3/24/03 - 19th Annual World Mountain Running Troph
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Allison Knox, (907) 263-5194
Jeanette Moores (907) 261-6032
ALASKA’S VETERAN MOUNTAIN RUNNERS JOIN TOGETHER TO ORGANIZE WORLD-CLASS MOUNTAIN RACE
(ANCHORAGE, AK—March 24, 2003) Some of Alaska’s top mountain runners are joining together to organize the 19th Annual World Mountain Running Trophy, to be held on Alaska’s Mount Alyeska Sept. 19-21, 2003. Four-time Mount Marathon winner Brad Precosky, a 2001 U.S. Mountain Running Team member, presented the winning bid at the World Mountain Running Association Congress during the 2001 World Mountain Running Trophy events in Arta Terme, Italy.
In addition to training for the 2003 U.S. Mountain Running Team, Precosky serves as the event director for the 2003 World Mountain Running Trophy and oversees the coordination of the local organizing committee.
“It is a dream for us local mountain runners to bring the Trophy to Alaska for all Alaskans to enjoy. It will be exciting to see the world’s best mountain runners come to Alyeska to participate in the parade of nations and then compete on our local mountain. I am hoping this event will inspire a lot of our young athletes and runners to take up the sport of mountain running more seriously,” said Precosky.
To organize this prestigious event, Precosky has enlisted the help of some of Alaska’s most prominent mountain runners. Overseeing the actual competition, including course set up, marshalling and timing, are Bill Spencer, Sam Young, and Barney Griffith.
Forty-seven-year-old Bill Spencer, a former Olympic cross-country skier, has held the Mount Marathon men’s senior record since the early ’80s and has won the event eight times. He began his mountain running career in 1971 by placing third in the junior race, and in 1973 he set the current junior record. In 1974, he competed for the first time in the senior event and not only took the trophy but broke the existing record. Between 1974 and 1991, he went on to race the mountain 10 more times and take seven wins, one tie, and two second place finishes. He also holds the record for the 26-mile Crow Pass Crossing.
One of the second-place finishes and the tie are attributed to Sam Young, a long-time Seward resident and veteran mountain runner. Now 48, Young found a love for the mountains as a teenager when his family moved to Colorado and he witnessed the Rockies for the first time. After moving to Alaska, he watched his first Mount Marathon race in 1976 and eventually entered the event in 1978 to take 10th place. This led to more mountain runs, including winning Kodiak’s Pillar Mountain race in 1983 and setting the course record in 1984. A record which stood until Marcus Dunbar broke it in 2000.
Young’s first experience racing against Bill Spencer was also in 1983, when Spencer, Tom Besh and other Nordic ski team members would only race the uphill portions and step out due to their training schedules. “This was my first introduction to Bill and Tom in a race,” Young remembers.
In 1984, Young won his first Mount Marathon race by only 12 seconds. “My time of 50:47 was one of the slowest winning times in history,” says Young. But Young was also suffering extreme dehydration during the race and passed out at the finish line. He spent the rest of ’84 and most of ’85 recovering. And 1985 was a big race for Young and the Mount Marathon event.
A lot of hype circulated around Spencer’s return to race Mount Marathon, which he had won previously six times. But Young prevailed. He says he had the race of a lifetime as well as set the current 30-39 age group record. And in 1986, Young and Spencer were so close approaching the finish that they grasped hands and finished in a tie. Also overseeing the World Mountain Running Trophy competition will be Barney Griffith, a long-time training partner of Spencer’s. Griffith actually set Mount Marathon’s junior record in 1974—the same year that Spencer set the men’s senior record.
“Barney and I used to train for mountain runs in the early days by running over Powerline Pass from Indian. Barney could always keep the pace in the training runs, but it wasn’t until he turned 40 that he really caught fire as a competitor,” said Spencer.
Just a few years ago at the age of 42, Griffith beat his own personal time from when he was barely 18 years of age. The next year he again beat his own record at 47:09 and today holds the record for Mount Marathon’s 40-year-old age group.
“Here’s a guy that was training with Bill Spencer more than 20 years ago and today is a training partner with me and pushing my running times. He has held his speed for more than 20 years and that is impressive,” says Precosky.
The 19th Annual World Mountain Running Trophy is being staged for the first time in the United States and only the second time the event will be held outside of Europe. Approximately 400 athletes representing more than 30 nations are expected to compete in four categories: junior men, junior women, senior men, and senior women. For more information about the event or to volunteer, visit www.wmrt2003.org.
