You can’t really go wrong with a holiday in a tourist town with an awesome competition. I didn’t really understand the Mount Marathon Race because I couldn’t comprehend how they could run up the mountain I was staring at and run back down in 45min… But they do. The women’s and men’s races are the main attractions you want to see and start later in the day. We started the day off trying to find some parking and we were lucky to find a great spot for the day. We took the school bus shuttle to the downtown area. It was amazing weather and really, the best weather we had had in over a week.
This race begins in the town of Seward and they run up the mountain with a 3,022ft elevation gain in approximately 3.1miles with all the terrain a mountain has to offer just to reach the top and run back down. We watched the women’s race first and the fastest time was 49min! The first 5 women made it down in under 56min. About 3hrs later the last of the stragglers were coming into town during the sparse parade they had on the main street. The parade was not the most exciting thing we’ve ever seen by any means and some threw peanuts instead of candy :/ but the littles ended up getting a little bit of candy so that was good enough. After the parade was the men’s race up the mount. You could see all of these dots on the mountain where everyone was but they had a TV that you could watch them racing. The first man made it up and down in 44min! The first 5 men make it down in under 48min. I couldn’t help but notice they all seemed a little lower to the ground but I’m sure they were all average height. There was a man in his late 60’s we saw finish the race and they all just kept coming. It took about 2.5hrs for the last of them but most were finishing within the first 1.5hrs. We enjoyed the food trucks and food stands they had and it was a pleasant day in Seward!
That night at the campsite the littles were enjoying their time in the dirt. Literally, Solomon was laying down in the dirt rolling around but hey… he’s happy and we’re camping :) All of the sudden the two boys were at the top of the hill they were playing on and Solomon decided to run down it! Which led to our toddler mount marathon! It was so funny! Both of them would run up and run down. At first Soly was the only one running while Nathan was scooting more cautiously but they were both running by the end! Solomon flew into a bush one time and barely missed his face meeting a tree root another time. I know Solomon watched the guys on the TV for a little bit and he must of soaked up what they were doing.
That was a nice night sitting around the fire with very happy children playing in the dirt. The next morning it was time to leave for Anchorage. This was the day the rest of the visitors flew home and it was down to us four adults and Solomon to start the drive home. We stayed in a hotel for those 2 nights in Anchorage and were able to rest, work and enjoy the pool with Soly. It was nice to be able to catch up on work after not having any or very spotty cell service for so many days. The fun is not over though, now a new kind of trip begins.