It may not be as long as the Equinox Marathon in Fairbanks, but the Eaglecrest Road and Mountain Race shares the same steep climbs and descents as the famed race in the Interior.
Allan Spangler, 30, a newcomer to Juneau with plenty of mountain running experience, has two and a half months of training left before he runs the Fairbanks race. His winning time in the Juneau race Saturday of 1 hour, 7 minutes and 20 seconds showed he’s on the right track.
Spangler’s mile splits of 7:03 could be compared to a dead sprint on flat ground considering the 2,600 feet of elevation gain the racers were faced with. The course started at the bottom of Eaglecrest Road and took runners all the way up to Pittman’s Ridge, before returning back down the service road to the ski area parking lot.
Spangler traded the lead with Joshua Musson on the road portion of the race, but Spangler pulled away once on the ski hill.
“I put a lot of time on him on the climb here,” Spangler said. “But then by the time he got back down he was only like 20 seconds behind me. He really crushed the downhill.”
It was more like a minute behind Spangler that Musson finished, but after running for over an hour, that seemed like much less time to Spangler.
“It’s steep enough that you just have to run it hard,” Spangler said of the downhill. “Whereas if it’s a little steeper, you just get to pick your way through it, but this is just no brakes.”
Several places behind Spangler and Musson was 47-year-old Texan Aidan Vasquez. He’s also new to Juneau, having moved to the capital city less than a year ago. Vasquez’s time of 1:24:09 was good enough for sixth place.
“A lot of these guys are used to running these hills, but not me, I’m from Texas, so it’s all flat man,” Vasquez said.
Vasquez said he “trudged along” to the top of the mountain the best he could before reaping the rewards of the climb.
“Coming down … I could just open up, gravity does most of the work, so as long as you know where you’re putting your feet, you’ll be OK and not end up eating rocks,” he said.
Forty runners wanting to start their weekend off on a milder note decided to do only the first or second half the run.
Hiram Henry, 42, was the first road racer to the finish line, running up 1,200 vertical feet to get there. Henry dashed into the orange cone chute by the Eaglecrest lodge caretaker’s home at 37:32, almost six minutes faster than the next competitor.
Juneau-Douglas High School’s Tim McKenna finished first in the mountain-only course. Like Henry, McKenna finished well ahead of the second place finisher.
Road and Mountain Course (9.5 miles)
Allan Spangler 1:07:21
Joshua Musson 1:08:02
Nate Smith 1:17:59
Justin Dorn 1:21:19
Jesse Stringer 1:22:59
Aidan Vasquez 1:24:09
Ian Andrews 1:25:37
Rob Swanson 1:27:52
Rachel Phelps 1:29:41
John Bursell 1:29:47
David Phillips 1:30:55
Brian Murphy 1:32:46
Jim Ustalewski 1:37:15
Georgi Dobrev 1:38:23
Randy Peterson 1:38:35
Alli Rosen 1:44:34
Darren Booten 1:38:02
Max Rosen 1:38:04
Nina Schwinghammer 1:52:34
Kaitelyn McDonald 2:00:59
Hunter Mallinger 2:00:59
Mark Neidhold 2:01:57
Sheena Gauthier 2:07:20
Ray Dwyer 2:11:40
Road course (5 miles)
Hiram Henry 37:32
Hillary Easter 43:15
Gus Marx 43:25
Charlee Bribbon 45:27
Rob Campbell 45:48
April Rezendes 48:05
Jenna Wiersama 48:08
Jada Kahl 48:25
Neil Kahl 48:52
John Kirk 49:51
Jamie Bursell 50:41
Kimberly Campbell 51:02
Danielle Dunivin 53:56
Jeff Gnass 54:01
Guy Crockroft 54:41
Adam Weed 55:51
Mike McKrill 56:01
Jeanette Lacey Dunn 56:01
Jenny Twito 56:09
Courney Wendel 57:59
George Elgee 58:11
Joann Rieselbach 58:34
Lucrecia Mervine 59:15
Alyssa Hobbs 59:37
Brenda Bowers 1:04:24
Darloa Orbistondo 1:04:34
Breanna Tessier 1:06:16
Lacey Sanders 1:06:17
Mountain Course (4.5 miles)
Tim McKenna 38:58
John Nagel 44:27
Christy Gentemann 49:35
Skylar Tuckwood 50:38
Cindy Tuckwood 52:15
Hilary McCutcheon 55:41
Peter Otsea 55:50
Becca Antonoplos 1:02:44
Lori Crupi 1:04:19
Kathy Coghill 1:07:53
Kana-Grace Harden 1:14:35
Michael Fleischhauer 1:22:42
1 Mile Course
Raina Tuckwood 7:13
Ida Meyer 7:14
Alder Caouette 7:43
Sereya Crupi 8:45
Raiya McCutcheon 8:46
Nancy Jones 10:08
Jet Davis 14:58
Faith Davis 14:59
Myron Davis 14:59
Linda Kruger 16:16
Dina Gregs 16:17
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
