The 2026 Mount Marathon Race registration opens at 8 a.m. on Sunday March 1 and closes at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31!
There are two registration options: One for those who have Priority Status and one for those who must enter the lottery.
If you are unsure of your status, scan the priority list or use the search function HERE to see if you have Priority Status.
You can also view these 2025 age group results (WOMEN & MEN) which show who placed in the Top 50 Percent of their Age Group for priority qualification (those who raced on one-year bibs are NOT eligible for priority).
If you HAVE Priority status (even if you did not race in 2025) you will receive an email at 8 a.m. on March 1 with a link inviting you to register. The entry fee remains $100 for adults and $50 for juniors.
SKIP-A-YEAR and Pregnancy Deferrals — If you used your one-time Skip-A-Year in 2025 or received a pregnancy deferral, you have priority in 2026 but still must register and pay the entry fee to become an entrant.
Instruction for LOTTERY REGISTRATION
If you do NOT have Priority Status, you must enter the Lottery. On March 1 at 8 a.m., you can begin the lottery process HERE. Lottery registration remains open through March 31.
The lottery process involves two mandatory steps. Step 1) Join the Lottery Group (adults $20, juniors $15). Step 2)(You MUST complete this step or you will not be entered in the lottery) Register for the lottery and preauthorize payment for your race entry; your credit card will only be charged IF you win the lottery.
The cost to enter the lottery remains $20 for adults and $15 for juniors. WINNERS of the lottery — which will be conducted in early April — will then automatically be charged $80 for adults or $35 for juniors to complete their full registration fee.
Read more about the lottery process and lottery ODDS from 2022-25 HERE
The 98th running of the Mount Marathon Race will be Saturday, July 4 in Seward.
The Mount Marathon Race Committee and race organizers have made the following changes for the 2026 season:
1) The Skip-A-Year option has been eliminated for the 2026 race.
Skip-A-Year, the no-questions-asked deferral that runners could use once in their racing lifetime, has been eliminated beginning in 2026.
Approved Skip-A-Years from 2025 will still be honored and those individuals will receive a priority invitation on March 1 for 2026 registration.
The Mount Marathon Race Committee voted to eliminate Skip-A-Year as it was deemed too great a benefit for priority racers at the expense of lottery hopefuls. Lottery odds are therefore expected to rise beginning in 2027 given that more than 50 additional lottery spots will be available compared to when Skip-A-Year was in effect.
This rule change has no impact on racer’s eligibility for 10-Year Status.
In 2026 and beyond, entrants with extenuating circumstances who are unable to race may still petition the race committee the following year and make their case for why they should be granted a bib.
2) Team Competition Added
Mount Marathon will once again have a team competition beginning in 2026.
Teams may include individuals from all race divisions: women, men, boys, girls, Golden Racer and non-binary. Each team can have as many members as they wish with the top five performances counting toward their team score. Scoring will match cross country running (1 point for first place, 2 for 2nd place, etc …) with the lowest team score winning.
Prizes will be given for the top team, the best team name, the team with the most members, and more.
Team registration will open once the 2026 roster is published in early April and additional registration details will be publicized then.
3) Race From the Base for ages 7-10 Added
A new event, Race From the Base, will debut in 2026 for 7-to-10-year-olds.
The event will start around 9:10 a.m. once all participants in the boys’ and girls’ races have cleared the Upper Lowell Canyon Road gate.
The Race From the Base will then run downhill about 2/3 of a mile from the gate to the finish line on Fourth Avenue.
Ribbons will be given to the top 6 boys and girls but times will not be recorded.
The event is designed to give 7- and 8-year-olds an opportunity to compete after the minimum age for juniors was raised to 9 in 2024. It will also provide an option for 9- and 10-year-olds who lose the junior lottery or are not yet ready for the full junior event.
Registration and bib distribution will be on race day only from 8-9 a.m. at the picnic table near the Lowell Canyon Road gate.
A pending page on the Mount Marathon website will provide additional details.
Congratulations Mount Marathoners!
We’ve compiled a bunch of media links that recognize your accomplishments at the 97th Mount Marathon Race:
PHOTOS – all offer free digital downloads!
– Mick Dees – Official MMR Photographer – Album HERE!
– Brikru Photography – Albums HERE!
– Anna Engel (Nordic Insights) – Album HERE
– Eric Youngblood – Scroll down HERE
* These photographers are giving you photos; please credit the photographer when using on social media or elsewhere.
VIDEOS
– Brady Rufner compilation HERE (3 min+)
– Robert Arnold Mt. Marathon Highlights HERE (23 min+)
LIVESTREAM/TV
– Our LIVESTREAM was the best yet! 30,000 views & counting! Links HERE (Watch the races or check out the separate Finish Cam anytime!)
– Alaska’s News Source KTUU Ch. 2 coverage HERE (*they will also rebroadcast our Livestream Saturday, July 12 from 8:30-10:30 a.m. – anyone can watch on regular TV without streaming!)
ARTICLES (some require subscription)
– Anchorage Daily News HERE (photos & articles)
– Alaska Sports Report HERE (scroll down for race stories)
– Peninsula Clarion HERE
– Nordic Insights HERE
– The Seward Folly HERE
SOCIAL MEDIA
– MMR Facebook HERE
– MMR Facebook Runners Group HERE (post photo album links here if we missed any!)
– MMR Instagram – @mountmarathonrace
Racers of the 97th Mount Marathon Race — Final Info!
Please read the important information below!
July 3 SCHEDULE, Seward High School, 2100 Swetman Ave.
5-8 p.m. — Bib Pickup – Bring ID; Juniors must be accompanied by parent
5-8 p.m. — Pasta Feed, $15 – benefits the Seward HS athletic booster club
6 p.m. — Auction & Raffle – 14 total auction spots awarded and 1 raffle spot drawn
6:45 p.m. — Safety meeting – First-timers must sign off that they’ve completed the full course in training (Parents must sign for juniors); bib pick-up for first-timers immediately after.
July 4 Race START TIMES Juniors — 9 a.m. (boys and girls start together) Women — Wave 1 at 11:05 a.m., Wave 2 at 11:08 a.m., Wave 3 at 11:11 a.m. Men — Wave 1 at 2:05 p.m., Wave 2 at 2:08 p.m., Wave 3 at 2:11 p.m.
NOTE: As usual, VETERAN racers may pick up their bibs on Race Day July4 beginning at 8 a.m. at Race Headquarters in the Flamingo Lounge parking lot, 208 Fourth Ave.; bring ID.
BIB PICKUP RACER BAG ITEMS — Includes artistic can of water from Kuuk Water, coozie from Summit View Lodge, drink mix packet from Coca-Cola Alaska, a Mount Marathon trading card (new!), 2 Mount Marathon stickers, hot & cold packs (limited number) from Pioneer Peak Orthopedic and coupons from Flamingo Lounge (free cup of chowder near finish line!), Resurrection Medical Care (vitamin IV) and Advanced Physical Therapy!
ROSTERS
See our updated rosters HERE Participant Tracking — Go HERE Live Results — Go HERE July 4
SPECTATORS and FINISH PEN
Spectator Info HERE. Please let your supporters know that for safety reasons the pen is for Racers and Officials ONLY and this will be enforced.
SHOWERS
Showers are available FOR RACERS ONLY from 1-5 p.m. July 4 at the AVTEC Student Center, 519 4th Ave.
AWARDS CEREMONY at AVTEC (with Door Prize drawing for all!)
6 p.m. AVTEC Gymnasium, 519 4th Ave, Seward AK 99664
FINISH PEN PODIUM AWARDS
Brief Top 5 overall awards on the grandstand just north of the finish line for Juniors at 10 a.m., Women at 12:15 p.m. and Men at 3:05 p.m.
PARKING
Parking may be easiest to find a few blocks from the race course. Note that Fourth Avenue from Washington to Jefferson Streets will be CLOSED beginning at 2 p.m. July 3 for course set-up.
NO DRONES OR DOGS
Flying drones along all race trails and throughout downtown Seward is prohibited. Also please keep dogs off the race course and in the crowded downtown area.
LIVESTREAM BROADCAST & JUMBOTRON
The Livestream Broadcast will be cool! Find all links HERE. There will also be separate Finish Line Feeds showing all finishers. And new this year is a giant Jumbotron near the finish line showing the Livestream!Have a memorable experience,
The Mount Marathon Race Committee
Juniors: Flagstad seeks first win, Jordan out with illness
By MATIAS SAARI
Mount Marathon Race Director
Vebjorn Flagstad has won plenty of major running and skiing races, but one title has thus far eluded him: the Mount Marathon Junior Boys race.
Flagstad, the runner-up the last two years, seeks to change that in his last junior race before aging up to the men’s event in 2026.
“I am definitely hungry for a win,” said Flagstad, whose father Trond still owns family bragging rights with two wins in the men’s race.
Vebjorn Flagstad at the base of mountain in 2024. Photo by Brikru Photography.
Flagstad, now 17, ran an exceptionally fast time of 25 minutes, 52 seconds in 2024 while wearing a red USA singlet. The only problem: Palmer’s Coby Marvin, holder of the second-fastest time in junior history, was also entered. Unlike 2023, when Marvin got a big gap on the climb to the junior turnaround pole, Flagstad hung close to Marvin the entire way last year but still finished five seconds behind.
Marvin won’t be a factor this year: he’s 18 years old now and making his men’s race debut.
“Not having Coby (in 2025) will make it interesting since I will most likely have to lead and pace myself,” said Flagstad, who focused on track training this spring and won a state championship in the 3200-meter run.
If any returning racers are going to challenge Flagstad, they’ll likely have to speed up several minutes from their 2024 races.
Also entered are Cedar Ruckel of Indian (third in 28:22 last year), Blaze Rubeo of Wasilla (fourth in 28:24 last year) and Raven Spangler of Palmer (fourth in 2023).
One top newcomer is Nathan Vanderlugt, a talented Nordic skier and mountain runner now living at Fort Wainwright near Fairbanks. Vanderlugt raised some eyebrows at the 2024 Bird Ridge Hill Climb when he placed 10th overall as a 15-year-old ahead of many seasoned Mount Marathon adult racers.
Missing from the roster is Robbie Annett, who was fifth last year. He accomplished a rare feat at the 2025 state high school Division 2 championships by taking the 800-, 1600- and 3200-meter races.
Junior boys compete together in one large wave of about 300 runs starting at 9 a.m. on July 4 in downtown Seward.
In the junior girls race, it’s a good thing for hometown girl Olive Jordan that the race isn’t only uphill.
Junior boys and girls compete together. Photo by Mick Dees
Last year Jordan, then 14 years old, reached the turnaround point in fifth place with a seemingly large deficit of 68 seconds. But Jordan rocketed down the mountain in 8 minutes, 41 seconds to take the win in 33:59, which was 23 seconds clear of Palmer’s Wren Spangler.
“I was surprised (about coming back to win), but I do have the local advantage,” Jordan said. “So I have a pretty fast downhill and my town cheering me on. … One reason I’m fast at the downhill is I do downhill skiing which is sort of the same, and helps me not be scared of falling or going too fast.”
Being from Seward can be beneficial but also has a drawback for Jordan. “It does make me super nervous,” she said. “I feel like I have a lot of pressure but it’s also a race I do for fun!”
(UPDATE June 27) The above section was written before Jordan announced she will not race due to illness (pneumonia).
With all but Jordan returning from the top 12 runners in 2024, who will win is anybody’s guess.
The tiny, blond-haired Spangler is a crowd favorite. As an 11-year-old in 2023 she took third. Spangler climbed to runner-up in 2024 so perhaps she’s now ready for the top step of the podium, even though she has five years of junior eligibility remaining.
Tania Boonstra of Kenai, the 2023 girls champion, will race for the last time as a junior alongside Hannah Bodkin, the Eagle River native who led at midway last year.
And don’t sleep on another 17-year-old, the 2022 champion Rosie Conway of Anchorage. After three straight top-3 finishes from 2021-23, Conway had a down year (for her) by taking seventh last year. But she has regained good form in 2025 and won the 1600-meter run at the Alaska Division 1 track and field championship in May.
“This year is going to be very competitive,” Jordan said. “I know some girls really want that first-place spot because it’s their last year or they were close to first (in the past).”
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.
Klaire Rhodes navigates technical rock. Photo by Brikru Photography
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.
Meg Inokuma in 2024. Photo by Brikru Photography.
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.
Ellyn Brown. Photo by Brikru Photography.
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.
