Mount Marathon News

RV & Tent Camping at Seward HS July 1-6!

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Need a place to park your RV or pitch your tent for the Mount Marathon Race & Fourth of July Festival?
You’re in luck as Seward High School is again offering family-friendly accommodations from July 1-6! The cost is $40/night for tents and $80/night for RVs, with a two-night minimum.
Details and reservation links here:

Mark the Date: Online Auction Set For Monday, April 28

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The Online Auction

Three men’s and three women’s race slots will be available in a live online auction via Zoom on Monday, April 28, 2025.
There is no auction for the juniors race.
The Online Auction gives Alaskans or out-of-staters additional planning time (compared to the July 3 auction) because they lock in a spot more than two months before race day.
In 2024, the winning online auction bids ranged from $1,500-$3,000.
Proceeds from the auction are used to help fund the Mount Marathon Race.

2025 Details

When: 5:30 p.m. Alaska Time on Monday, April 28
Number of available spots: 3 men’s PRIORITY spots and 3 women’s PRIORITY spots
Minimum bid: $200 for men and $200 for women
Minimum bid increments: $100
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83790066571?pwd=oEwqepSweZR0pAMzEvsC1L8jE2FpYE.1

Auction rules and instructions:

– Each participant must be set up to join a Zoom meeting (those lacking the technology or knowledge should join a friend’s or family member’s account).
– Participants are RECOMMENDED to join on a desktop computer or laptop with an Internet plan as opposed to a mobile phone that uses a data plan. The auction is better viewed on a computer. Also, being perfectly synched with the auctioneer’s voice for bidding purposes is more likely achieved on a computer.
– The Zoom site will open at 5 p.m. on Monday, April  28 (30 minutes before the auction starts) to allow participants time for testing their technology.
– The actual auction will start at 5:30 p.m. SHARP. The three men’s bibs will be auctioned first followed immediately by the three women’s bibs.
– The Seward Chamber of Commerce is NOT responsible for anyone whose bids fail to come through promptly due to connectivity issues or other technological problems.
– Gallery View will enable participants to see the auctioneer and other contestants.
– Participants will be muted by the auctioneer.
– All bidding must be done through the chat function (test the chat when you join by posting your name and location).
– If the person who intends to race is unable to attend the live auction, another person may bid for them.
– If you win an auction spot, stay on the Zoom! The Seward Chamber Director will direct message you for a phone number and then will call for payment information by credit card.
– Auction winners who have never entered the lottery will receive a registration link so they can added to the MMR database and entered for 2025.
– Auction winners will be Priority entrants in 2025, meaning they can keep priority status for the following year through the Top 50 Percent in Age Group Rule.
– The race director will determine auction winners’ bib and wave assignments based on their credentials.
– Those who fail to win an online auction spot have another chance for entry at the in-person auction at 6 p.m. July 3 at Seward High School. 7 men’s and 7 women’s spots will be auctioned then.

Katey Houser Wins Logo Contest

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Katey Houser is the winner of this year’s logo contest for her hand-drawn design of a downhill racer facing Resurrection Bay.
Houser, 21, is from Palmer and currently attends Montana State University, where she is a member of the cross country ski team.
Houser’s winning entry — which earned her $250 — is the first predominantly red, white and blue design since 2012. It will be printed on the 2025 racer and volunteer t-shirts and on other merchandise and promotional efforts.
Houser has six Mount Marathon finishes — three as a junior and three as a adult — and placed 10th overall in the women’s race in 2024. She’s entered again this year.
Isla Crouse of Kenai placed runner-up.
The Mount Marathon Race Committee, which selected the winner, thanks all 20 artists who took part in the annual contest this year.

2025 Logo Contest Open March 12-April 1!

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Mount Marathon Race 2025 Logo Contest

In addition to their logo being used for all MMR 2025 promotional purposes, the winning designer will receive a $250 cash prize!

How to Enter the Contest

  • Contest opens March 12, 2025
  • Deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, April 1, 2025
  • Winners will be announced in early April via e-mail, mountmarathon.com, and the Seward Chamber of Commerce’s social media channels

For your entry to be reviewed by our selection committee, it must be:

  • Submitted directly to director@mountmarathon.com
  • Submitted in its original source file (a scalable, vector format such as .ai or .eps).
  • Submitted as a high resolution .pdf with 300 dpi or higher.

Logo Requirements

  • Theme: To best convey the unique nature of the Mount Marathon Race, the logo design must include a mountain theme.
  • Language: The design MUST include the following words or phrases:
    • Mount Marathon Race
    • 97th Running
    • Seward, Alaska
    • July 4, July 4th, or Fourth of July AND the year 2025
  • Color: The design may include a maximum of four colors. There are no limitations on the specific colors. The logo must look professional in color and black-and-white.
  • Integrity: Logos cannot contain copyrighted material. Logos must have been created and edited by the contestant(s). Logos may not include images or licensed images that have been previously published. Must be easily reproduced and scalable for large and small formatting.
  • Previous Winners: https://mountmarathon.com/logo-history/

Contest Details

  • One winning logo design will be selected by the Mount Marathon Race Committee.
  • Contestants agree that the Seward Chamber of Commerce may publish their logo and name(s) and may use both for future advertising campaigns and/or marketing materials.
  • Contestants may only submit one logo per contest but are free to apply again in the future.
  • Contestants assign all ownership rights, including all intellectual property rights to the logo, to the Mount Marathon Race and Seward Chamber of Commerce.
  • The Mount Marathon Race Committee and Seward Chamber of Commerce may work with the artist to revise the winning logo as necessary for its intended use.
  • The Mount Marathon Race Committee reserves the right to not select a winner if, in its sole discretion, no suitable entries are received.

Prize

  •  The winning designer will receive $250, a minimum of one race shirt and one volunteer shirt, and bragging rights!

Changes for 2025: Better Website, Increased Entry Fees, No Lottery Weights

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Check out the improved Mount Marathon Race website — it’s re-organized to be more user-friendly!

The primary change: implementation of drop-down menus in the Entry, Race Info, Results and News & History sections. Let us know how you like it and if there are other areas of the website you’d like to see improved.

The Mount Marathon Race Committee and race director have also made several changes for the 2025 race:

  • Increased entry fees — Race registration fees have been raised $15 across the board, bringing the cost to $100 for adults and $50 for juniors (plus the RunSignup registration charge). The increase is necessary to help offset the rising expense of organizing the complex event.
    The Mount Marathon Race fees still compare favorably with other major events in Alaska and elsewhere:
    – Anchorage Mayor’s Marathon – $119; Cirque Series Alyeska — $129; Lost Lake Run (Seward) — $120; Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb (Bird Ridge) — $40; Veins of Gold Mountain Run (Palmer) — $85; Pike’s Peak Marathon (Colorado) — $200-250; Dipsea Race (California) — $115; The Rut Mountain Runs (Montana) – $70-175 depending on distance.
  • Lottery Weights Eliminated — The switch to the new registration platform RunSignup (see news story HERE) can support our lottery, but cannot accommodate one using lottery weights (where runners received an extra “ticket” for every consecutive year of losing the lottery). Therefore, beginning in 2025, everyone entered in the Mount Marathon Lottery will have the same odds and no lottery weights will be used.
    We recognize this change will disappoint some lottery hopefuls. The move is also part of a larger effort to simplify some elements of the race organization, as MMR’s complicated entry structure and many rules has created an extraordinary amount of administrative work and significant programming expense.
    While the elimination of lottery weights removes an advantage that loyal lottery entrants received, the implementation of the Top 50 Percent Age Group rule in 2021 has succeeded in its purpose of creating many additional lottery spots and thus improving lottery odds. Before the rule, lottery odds had dropped to about 3 percent for men and 20 percent for women. Lottery odds the last three years have averaged 42.2 percent for women and 22.7 percent for men. There is certainly hope that those who consistently enter the lottery will get their chance to experience the Mount Marathon Race.
  • Golden Racer Adjustments — To better accommodate Golden Racers, the requirements of having 10 years of experience has been eliminated, making any racer age 70 and above eligible. Also, the Golden Racer cutoff time for the halfway checkpoint (at Junior Race Point) has been increased to 75 minutes (from 60 minutes).

2025 — RunSignup is the new MMR registration platform! And here are Registration Instructions

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The Mount Marathon Race has enlisted the popular registration platform, RunSignup, beginning with the 2025 event.

Priority Registration and Lottery Applications will now both he handled via RunSignup at the following link:

https://runsignup.com/Race/AK/Seward/MountMarathon

The registration period remains March 1-31.
Those with Priority Registration will receive an email on the morning of March 1 with registration instructions.

All others must enter the lottery, which will have a two-step registration process:

Step 1 — Join the Mount Marathon Lottery Group and pay the usual lottery entry fee of $20 for adults or $15 for juniors. This does not yet officially enter you in the lottery.

Step 2 — Register for the lottery by preauthorizing payment of the balance of your full race registration fee; your credit card will only be charged IF you win the lottery. IMPORTANT: You will not be entered in the lottery unless you complete Step 2.

As part of the change, PayPal is no longer the payment platform.

Not sure if you finished if you finished 2024 in the Top 50 perfect of your age group and are therefore potentially eligible for priority registration in 2025?
View the age group results below. (Note that those who raced on a one-year bib —Petition, Earned Entry, Sponsor or Committee’s Choice — are NOT eligible for priority registration).

WOMEN — https://mountmarathon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2024-MMR_Womens-Age-Group.pdf

MEN — https://mountmarathon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2024-MMR_Mens-Age-Group.pdf

Not sure if you have priority 10-year status? Look up your race record here:
https://mountmarathon.com/results/search-race-results/