Alaska’s Mount Marathon Race

If you are searching for a new challenge in your running training, the Alaskans have got the perfect event for you.

While some people train for marathons in major cities, pounding the pavement in search of a better time over 26.2 miles, others take on more extreme conditions. One of those is the Mount Marathon race in Seward.

Each year on July 4 runners from around the globe arrive in Alaska to take part in the second oldest mountain foot race in the world. Although the name of the race might suggest it is a long-distance slog, the course is more challenging for its ascent and descent than horizontal distance.

From the middle of Seward, competitors run half a mile to the bottom of Mount Marathon before scrambling 2,900 vertical feet upward. From here, the danger begins as they hurtle back down in what runners call a “controlled fall” over sharp scree fields and crags.

If that sounds dangerous, it’s because it is. Plenty of people make it to the finish line bloodied and bruised, and the event has seen various deaths in its 87 editions to date. In 2012, a runner named Michael LeMaitre disappeared, never to be seen again.

The disappearance is one of many cautionary tales that involve broken bones and lung-busting exhaustion, but that doesn’t stop runners coming back year after year to compete in what many Alaskans see as their Olympics.

You can apply for entry to next year’s race starting Jan. 1, 2017, with first timers likely to be entered into a lottery.