Squamish man places second in Alaska's Mount Marathon Race

Jessie McAuley is the second Canadian to ever place in the gruelling event.

A Squamish trail runner has secured himself as one of the top mountain athletes in North America, placing second of 364 finishers at this year's Mount Marathon Race in Seward, Alaska, with a time of 43:54 and pace of 13:18. The outcome makes McAuley only the second Canadian ever to place in the race, first organized in 1915 and billed as the "toughest 5K on Earth." Held each year over the July 4 weekend, the course covers nearly 3,000 feet of elevation gain in five kilometres (3.1 miles), sending runners scrambling up a steep, rocky mountain face behind downtown Seward before they turn around and go at a break neck speed back down through loose shale.

McAuley, an Arc'teryx-sponsored athlete, has had his eyes on the race since watching the livestream as a teenager. This was his fourth time running it, and the first time he'd raced it in the rain—a condition the Squamish local was well-suited for. "The course is notorious for slippery, muddy conditions if it rains, and I was just curious to experience that," McAuley said.

"Coming from Squamish, where it rained so much in the winter, having a bad weather day could actually work pretty well to my advantage—and I think it did. I felt fairly relaxed going into it, honestly, and was quite excited about the gnarly conditions." McAuley finished just shy of his coach, David Norris of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, who won the race outright for the seventh year in a row.

The pair have trained together for two years. "He's so dominant at Mount Marathon, it's quite insane," McAuley said. "It was nice this year to be less than a minute behind David, whereas other years he's put two or three minutes into all of us."

The last Canadian to place second was fellow Squamish athlete Nick Elson, in 2016. "It felt special to be right up there with him, because he's such a legend in the trail and mountain running community—and just to put Squamish on the map a little bit," McAuley said. "I think where we live really lends itself well to training for really rugged, hard races like this."

While he’s seeing incredible success as a trail runner, his athletic career didn’t start here. Growing up with two parents who worked in the outdoors sector, he raced downhill mountain bikes from about age nine or 10 until he was 18. He's also a frequent mountaineer, ski tourer and climber, which he said helps him cross-train.

"I've got a lot of my background as a downhill mountain bike racer (makes me) comfortable choosing lines," he said. "Those skills have transferred over to more technical trail running really well. A lot of it is also just leg strength.

You're pushing as hard as you can for 30 to 35 minutes on the uphill, and then you basically just immediately turn around and slam your legs downhill as fast as you can." To manage pre-race nerves, McAuley said he keeps busy. "The reality is, leading up to a race like that, you've done all the prep, so there's not a whole lot more to stress about," he said.

"It's good not to just sit around stressing about it, because I think that does more damage than people realize." McAuley signed with Arc'teryx nearly two years ago, a sponsorship he said has taken financial pressure off his racing. "It's hard to fund these race seasons on your own," he said.

"It definitely takes some stress off your back when you can put that same energy into training and recovering." His next major goal is the Trofeo Kima, a 50K race in Italy, known for its technical, high-altitude terrain, on Aug. 22. McAuley encourages anyone curious about the sport to start with local races and work their way up, and to consider entering the Mount Marathon lottery even if it seems intimidating.

"I often tell runners that they should enter the lottery and sign up for it, even if it's not their type of race, just because it is such a unique experience," he said. "I think a lot of people would surprise themselves—and it's good to challenge yourself that way sometimes." Words missing in article?

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