By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Far above the low clouds blanketing the town, mountain runners competed in nearly ideal conditions Saturday in the Alpine Adventure Run on Gavan Hill and Harbor Mountain.
The iconic Sitka summer event attracts athletes from around the country although, as usual, most were locals who turned out to test themselves on a trail that rises more than 2,000 feet above sea level to a mountain ridge.
First-place finisher Devon Calvin said he looks at it more as a personal test than a contest.
“It doesn’t matter whether I’m number one or number ten or last place,” he said after the race. ”I think this race is all about pushing each other really hard to reach our full athletic potential. And I am so very grateful to everyone for pushing each other.”
A U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Sitka Jayhawk helicopter flies over Alipine Adventure Run support team members on the Gavan Hill to Harbor Mountain ridge Saturday. Several members of the Coast Guard took part in the race and worked with Sitka Search and Rescue members at stations along the course. Devon Calvin was the first to finish with a time of 1:12:49. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Calvin crossed the finish line in 1:12:49, five minutes ahead of second place runner Sam Scotchmer, an eight-time Alpine Run winner who finished in 1:17:50. Calvin has run the race before, but this was his first win.
This was the 28th Alpine Run, which was a virtual event last year because of the pandemic.
Devon Calvin passes the alpine hut behind Harbor Mountain in Saturday’s Alpine Adventure Run. Calvin took first place with a commanding five-minute lead. (Sentinel Photo)
Weather conditions for the race were close to perfect Saturday. With high clouds and cool temperatures, runners avoided excessive heat but enjoyed expansive views from the alpine. Climbing the trail’s steep flights of wooden stairs, runners quickly rose above the low cloud layer that hung over downtown Sitka. Along Gavan ridge, rows of mountains to the south rose above the lower cloud layer like airborne islands of rock. As the course rounded the bend near the trail’s alpine hut, Mount Fairweather – an immense and glaciated peak far north of Sitka on the Canadian border – loomed on the horizon.
After the race Calvin said he enjoys the beauty of the route.
“I’m just astounded, always, by the beauty of this area, and this is one of my favorite spots to run,” he said.
On a course that includes a vertical climb of over 2,000 feet, Calvin stressed the importance of resilience.
“This terrain is all about how resilient you can be with all these minor hills and challenging footing – it’s all about being really resilient,” he said, “and recovering, too, after running up really hard or down really hard. So there’s not a lot of pacing per se going on, it’s not like a track race. There are so many opportunities to recover on the downhills, I love that kind of run.”
The 25-year-old runner expressed thanks for the work of the organizers, especially with the challenges posed by the pandemic.
“Huge thanks to the race organizers,” he said. “The amount of tactical logistics-wise is just unsurpassed... Thank you such much Christine (Horan, race director). I had a lot of fun.”
Emily Routon, the first-place women’s finisher, said that by the end of the race, she was focused on simple perseverance.
“I’ve never won it before,” Routon said. “I had nothing left at the end. At the shelter (two-thirds of the way into the course) I felt really, really good and strong and after that I just willed myself to the finish. I just said courage and strength, courage and strength, courage and strength. And I just kept going, the body wanted to shut down but I just maintained.”
Women’s first place runner Emily Routon. (Sentinel photo)
She finished in 1:26:09, taking 11th place overall. For women, the course record is 1:18:11, set by Sitka’s Tasha Folsom in 2014. Sam Scotchmer’s 2013 time of 1:04:03 is still the overall record.
Though she is an active racer, the Alpine Adventure Run is Routon’s favorite local event.
“I was so grateful to get here and see all these people, this is such a community event that brings the whole community together,” Routon said. “I’m so impressed with the way Chris (Horan) figured out a way to make it happen despite all the obstacles. It’s my favorite Sitka event, of all of them. It’s just so fun, it’s a community. I’ve raced with these people for the last 14 years.”
Last month Routon, a teacher at Mt. Edgecumbe High School, set a new record in the 10 kilometer Medvejie Solstice Run.
Routon said she enjoys the climb and variability of the terrain types on the Alpine Run course.
“I love hills, so any race that has hills is an advantage for me,” she said. “I’m a climber, so really my strength is that climb and then I just have to maintain. I have to force myself to just bust it down the hills and I had nothing left at the finish line. My favorite thing about this race is all the different types of terrain. I love the new start because it’s an opportunity to run really, really hard and then on the climb, I actually consider that a recovery. So I just power hike it, I don’t try to run at all.”
While Calvin and Routon are locals, Danelle Ballengee came from Moab, Utah, where she is a trail runner and organizer of the Moab Trail Marathon.
“It’s 115 in Moab and we were looking for a place to escape the heat, so I was searching and found tickets to Sitka for a good price, so we snatched them up,” Ballengee said. “And then I happened to find out that during the time that we were here there was this run. I’ve been running since I was a kid, so I was like, ‘Oh man, this looks great.’ But it was full, so I emailed Christine and asked if I could be put on the wait list.”
Days later, Ballengee was off the waitlist and in the race.
She said there are similarities, but also differences between the Moab Trail Marathon and Sitka’s Alpine Adventure Run.
“It’s similar but it’s more beautiful here, just the lush green of the mountains. And in the Rockies you don’t have the view of the sea... Moab’s different, it’s beautiful also. It’s got canyons and red rock.”
In Sitka with her husband and two sons for only six days, Ballengee said she’s already planning to come back with her family.
“I already told the boys that as soon as they’re fifteen they’re going to come up and do it,” she said. Balengee finished 32rd out of 82 runners in 1:45:25.
While the course was entirely novel for some runners, for local businessman Chris McGraw, the Gavan-Harbor loop is a weekly route. He finished seventh at 1:22:14.
“This is my eighth year,” McGraw said. “It’s good, I run this route a lot, I do it once a week typically in the summer. Usually it’s a nice casual pace, and it’s nice to actually push it and see how fast I can actually do it.”
McGraw also runs ultramarathons, including 100 kilometer races.
He said the steep climb up countless flights of stairs on Gavan Hill stands out among other races.
“The climb on Gavan Hill is the toughest climb I’ve ever done in any race,” he said. “I did a race around Mont Blanc in France. It’s beautiful, but there are switchbacks and it’s a nice, buffed-out trail.”
For McGraw, the overcast and cool conditions on Saturday were ideal.
“My favorite type of weather running up here, no wind, high overcast. It gets sunny, it gets too hot,” he said. Like others, he expressed gratitude to race organizer Chris Horan for coordinating the event.
The beauty of the course struck Josefin Nilsson, who came down from Anchorage to run the race.
“It’s kind of surreal, you kind of stop thinking and look around and you’re like, ‘Oh it’s nice, enjoy this.’” she said. “Even though your legs hurt and your lungs are burning, you kind of enjoy it a little bit.”
Nilsson finished in 1:29:03 to take 14th place, and second place for women.
She traveled to Sitka with Kieffer Christianson to run the race.
“I have some family down here, my aunt and uncle live down here, my dad is from here,” Christianson said. “So we come down here every once in a while and have hiked it, but have never run it that fast. I was trying to remember how much uphill was left. It was a pretty awesome event… It’s kind of like there are a couple races within the race.” He took 10th place in 1:25:10.
Robin Avery flew in from Massachusetts for the Alpine Run. She likened Gavan Hill to the Alps.
“Unbelievable! You just can’t take in enough scenery,” she said. “It was just, oh my god, you feel like you’re in the Alps,” she said.
Local runner Ian Carson said he had run the Gavan-Harbor Mountain loop before, but this was his first time in the Alpine Run.
“I thought it was beautiful, the view is always distracting, which is perfect,” he said. “It’s super fun, it’s a good challenge because you have to pace yourself.”
Race director Christine Horan canceled the traditional Alpine Run last year because of COVID, but instead went to a virtual format, offering runners a months-long window in which to complete the route and submit times.
The race T-shirts from 2020 were used this year, with last year’s date crossed out and the new date – July 17, 2021 – stamped on.
This year, Horan stressed that a multitude of precautions were in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“There’s no group photo, you see. There’s not a huge Subway sandwich,” she said. “The safety of the food, including the wrapping of the oranges took extra effort, but hey, it kept it safe.”
At the start line, runners wore masks until the moment the race began. Once on the trail, physical distancing was the default. Masks went back on at the finish line.
Horan noted that some out-of-town runners canceled due to Sitka’s current coronavirus surge, but she didn’t lose local runners.
“Locally, people have felt that they were being kept safe, so I didn’t lose runners. The locals knew all the precautions I would take,” she said.
The race was coordinated with members of the Sitka Search and Rescue team and the U.S. Coast Guard. All told, Horan noted, 21 volunteers helped the race run smoothly. One of Air Station Sitka’s Jayhawk helicopters buzzed the route several times during the run, prepared for an emergency situation that did not occur.
“It felt really good to be back… a lot of people have said that mentally this is important for them,” Horan said. “I think our psyche is as important as our physical being. If we can do it safely, things can still happen.”
The full race results:
1. 1:12:49 Calvin, Devan
2. 1:17:50 Scotchmer, Sam
3. 1:17:52 Sitmann, Braedon
4. 1:18:09 DeLong, Jed
5. 1:19:20 Kennedy, Garland
6. 1:19:30 Routon, Aaron
7. 1:22:14 McGraw, Chris
8. 1:22:16 Elliott, John
9. 1:22:21 House, Lee
10. 1:25:10 Christianson, Kieffer (Anchorage)
11. 1:26:09 Routon, Emily
12. 1:26:48 Carson, Ian
13. 1:28:49 Grutter, Ivan
14. 1:29:03 Nilsson, Josefin (Anchorage)
15. 1:29:40 Welling, Robin
16. 1:32:33 Evans, Logan
17. 1:33:39 Walloch, Anthony
18. 1:35:40 O’Hanlon, Kevan
19. 1:36:32 Taggart, James
20. 1:37:59 Bakkes, Francois
21. 1:38:14 Edwards, Cindy
22. 1:38:21 Oen, Travis (Juneau)
23. 1:39:30 Folsom, Tasha
24. 1:39:39 Baciocco, John
25. 1:39:44 Tirman, Kristina
25. 1:39:44 Tirman, Laura
27. 1:42:42 Deviche, Laurent
28. 1:42:45 Haas, Michael
29. 1:43:22 Metzger, Jacob
30. 1:44:07 Prussian, KK
31. 1:44:35 Holland, Jessica
32. 1:45:25 Ballengee, Danelle (Moab, Utah)
33. 1:45:28 Maloney, Alan (San Diego, Calif.)
34. 1:46:17 Klejka, Jenny
35. 1:47:09 Mullin, Mike
36. 1:47:13 Clare, Lione
37. 1:48:17 Duclos, Nicole
38. 1:49:15 Laffrey, Anna
39. 1:49:51 Hitchcock, Bridget
40. 1:50:04 Homer, Kristen
41. 1:51:12 Dennis, Carly
42. 1:52:13 Damron, Haleigh
43. 1:53:22 Stack, Maia
44. 1:53:57 Burkart, Kevin
45. 1:54:17 Thomson, Rachel
46. 1:55:41 Johnson, Chris
47. 1:56:06 Wilson, Ryan
48. 1:56:14 Braaten, David
48. 1:56:14 Braaten, Lauren
50. 1:56:17 Eckstein, Aaron
50. 1:56:17 Eckstein, Kelly
52. 1:56:22 Roy, Anna
53. 1:56:58 Avery, Robin (Adams, Mass.)
54. 1:57:21 Horan, Charles
55. 1:59:01 Rayon, Mariano (Chulta Vista, Calif.)
56. 1:59:19 Chambers, Amanda
57. 1:59:35 Scotchmer, Kristen
58. 1:59:58 Perensovich, Kayla (San Diego, Calif.)
59. 2:01:24 Sieroslawski, Neal (Palatine, Ill.)
60. 2:02:35 Carson, Marissa
61. 2:03:33 Perensovich, Gary
62. 2:06:07 Klusmeier, Cathryn
63. 2;06:16 Mann, Rebecca (Juneau)
64. 2:07:39 Woodcock, Alex
65. 2:08:02 Gurule, Bernie
66. 2:09:14 Verbaan, Lois
67. 2:10:55 Brown, Penny
68. 2:11:03 Antonio, Lisa
69. 2:11:08 Seavey, Mark
70. 2:11:26 Plotkin, Nicole
71. 2:11:42 Brister, Sarah
72. 2:11:44 McCrehin, Faren
73. 2:13:47 Aiken, Sherry
74. 2:14:02 Seavey, Jamilee
75. 2:14:12 Johansen, Tracy (Mobile, Ala.)
76. 2:14:19 Roberts, Grant
76. 2:14:19 White, Haley
78. 2:21:48 White, David
79. 2:33:42 Webb, Dave (Boerne, Texas)
80. 2:33:59 Valcarcel, Michael (Chula Vista, Calif.)
81. 2:34:54 Lehmann, Don
82. 2:47:30 DeMello, Sean
STEPPING OFF - All masked, runners get underway at the start line of the 28th Alpine Adventure Run, Saturday at St. Gregory’s Catholic Church. The iconic event resumed in person this year after the coronavirus forced the run to shift to a virtual format in 2020. (Photo by Ruth Culp)
