Post 5: Seward, Alaska

Start Time:
10 am

Location:

Seward Post 5 begins their part of the largest Alaskan Independence Day celebration each year in Seward Alaska with the 92nd running of the Mount Marathon Race!   the fun begins on 5th and Jefferson! 

Agenda:

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

The post participates in the grand celebration with the ALR and our resident Coast Guard crew leading the parade.  Throughout the day the post opens it's doors to all visitors that have come to celebrate our independence!  Beginning at 10 am we have the grills ready to go and begin the grilling.  The Auxiliary provides ice cream floats and sodas.  This year's projected heat is going to bring out literally thousands to this tiny coastal town in Alaska!

Hundreds of runners run, climb and crawl their way to the top of Mount Marathon for the coveted title of winner of this race.  This race originated with a bar bet between "two guys walking into a bar..." Over drinks, they began arguing about whether or not Lowell Mountain towering over the town could be climbed and descended in less than one hour.  Impossible was the dubious commentary.

A wager was made and a race was held on july 4th 1915.  The winning racer completed the challenge in one hour and two minutes, forcing the optimistic "sourdough" to buy drinks for the entire crowd.

Word of the famous run and wager quickly spread and the evnt grew in popularity over the years.  Lowell Mountain become known as Mount Marathon, making it one of the only mountains in the world to be named after a race.  

There are a few footraces older than Mount Marathon, including the Boston marathon.  The Seward race is believd to be the oldest mountain race in the United States.

It appears the old soudough was right, to climb to the peak and back under an hour isn't that impossible at all!