The 98TH RUNNING of Seward’s historic Mount Marathon race will take place on — Saturday, July 4th. While most race slots are already filled, this is the third year that the race is holding an online auction via ZOOM for three slots for men and three for women. The online auction will take place on Tuesday April 28th starting at 5:30 p.m. The event is described as “giving racers additional planning time (compared to the historic July 3rd auction) because they can lock in a spot more than two months before race day. In 2005, the winning online auction bids ranged from $900-$1,200 for women and $1,800-$2,000 for men. In the past, bibs have gone for as high as $3,000. Auction rules and instructions are available on the Mount Marathon website: www.mountmarathon.com. There you can also view the 2026 race roster. Race director Matias Saari has been in his position since 2019 and noted these benefits of the online auction: “before we've only had the July 3 auction. There's a lot of uncertainty whether you're going to get a spot and you get one total hours before the race. So, the online auction gives you a couple extra months to prepare. It helps, you know, for out of towners to know that they're in the race, and they can book their hotels and their travel arrangements and things like that, and and it just, it's another opportunity to lock in spots.”
Another new feature of the race this year is a change in the presenting sponsor. The presenting sponsor is now Arc’teryx outdoor gear brand based in Vancouver, Canada and they are taking the place of Solomon, the company that held the position for several years. Saari described some of the features that Arc’teryx will contribute to: “they're going to match all our donations, or all the raffle proceeds. That money goes to a Seward nonprofit organization, so that will raise quite a bit more money for the non-profit. We have a big fencing project over multiple years to replace all our fencing with new barricades, and they're contributing substantially financially for that project. And then one other is, we're looking at doing some trail work on Mount Marathon, so they're helping fund that as well…I think it's safe to say this is one of the, one of the most major agreements that we've had in the history of the race.”
Saari explained how Arc’teryx ended up in their new sponsorship position for the race: “they had a couple athletes who were racing last year, and that sort of got the conversation started. They started at a lower level of sponsorship in 2025 and then I let it be known that we were looking for a presenting sponsor, and they put together a proposal and we worked on an agreement for 2026 and 2027.”
A final feature of the 2026 race that Saari shared was that the logo winner for this year’s race is Abigail Mayer, from Anchorage. He said this year there were 25 entries submitted by both professional artists and community members. “She actually put a lot of time into it. She manually did a block for it. And we think it really pops up. It'll really pop off the shirt and be a nice, nice design to represent the race this year,” Saari said.
Runners who fail to win an online auction spot will still have a final chance for entry at the in-person auction that will take place on July 3rd at Seward High School. At that event, 7 men’s and 7 women’s spots will be auctioned live.
Reporting from Homer, this is Emilie Springer.
