did anyone watch the women’s race? Watching the coverage the announcers focused on what they thought were the leading two women until near the finish there was a third women shown to be leading those two and won the race.
Both the announcers were surprised and after the finish the winner was interviewed and the first question (and second for that matter) were did you come from?
As anyone done this race as I heard that to a certain degree you can determine your own race route?
did anyone watch the women’s race? Watching the coverage the announcers focused on what they thought were the leading two women until near the finish there was a third women shown to be leading those two and won the race.
Both the announcers were surprised and after the finish the winner was interviewed and the first question (and second for that matter) were did you come from?
As anyone done this race as I heard that to a certain degree you can determine your own race route?
My guess would be that the guys announcing in Seward were challenged by the screen they were viewing. The eventual winner showed up at times further up the mountain, but the camera feeds kept jumping around so it was hard to know where each participant was on the mountain. In the background on the initial descent you could see a participant closing fast on second place, but the camera feed pulled away before they came into focus.
Because one participant was running the race for his 50th straight time and he is known for wearing fluorescent pink shorts a lot of other competitors wore pink to celebrate his accomplishment. So when viewing quick glimpses of participants it was easy to mix them up if in pink.
I believe any route up or down is allowed as long as you round the top marker. Typically everyone follows the same course except that area at the bottom where there are routes up/down the creek gully and cliff or through the trees/roots or a combo. Some of this was mentioned in the men’s race a few times when the camera was following descending participants through the lower trees and some would turn right while others went straight.
I’ve done the route with my friends. I would never want to race it. I’d die.
They have both placed top 10x multiple times and live in AK.
My understanding is that the start of the race is on a specific trail. The road start is like the start of a MTB or CX race, as people jockey for position. (The multiple wave starts help make it sane for normal people)
You do have to take certain lines up the mountain. The lines you take are out of the way of all the scree fields you run down.
It’s not a wide trail, but there is room to pass for almost the whole way up. In some spots it’s extremely easy to pass, others, not so much.
The way down is a bit of a choose your own adventure.
The top you have one option. But it’s so wide, it does feel like you have different options.
As the poster above mentioned, the bottom has many different routes. They are not the same terrain.
Truly racing down the bottom portion of any of those routes would be terrifying. But there was one route. (I can’t remember the name) that I didn’t even want to scoot down on my butt. Let alone race it.
I didn’t watch this years race. But I have watched in the past and misplaced my friends and their position (when they didn’t have on pink shorts) It’s just a wild race and it can be hard to keep order if there are any passes not seen on screen.
Alaskaman is in the bay right below it. Worth the trip if you get a chance.