Only a few minutes into the newest video from professional runner Allie Ostrander, entitled “How I Received Mount Marathon — Ten Years In The Making,” it’s clear that the Mount Marathon Race is far more than a race for her.
This Alaskan 5-kilometer race held each Fourth of July partially raised her. It was a household custom that Ostrander joined when she was 1o years previous. She spent one other 10 years returning to this insanely steep mountain path, successful each the junior ladies’s title as a teen, and later the grownup ladies’s title at 20 years previous.
It’s exhausting to think about that many runners may declare the shut, lifelong relationship with a single occasion that Ostrander clearly has with the Mount Marathon Race.
“This race is de facto the foundation of what made me a runner,” she says within the vid. “It additionally modified who I used to be generally.”
For these not within the know, the Mount Marathon Race shouldn’t be truly a marathon. The identify stems from the mountain itself, and 5k is clearly far wanting marathon distance.
However as Ostrander makes clear, the race’s grade of incline is 50 p.c and includes 3,000 ft of elevation achieve. So whereas it’s “solely” a 5k, Ostrander says that finishing this problem undoubtedly seems like a marathon.
Allie Ostrander racing the Mount Marathon Race. Photograph: Allie Ostrander
Ostrander’s joyful voiceover displays her apparent love for the occasion — and finally makes this 20-minute video a pleasure to observe.
“[The Mount Marathon Race] was totally my Tremendous Bowl,” she says. “It was the someday a yr the place I actually bought to let the aggressive juices circulate, race in opposition to the boys, and it all the time prompted me to rise to my finest.”
Nonetheless need extra Ostrander? We don’t blame you. Take a look at iRunFar’s Put up-2015 Mount Marathon Race interview with Ostrander.