Runners congregated in Skagway on Friday to participate in the 43rd Klondike Road Relay. The Skagway ferry terminal reopened the day before the race, after teams had already shifted their plans around. The running race starts in Skagway, Alaska, and ends over 100 miles away in Whitehorse, Yukon. This year, 211 teams took part.
One team, mainly made up of Haines and Juneau locals, named “Weezin’ 4 No Reazin’” said the Skagway ferry terminal closure did not impact them as much as impacted other teams. The team had planned on stopping in Haines as this is where member Laurie Mastrella lives. Mastrella’s children, Charlie and Celia, traveled from Juneau and were a part of the same 10-person team, most of whom were rookies to the race.
Team member Marirose Evenden said that she saw green northern lights while running leg four of the relay. Evenden ran just over 13 miles in the dark of night.
Mastrella ran leg seven, roughly 8.6 miles, from Carcross to Emerald Lake. She said that after seeing a few bears on her training runs, she shifted to practice runs in more open stretches.
“One of the scariest parts of training were the bears,” Mastrella said reflecting on her training while waiting for their last teammate to finish in Whitehorse. She said after running into bears a couple times, she had to adjust her route. Mastrella chose to run in areas with better lines of sight, like the straight stretch at Letnikof Cove. She also drove 10 miles up the highway from her house to run at 36 Mile on the Haines Highway for the same reason.
Haines local Charlotte Martin ran the relay with a team, “Dude, Where’s My Bike?,” made up of Sockeye Cycle employees from Skagway. This was Martin’s second time running the race and she said it won’t be her last. Martin ran leg four last year and leg nine this year and hopes to run each leg in the coming years. She said that the hardest part of the race for her was “battling some mental fatigue from all the travel.” Martin took the fast ferry to Skagway and the last Fjordland trip of the season back to Haines.
Racers congregated at the Rotary Peace Park in Whitehorse, basking in the sun. Marg White has been volunteering for the Klondike Road Relay race for the last 40 years. She said that the weather in Skagway on Friday was “the best weather ever,” and that this year’s race had some of the best weather she had seen.
Finishers with Haines listed as their home address:
Weezin’ 4 No Reazin’:
Laurie Manstrella
Marirose Evenden
Dude, Where’s My Bike?:
Charlotte Martin
Land of the Midnight Run:
Kate Fossman