By Gavin Kentch
It’s July, which means it’s the off-season for skiing… but cross-country skiers are pretty good at running, too. Here are three notable results from weekend racing on two continents: Mariah Bredal crushed a 2:43 road marathon, David Norris was second in the summer’s first Cirque Series mountain race, and Sophia Laukli had a low-key, no-pressure return to trail running as literally the defending champ and course record holder on one of Europe’s most storied courses, ultimately finishing fourth in this year’s Marathon du Mont Blanc.
Mariah Bredal Wins Missoula Marathon in 2:43
Mariah Bredal retired from high-level skiing this spring, after a three-year pro career that in its final year saw her make her first two World Cup starts, with a best finish of 30th. But the native of Victor, Idaho, hasn’t lost much fitness, as witness her showing Sunday morning in the 2024 Missoula Marathon in western Montana: she was eighth overall in a field of roughly 1,200 and first in the women’s field by nearly five minutes, crossing the line in a heady 2:43:30.
Bredal’s time would have easily qualified her for the 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon, which had a time cutoff of 2:45. While the women’s OTQ time for 2024 was lowered substantially, down to 2:37, Bredal can console herself with having set a course record in the longstanding race. Oh, and also in having taken six-and-a-half minutes off her marathon time in just a year; Bredal was second in last year’s race in 2:50:03.
On Sunday, Bredal split 5km in 18:32 (a scorching 5:58 pace), according to official results, 10km in 36:56 (down to 5:57s), and halfway in 1:18:46 (still 6:00 pace on the nose). She slowed slightly, but not egregiously, over the second half, coming through the, uh, traditional 16.9-mile time checkpoint in 1:43:07 (6:06 pace) and 23.1 miles in 2:22:53 (6:11 pace). Her final pace for the full marathon distance was an average of 6:14 per mile; as second-half marathon fades go, this one barely registers.
[read more: What I Eat: by Mariah Bredal]
“I’m stoked,” Bredal said at the finish, according to my transcription of her finish-line interview with local news station KPAX. “This is a PR for me, for sure. … The training is working, which is awesome.”
“This time I knew the course from last year,” said Bredal of her second year in this race, “so I knew a little bit what to expect. And I’ve been training hard and wanting to PR. Everything fit together, weather was perfect, as good as it could be; I was really lucky.”
Bredal noted that she was going to take a few weeks off, then would try her hand at trail running in some of the latter races in this year’s domestic Golden Trail Series.
David Norris Second in Opening Cirque Series Race in Brighton
Saturday morning saw the kickoff to the 2024 Cirque Series of mountain races, as a field of nearly 500 athletes tackled the opening race at Brighton Resort, atop Little Cottonwood Canyon outside of Park City. The race started at 8,800′ above sea level and went up from there, ultimately topping out at 10,452′; athletes gained roughly 3,000 feet over 6.7 miles.
Norris frankly did most of my reporting work for me in his Instagram caption (thanks David!). “The two Kenyans [Patrick Kipngeno and Philemon Kiriago] got away early in the race and were super strong on the steep service road heading up the resort,” Norris wrote on Insta.
“15 minutes into it 3rd place looked like my best result for the day, but once we hit the technical terrain the race changed. Philemon and I swapped positions probably six times in a 30 minute stretch along the ridge. Never could regain contact with Patrick,” wrote Norris of Kipngeno, a three-time World Mountain Running medalist; “he was a monster. Mega PR in the last downhill mile to lock in 2nd place — excited to have healthy legs and test where my fitness is at.”
The next test for Norris’s fitness will come Thursday morning in Seward, Alaska, where the four-time champion (what is more, he has never lost) will be among the favorites in the 96th running of the Mount Marathon Race. In Utah on Saturday athletes gained roughly 1,700′ in the race’s opening two miles; in Seward on Thursday, athletes will gain roughly 2,900′ in the race’s opening 1.5 miles. Before descending down an elevator shaft. The stats on this Strava segment (838 meters of gain in under 2km, 43.5 percent average grade; yes, that Kílian Jornet has the segment crown) should give you a flavor of what Thursday has in store.
As a proud Alaskan endurance sport journalist, this is where I am contractually obligated to state that Norris claimed the Mount Marathon course record in 2016 in a time of 41:26, taking it back from Jornet after the [by all accounts super awesome and exceptionally gracious] non-Alaskan had clocked a 41:48 the year before. Norris and Jornet are the only two athletes to clock under 42 minutes on a course first officially run in 1915 to settle a bar bet.
Sophia Laukli Fourth in Chamonix in Return to Trail Running
Sophia Laukli has had an up and down spring when it comes to running, as detailed on this site last week. She spent roughly six weeks unable to run at all while battling tendonitis in one knee, and generally logged more time in May and June rollerskiing than epic trail running even after she got back on her feet.
Nonetheless, on Sunday morning in Chamonix there she was, gamely toeing the line with the best trail runners in the world as the Golden Trail World Series came to the Marathon du Mont Blanc.
Laukli entered this race as the defending champion, but perhaps also looking to test out her race fitness as much as to win again and destroy her own course record in the process. (There are lower-profile settings in which to get in one’s first race of the season than bib no. 101 in Chamonix, but there you have it.) Laukli spent much of the race either third or fourth in the women’s field before ultimately fading to fourth at the finish, 45 seconds back of Miao Yao of China after losing ground on the final descent.
“It’s not what she would have been wanting,” pointedly mused the livestream color commentators of Laukli’s day.
Laukli sounded similar notes in her post-race comments.
“I’d say the race was a bit of a wake up call and I realized pretty quickly that I was maybe not fully ready to run a marathon,” she candidly wrote to Nordic Insights a day after her finish.
“I definitely don’t regret starting and had a lot of fun being back on the trails, at least for 30km…but it became pretty obvious that the legs were not quite trained enough for that distance. But I’ve been out for so long that I had to start somewhere and while I’m certainly a bit bummed it didn’t go perfectly, I don’t think it would have been possible to go perfectly with the few weeks of running I had, so while it was one of the more painful races I’ve had, I’m glad I made it to the finish line!” Laukli added. “And certainly made me more motivated for the next race and being more dialed on the start line for that.”
Judith Wyder (Switzerland) won the race in 4:11:12, with Monica Mădălina Florea (Romania) second in 4:13:42. Miao Yao (China) was roughly five minutes back in third in 4:18:30, then Laukli fourth in 4:19:15.
Next up in this year’s race series is the 51st running of Sierre–Zinal, in Switzerland, on August 10.
Results | full livestream replay
Two-minute video recap:
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in year one of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year two of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, this season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
