It was a perfect blue bird day to hammer out the US National Marathon Championships at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle. The 30/50km mass start freestyle was the final event of the US Distance National Championships and Super Tour.
The women’s 30 km race separated into two packs of three in the first 10km. The lead pack contained US Ski Team/APU’s Tazlina Mannix, US Ski Team’s Elizabeth Stephen, and Canadian Ski Team’s Brittany Webster. Somewhere between 20 and 30km the two American’s broke away from the Canadian. In a sprint to the finish Mannix took her second national title of the week, winning in 1:20:03.7. Stephen finished just 1.3 seconds back to take second. Webster finished third in 1:20:33.7.
The battle for third American and fourth overall was close between FSx/Sun Valley’s Kate Whitcomb, MWSC’s Haley Johnson, Alpina/xcOregon’s Evelyn Dong, and the US Ski Team’s Morgan Arritola. In a close sprint to the line, Whitcomb beat out local biathlete Johnson. In another sprint, Dong edged Arritola to finish 6th and 7th overall.
The men’s 50 km race started pretty relaxed with the lead pack swelling to nearly 12 skiers. At 19km, US Ski Team’s Kris Freeman took the lead on one of the major climbs of the course and the main group strung out, leaving a core group of six skiers at the front of the pack.
Around 30km, Freeman and Canadian Alex Harvey gradually gained a lead on the pack. Freeman and Harvey skied together until 48km where Freeman made his move. Freeman won in 2:01:01.6, 20.6 seconds ahead of Harvey, 2:01:22.2.
