wednesday.
About 320 men, 280 women and 260 juniors are expected to race next Wednesday, he said. Capacity is 375 for the men’s and women’s races and 300 for the junior race.
Among this year’s entries are five racers sponsored by Salomon, the shoe manufacturer which earlier this year signed a three-year deal to be Mount Marathon’s presenting sponsor — a first for the race. Saari would not say how much the deal is worth.
Salomon’s connection with Mount Marathon dates back to 2013, when Salomon-sponsored runner Rickey Gates of Colorado entered the race and placed second. He’s been back four times and has shared his love for the race with runners worldwide.
Heading the Salomon contingent this year is Montana racer Dakota Jones, who on Sunday set a record in the 15-mile Juneau Ridge Run. Other Salomon runners include Service High graduate Taryn Hunt-Smith of Anchorage, Darren Thomas of Nevada, Christian Gering of Nevada and Jeffrey Stern of California.
“It should be healthy competition,” Saari said. “We’ve embraced all the out-of-state racers whether they have credentials or not. I’m sure they’ll want to do well and represent, but I don’t see it as an Us versus Them situation.”
Neither does men’s record-holder David Norris of Anchorage, who welcomes the added competition.
“It should be good. Hopefully everyone’s in good shape,” said Norris, who recently smashed the record at Bird Ridge at the annual Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb. “I don’t think there’s any extra motivation necessarily. It just adds an excitement.”
The Salomon runners didn’t take away any bibs from Alaska runners, Saari said — a noteworthy point, given how difficult it is to gain entry in Mount Marathon. Bibs for the Salomon-sponsored runners don’t count against the race-capacity limits, he said.
Earlier this year racers were given the option to defer their entries to next year because of COVID-19 concerns, the date change or anything else, and many took advantage of the offer.
“About 250 out of 1,100 took the deferral,” Saari said.
The deferrals were granted this winter, after the race was moved from July 4 to July 7 in an attempt to lessen the crush of holiday visitors this weekend in Seward. The move was made when COVID-19 numbers were still high, and Saari thinks race officials made the right call.
“That decision was made with a full-on pandemic. ... I don’t have any regrets about that decision,” he said. “We don’t consider COVID is over. We still have mitigations in place, and there’s a reason for that — half of the state is unvaccinated, and we’re having a big gathering.”
Among the mitigation plans:
— Racers will start in waves of 30 to 50, with two minutes separating waves in the men’s and women’s races and one minute separating waves in the junior race. The men’s race and junior race will have seven waves and the women’s race will have six.
— The finish chute will extend a block further than usual, and racers will be urged not to linger at the finish line as they often do. “We will be mother-henning people along,” Saari said.
— No indoor facilities will be used. Runners will pick up bibs downtown at a lot on 4th and Washington Street and no big awards ceremony will be held. Additionally, the traditional bib auction — usually held the night before the race at the high school — turned into an online auction held earlier this month.
Prices often hit four figures at the in-person auction — one year, a bib sold for $4,500 but the 20 bibs in the online auction sold at prices ranging from $300 to $800.
“People got a bargain,” Saari said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified what state Jeffrey Stern is from.