For about ten minutes Friday – nine minutes, 59.33 seconds to be exact – Anchorage was the center of the U.S. high school track and field universe.
That's the amount of time it took Kenai Central senior Allie Ostrander to run 3,200 meters inside The Dome, a new personal best for the distance phenom and the fastest time by a high school girl this year.
"I think people will be talking about this particular performance for a long time," said Kodiak track coach Marcus Dunbar.
Underscoring the enormity of Ostrander's performance was the fact that she overshadowed Kodiak's Levi Thomet, who ran the fastest boys' 3,200 meter time of 2015 in the same race.
The duo shared the track for the elite 3,200 race at the Big C Relays, an event that's become known for unusual races designed to heighten excitement about track and field. They were joined by Utah's Conner Mantz, who like Ostrander and Thomet is one of the elite high school distance runners in the country. Ostrander was given a 70-second head start and finished about five seconds in front of Thomet, who ran an 8:54.24, and Mantz, who was 1.7 seconds behind the Kodiak senior.
The runners were allowed to run with "rabbits," or pace-setters who helped them keep up their breakneck pace. For laps four through seven of the eight-lap race, Ostrander ran alongside Kenai's Jonah Theisen. She said having her KCHS teammate alongside was a big help.
"He wasn't afraid to push me, and I needed that," Ostrander said.
When she learned her time, Ostrander pumped her fist in celebration and hugged her mom (and coach) Teri.
"It was the perfect moment," she said. "I was so happy."
The exhibition drew national attention, with reporters from track and field websites milesplit.com and flotrack.com posting videos and interviews from the race within minutes of the finish, and dyestat.com ran a headline about the race at the top of its website heralding Thomet and Ostrander's times as the fastest in the nation so far in 2015.
Dunbar said it's fun to see Alaska's reputation as a distance running hotbed continuing to grow.
"It's an exciting time to be a part of the sport," he said.
It's early in the season, meaning Thomet's mark is likely to be broken. After all, his own personal best is 8:48. But Ostrander's time is likely to be hard to beat, Dunbar said. It's pretty rare for a high school girl to break 10 minutes no matter what the circumstances.
"That doesn't happen very often," he said.
According to milesplit.com, Ostrander's time is the sixth-fastest ever run indoors by a U.S. high school girl.
Dunbar said he's organizing the Brian Young Invitational in June in Kodiak, which will feature his son, Trevor – a track and cross-country running All-American at the University of Oregon – as well as top prep runners Thomet, Matthew Maton of Oregon and Eli Armstrong of Idaho.
"I want to see more events attracting these kinds of athletes," he said.
Mantz said the event was unlike anything he's ever done. The Dome is home to the only 400-meter indoor track in North America and the Big C Relays feature more than 1,000 athletes.
"It's a phenomenal experience," Mantz said of the meet, which is unusual in scale even for runners accustomed to big events.
Despite the presence of Thomet and Mantz, Ostrander – a waifish wonder who holds the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter records at the state track and field meet and is a 2014 Nike Cross Nationals meet champion – was the star of the show. The crowd roared as she neared the finish line, then erupted into cheers when it was revealed she'd cracked the 10-minute mark.
Theisen said it's weird to think that one of his classmates is blossoming into a legitimate distance superstar.
"You kind of take it for granted," he said of Ostrander's growing national reputation. "We joke that we should get her autograph, but in reality we probably really do need to because she's going places."
Theisen said Ostrander has earned every bit of her reputation. She's the hardest worker on the team, he said, and often runs on her own before school even when the Kenai team has practices in the afternoon.
"She definitely put in the work to get to where she is," he said.
For her part, the undisputed heavyweight champion of Alaska distance running is just doing her part to remain a normal kid. She said she's even planning to play in a senior all-star basketball game Saturday.
"I like to stay busy," she said.
And humble. Ostrander said she was excited just to be considered for the hoops game, which will be her last as a competitive cager.
"I was just honored that they would even ask me," said Ostrander, who was a first-team All-Northern Lights Conference point guard for the Kardinals this season.
The special 3,200 race was the highlight of a day filled with interesting athletic exhibitions. The meet features events like the invitational pentathlon, a high-jump contest between high school and master's athletes and even a robotic discus retriever shaped like a dog sled.
Thomet said the meet has turned into something every runner in the state looks forward to with anticipation.
"This is the premier event of the season," he said.
On Friday, athletes from the 40 teams set up camp on The Dome's infield, where kids and coaches mingled in a scene reminiscent of a track and field Woodstock.
"There's a lot of socializing, I really like that part of it," he said.
Thomet's dad, Kip, said the Big C Relays aren't like anything else – and that's the point.
"This is Alaska, nothing is normal," he said. "I love that."
The meet continues Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. For more information or complete results, visit bigcrelays.com.