Santa Barbara ultra runner Jeffrey Stern finished in the top 50 at the grueling Mount Marathon Race in Seward, Alaska on Wednesday.
Stern, 34, covered the 5k up-and-down-the-mountain course in 57 minutes, 41 seconds for 49th place out of 229 in his debut. He was 13th out of 62 entries in the Men’s 30-39 age group.
Rain made the course slick, especially in the area covered by trees. Stern ran to the top of the mountain in 44.47 seconds and finished the downhill in 13:04.
David Norris, a professional Nordic skier and the course record holder, won his third overall men’s title in 43:27. The Anchorage resident did the up-hill portion in 31:54 and blazed down hill in 11:33. Hannah Lafleur of Seward was the women’s winner in 51:24 (39:40 and 11:44).
This was the 93rd edition of the race. Runners started in waves on the street in downtown Seward and raced up the mountain that has an average slope steepness of about 34 degrees. The vertical is about 2,675 feet in just 0.9 miles.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.