Nicholai Olson wins Anvil Mountain Run

The Anvil Mountain Run started not on the customary Fourth of July, as it has for 48 years, but on the day before.
Organizers, after consulting with racers, decided to race on Friday, July 3 to give everyone the most of the long weekend as many wanted to escape town to spend the holiday at camp.
Nicholai Olson took first place with a time of one hour, 22 minutes and 58 seconds. First place for women and sixth place overall was Anna McPherson, finishing in one hour, 38 minutes, 6 seconds.
On Friday morning, July 3, racers gathered to register in front of City Hall, ready to run the 12.5-mile race to the top of Anvil Mountain and back to town. The route runs from a starting point next to City Hall on Front Street, up the Nome Teller Highway to the Dexter Bypass Road, ascends to the remnants of the White Alice antennas across the ridge to Anvil Rock with checkpoints along the way. After Anvil Rock, racers descend to a final checkpoint at the first switchback of the Old Glacier Creek Road. Once they hit that final checkpoint, they were free to take any route they wish back to the finish.
Tyler Johnson, a local runner who has completed the race many times, gave a safety talk to competitors before the start. He warned them that the biggest hazard on the route is the musk ox that gather on the mountain.
It was just under 60°F as runners started the race at 8 a.m., heading up Bering Street to the Nome-Teller Highway. The fog and rain of the days before had vanished and the morning was rapidly turning into a glorious sunny July day.
Olson said that the first part of the race on the Nome-Teller Highway started off windy. “Everyone was kind of bunched together,drafting off each other,” he said.
By Icy View, the race had thinned out into a long line of runners working their way up the hill. A group of six runners was in the lead. Tyler Rhodes, up front, was doing much of the windbreaking.
“There was a good headwind, and everyone was taking advantage of me,” said Rhodes good naturedly after the race. Rhodes ended the race in second place.
Right behind the front pack was McPherson, a Summercise instructor at Norton Sound Health Corporation. McPherson is a marathon and half-marathon runner. This was her second time up Anvil Mountain and her second-ever trail race. “I feel like this is a rite of passage,” she said. “I’m here in Nome for the summer, and gotta take advantage of what I can.”
After running along the Nome-Teller Highway, runners took a right onto Dexter Bypass Road and prepared for the climb up along Anvil Mountain and along the ridgeline.
 The route down the peak can be hard to find. McPherson admitted she got a little lost on the downhill before finding her bearings. From there, most racers came down Center Creek Road through the Department of Transportation storage site before taking their preferred route back to the finish.
Rhodes did not want to reveal the specifics of his route but admitted that the routes are all fairly similar. “Some parts are a little bit more rattling, some parts are a little more tender, and you just choose what works for you,” he said.
Eleventh place finisher Elizabeth Korenek-Johnson said that her route this year was a little bit slower than last year’s. “Coming down the face of Anvil is always a little sketchy. I’m not really sure where I’m gonna end up, and I think that’s where I gained a few hundredths this year,” she said.
Korenek-Johnson said that what place you finish in is not that important for Anvil Mountain. “It’s fun, it’s a nice tradition,” she said. “It’s a half marathon, not quite, but it’s got a mountain in the middle, so it counts.”

RESULTS:
Nicholai Olson 1:22:58; Tyler Rhodes 1:25:56; Tobin Hobbs 1:29:13; Oliver Hoogendorn 1:29:23; Elias Lawson 1:30:00; Anna McPherson 1:38:06; Keane Richards 1:39:33; Steve Courney 1:39:38; Justin Albee 1:44:23; Jon Strickler 1:49:57; Elizabeth Korenek-Johnson 1:49:57, Harrison Moore 1:53:10; Vince Villella 2:01:48; Nathaniel Olson 2:03:15; Alice Beittel 2:09:37; Reba Lean 2:10:31; Joselyn Hook 2:12:02, Jaclyn Costanzo 2:19:18; Sophia Rosenberg 2:39:47