Women’s: Rhodes Rides Momentum As Race Favorite
By MATIAS SAARI
Mount Marathon Race Director
When 20-year-old Klaire Rhodes first secured an auction bib on the eve of the 2018 Mount Marathon Race, she was still relatively inexperienced and placed 26th.
The next year she improved to 12th. Then she cracked the Top 5 podium each year from 2021-23 — but never came closer than two minutes to claiming the oldest and most notorious mountain running race in North America.
At the time, Rhodes’ best results were still coming in ultra- and mid-distance racing — including qualifying for the 2023 World Trail Running Championships in Austria, where she placed 21st.
So it’s understandable that race pundits didn’t peg her as the Mount Marathon favorite in 2024, considering that a Palmer trio that had gone 1-2-3 the previous year were all back along with two-time champ Hannah Lafleur and standout runner/skier Kendall Kramer of Fairbanks.
Rhodes proved them wrong. She and Kramer dropped everyone else on the 3,000-foot climb to the turnaround point and then Rhodes shed Kramer on the perilous descent and became just the fourth woman in history to run faster than 50 minutes.
Rhodes’ time of 49 minutes, 49 seconds now trails only record-holder Allie McLaughlin of Colorado, Emelie Forsberg of Sweden and Allie Ostrander, a professional runner originally from Kenai.
“It was probably the most special result of my running career,” Rhodes told the Anchorage Daily News.
Rhodes, who runs for new Mount Marathon sponsor The North Face, won’t be underestimated in 2025.
Rhodes is having a strong season, and in April placed third at the Gorge Waterfalls 100K (her debut at the 62-mile distance) in Oregon. That result qualified her again for September’s World Trail Running Championships in Spain. She also race the Broken Arrow Skyrace 46K in California on June 21 (finishing an uncharacteristic ***) and has a 50K in Switzerland in July, so hasn’t really been targeting Mount Marathon in her training.
“But I am running and hiking with a lot of vert(ical gain),” she said. “I think fitness is fitness and I have the course experience from the past six years to be able to run a confident race.”
It’s now fair to call Rhodes the favorite among a field that remarkably returns 27 of the top 30; the only top 10 racer missing is a pregnant Lafleur (fourth place in 2024). The top 22 all broke the one-hour mark last year, shattering the record of 15 from 2022.
Even with her busy race calendar, Rhodes can’t pass up the spectacle of Mount Marathon.
“Getting the win last year, I felt a sense of relief knowing I could take a year off if I wanted to. When registration came around though, I never considered for even a moment that I wouldn’t show up!” Rhodes said. “There’s no better way to spend the 4th of July than in Seward! I’ve had both good days and bad days at this race, but have yet to feel anything but love for everything Mount Marathon is!”
If Rhodes is to repeat, she will have to earn it. Kramer, runner-up in 2024, is back with proven uphill chops; she could contend for the title if she speeds up on the downhill (or builds a big lead on the uphill).
“I definitely maximize uphill for risk mitigation on the downhill,” said Kramer, a member of the US Ski Team with Winter Olympic aspirations.
And while her downhill in 2024 took 14:59 (compared to 13:22 for Rhodes), Kramer does see a potential path to victory.
“If I’m far enough ahead or have a gap on the uphill, I am comfortable enough on the downhill now that I can maintain my place,” said Kramer, who won the Bird Ridge Hill Climb on June 15 — ahead of Rhodes — and then ran an exceptionally fast Midnight Sun Run 10K of 34:** on June 21.
Then there’s the Palmer trio:
- Christy Marvin is a three-time champ who has finished top five in all 11 of her Mount Marathon races. Now 44, she has been hampered by injuries in recent years but appears in good form after winning the Government Peak Up-Down race on June 7.
- Denali Foldager-Strabel, who grew up in Seward, won the junior girls race three times, holds the women’s fastest downhill time (11:27) and has seven top-five women’s finishes (but no victories yet).
- Meg Inokuma, now 45, set the 40-49 age-group record in 2024 of 51:59 while placing third.
Top newcomers include Kalie McCrystal, an accomplished Skyrunner, and Katarina Kuba, a talented ski mountaineer. Both hail from Squamish, British Columbia.
“Both Kalie and Katerina possess high levels of proficiency in technical terrain,” said Jessie McCauley, another racer from Squamish. “(They) have the aerobic engines and the skills necessary to take on MMR.”
Novie McCabe, a Nordic skiing Olympian, looks to improve on her eighth place from 2022.
This year’s logo contest winner is no slouch on the mountain, either. Katey Houser of Palmer, who currently skis at Montana State University, is back to defend her 10th place finish from 2024.
Sheryl Loan’s age 60-69 record of 1:06:01 is safe for at least another year after Gail Taylor, now 60, withdrew from this year’s race due to injury. Taylor set a new 50-59 age-group record of 58:44 in 2024.
On the longevity front, Ellyn Brown of Anchorage and Patti Foldager are going for their 42nd finishes and Yereth Rosen aims for #33.
The non-binary division, implemented last year, returns champion Zoe Dohring. They will be joined by Linnea Dohring of Anchorage and Ace Wilder of Tucson, Ariz. The trio will participate in the women’s event but have separate results in the non-binary division.
The women’s race starts with the first wave at 11:05 a.m. in downtown Seward. Waves 2 and 3 follow at 11:08 a.m. and 11:11 a.m., respectively.