Alaska Sports Hall of Fame

Anna Dalton

Anna Dalton of Anchorage did a little showing off at the Akron Half Marathon in Ohio.

With her grandparents on hand to watch the race, Dalton crushed the 13.1-mile course by beating an Olympian and placing second out of 1,809 women with a time of 1:21:03.

“I’ve been telling my grandparents for years that I would come and do their hometown race and finally got around to it this year,” she told me.

Among the women Dalton beat was Desiree Linden, a two-time Olympian and winner of the 2018 Boston Marathon. Linden finished third in 1:22.15.

“I went out hard and faded a lot in the second half, but stayed strong enough to hold on to second place which just happened to be ahead of Des,” Dalton said.

This performance was exactly the kind of result that should give Dalton, 30, lots of confidence as she prepares for the Houston Half Marathon in January and then the U.S. Olympic Trials in February.

“I like traveling for races but also really appreciate how great local Alaska races are, so I try and find a balance between the two,” Dalton said. “This race had good prize money so that was a nice extra incentive on top of being able to visit family.”