Mt. Marathon and the Mountain Marathon

After two nights sleeping on wheels, we were anxious to get to Seward and back to Sir Tentalot, who we were (shockingly?) starting to miss. Sleeping in the school bus was better than the Blue Avenger, but only marginally. We wanted sleeping bags! Cookfires! Thermarests! Luckily, this—along with the most epic of Independence Day celebrations—was exactly what we found in Seward.

Seward is, like Homer, a small community at the end of the road. It is on the eastern side of the Kenai Peninsula. While both towns are situated right on the ocean, Seward’s landscape differs greatly from Homer’s in that it is surrounded by mountains. In fact, the mountains go directly into town. Mt. Marathon is a ½ mile from the center of town, and it is the site of Seward’s #1 attraction: the annual 4th of July Mountain Marathon. While not being an actual marathon, this race is actually as incredible as it sounds. Decades ago, a guy from Seward (drunk in a local bar, of course) bet his friend that he could run up Mt. Marathon (and back to the bar) in less than an hour. A tradition was born, and the record time is now somewhere in the 45 minute range. Obviously, we had decided early in planning for the road trip that we had to be in Seward for this spectacle. Virtually every Alaskan we’ve met along the way has confirmed it as a July 4th must-do.

We arrived just in time for the men’s race, and picked out an excellent vantage point—we could see a lot of the trail, as well as the peak. The men came in a huge pack, and made their way up the base in a winding line that resembled a crowd of hunchbacked ants. Their speed at this point barely qualified as speedwalking—the trail was just that steep. This was pretty amusing to watch, but the real fun came in the descent: the racers were basically rolling down the mountain, covered in mud, while rocks bounced dangerously close to their heads and kicked up enormous amounts of dust. The steepest chute was followed by a flat straightaway—we saw several people fall just trying to slow down. (Watching people fall down is always entertaining).

To be honest—in all the amusement—it was a little unnerving. I felt panicked at times, convinced that someone would get seriously injured (not an irrational fear—there was even an ambulance parked at the base). It was that sick fascination kind of spectatorship—like NASCAR or the rodeo. But I needn’t have worried. No one was hurt—and a few racers even performed fancy jumps and spins on the steepest part (show offs) and it was all very exciting.

After enjoying the race, we stopped back in Seward’s center just for a minute to bid farewell to our new friend Zack and to watch Hobo Jim (the “troubadour of Alaska”) play a few tunes at a bar while Lil’ DD waited outside. The town had a whole streetfair going o, but Girdwood pretty much streetfaired us out, so we bought groceries and headed to our campsite, where we had our 4th halibut dinner in 5 days. It’s still delicious! We’ll see how long that lasts.