The mountains of Southcentral Alaska may crumble before all of Nancy Pease\u2019s trail-running\u00a0records tumble.<\/p>\n
Pease\u2019s resume is legendary. Nine-time champion and record\u00a0holder at Crow Pass. Five-time champion\u00a0and record holder at Bird Ridge.\u00a0Six-time champion and record holder at Mount Marathon from 1990-2015.<\/p>\n
Given all of that, it\u2019s tempting to call Pease the Queen of the Mountain, but that would be\u00a0shortsighted. Sometimes she reigned supreme over the men too.<\/p>\n
1990 was the summer of Pease. She set records at Mount Marathon and Crow Pass, and she was the overall winner at Bird Ridge, beating the men\u2019s winner by more\u00a0than 90 seconds. At that year\u2019s Crow Pass Crossing, she shared the overall title with Bill Spencer, a Hall\u00a0of Fame member since 2012. (Pease and Spencer finished the race holding hands. \u201cI was hoping it\u2019d\u00a0make her slow down,\u201d Spencer joked at the time.)<\/p>\n
Pease finished the 1990 Crow Pass in a record 3 hours, 26 minutes, 20 seconds. Until 2014, when\u00a0Christy Marvin won in 3:26:44<\/span><\/span>, no woman had come within 10 minutes of Pease\u2019s record in the\u00a0marathon-length wilderness run through the Chugach Mountains.<\/p>\n Pease\u2019s Mount Marathon record of 50:30 at Mount Marathon lasted for 25 years, finally falling in 2015 when it was broken by professional mountain running star Emelie Forsberg. Through 2014 Pease owned three of the top four\u00a0women\u2019s times in the three-mile race that consists mostly of climbing and\u00a0descending the 3,022-foot peak in Seward.<\/p>\n As huge as the summer of 1990 was for Pease, perhaps her biggest\u00a0achievement came in 1993 at Bird Ridge, a three-mile, uphill-only race\u00a0with an elevation gain of 3,400 feet. She won in 42:27, a record long considered one of the toughest in Alaska. No other\u00a0woman has come within three minutes of that mark.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bird Ridge record, I don\u2019t know if that will ever go down,\u201d said\u00a0Holly Brooks, a Mount Marathon and Bird Ridge champion who is\u00a0chasing Pease\u2019s times nearly a generation after they were established. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t even know if it\u2019s human.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014 Beth Bragg<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The mountains of Southcentral Alaska may crumble before Nancy Pease\u2019s trail-running records tumble. Pease’s resume is legendary and her records are as solid as rock. Nine-time champion and record holder at Crow Pass. Five-time champion and record holder at Bird Ridge. Six-time champion at Mount Marathon and 24-year record-holder at Mount Marathon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"hof-type":[149],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n