Navigationally Challenged, a team of 12 runners mostly from the central Kenai Peninsula, won the Alaska Relay on Friday and Saturday between Anchorage and Seward.
The Alaska Relay, put on by North by Northwest Relays, starts at Mirror Lake in Anchorage and ends in Seward.
The relay has 36 legs to be distributed among 12 runners, though there is an Ultra category for teams up to six runners and a Semi-Ultra category for seven to nine runners.
Teams can strategically place runners in different legs, which can range from under 3 miles to one that is over 10 miles. The legs also differ in elevation loss and gain.
The course this year was 186.5 miles, which is a little shorter than normal due to construction.
Navigationally Challenged finished at 22 hours, 40 minutes and 56 seconds to comfortably take the win. Not Fast Just Furious was next at 25:22:40, while Team BEAR was third at 25:50:43.
This was the fourth race in a row, and fifth time in six years, that Navigationally Challenged won. This also was the team’s fastest time, eclipsing a 23:26:26 in 2022.
The course record was set by Hot Mess Express at 21:28 in 2019.
Rustin Hitchcock and Lee Frey share the responsibility of making sure the team happens. They also are the only ones to have done all seven of the races the team has entered, while Sean Goff has done six of the races.
Hitchcock said Frey is the captain and handles administrative tasks. Hitchcock reaches out to runners and puts the team together.
“It was just a really fun group of people that pushed each other, but also just kind of hung out and chilled,” Hitchcock said when asked about the group’s personal-best time. “It was good. We were kind of surprised, honestly.”
The group’s name comes from the first year of the race in 2017.
“We got lost on like three of the legs that year, totally our fault, of course,” Hitchcock said. “So we changed it to Navigationally Challenged.”
He said it’s not uncommon to have navigational issues each year, especially winding through Anchorage with so many variables like people, wildlife or even one year a fire to mess things up.
The team also sometimes has to work around scheduling issues.
“We actually switched it up with Lee a little bit because he was coaching comp soccer in the Valley and Anchorage,” Hitchcock said. “So he would coach, run his leg, then go back to coaching, and come back.
“He was getting run ragged.”
Also on the team were Jacob Marshall, Sarah Huot, Zach Huot, Daniel Serventi, Becca Hitchcock, Patrick Metzger, Anna Metzger, Jake Hill and Kristin Davis.
Hitchcock said all are central peninsula residents except for Anna Metzger, who is originally from the state of Washington and now goes to school in Boston. Metzger has come up for the race for four years in a row.
“It’s fun just to get to see everyone all at once,” Hitchcock said. “Now that we’ve put a reputation out there, we’d like to follow it up.
“It’s also just something unique and different. It’s nice to see the community grow across the state.”
Hitchcock said the event is fun because it is running, but also with strategy mixed in like how to take care of the body, how to eat and how to assign the legs.
For instance, Serventi did the leg from Girdwood to the train station at Portage. He covered more than 10 miles at 5:56 per mile.
The team averaged 7:17.8 per mile.
“We definitely don’t have 12 aces in the hole like Dan,” Hitchcock said. “You’ve got to move him around a little bit.”
Also finishing were Dirty Dozen at 27:21:05, Bear Crushers at 27:56:15, Bleeding Heart Buddies at 28:01:50, Healthwise Hobblers at 28:25:59, The Why Nots at 29:01:38, Avengers (B Team) at 30:24:41, Chasing Breweries at 30:52:22, Healthwise Hobbits at 30:54:08, Get ‘Er Run at 31:41:57 and Run Wild at 33:56:36.
