Two-time and defending Mount Marathon women's champion Holly Brooks of Anchorage said she'll skip this year's race up and down the punishing 3,022-foot peak in Seward, citing fatigue from a winter in which she raced 11 ski marathons in 10 countries.
The two-time Olympian said she is also working on her master's degree in counseling and psychology at Alaska Pacific University. Following several years in which her ski career on the World Cup circuit or the ski marathon circuit required her to leave Alaska for long stretches, Brooks said she's trying to carve out more time with her husband, Rob Whitney, a firefighter.
Brooks last winter took leave from the World Cup circuit and competed on international skiing's Marathon Cup circuit, finishing third overall in racing that took her to places as distant as Siberia. Brooks was self-supported on her journeys, meaning she made all the travel arrangements, lugged as many as 20 pairs of skis and lacked the support – no wax technician or on-site coach, for instance – she did in her World Cup seasons with the U.S. Ski Team.
"It was a grueling season, that's for sure,'' Brooks said. "It was a long haul. Actually, I called it the marathon of marathons.''
Brooks, 33, twice has won Mount Marathon, the most prestigious race in Alaska, which each Fourth of July attracts thousands of fans who watch racers grind up the steep slab of pain overlooking Resurrection Bay and then rocket down its perilous slopes. She held on to edge 2013 champion Christy Marvin by two seconds last year. She won in 2012 and also owns three runner-up finishes.
As much as Brooks would love to defend her title and said it is easy to get caught up in the excitement and hype of the approaching 88th Mount Marathon, her body is telling her to take a break.
"I feel a little bit like a wrung-out towel,'' Brooks said. "I know it's smart, and I know it's the right move, but that doesn't make it easier.
"I'm a competitor.''
Mount Marathon has proved a touchstone in Brooks' life. She and Whitney were engaged two days before her race debut in 2008, when she finished second, and they handed out Save The Date magnets to friends at the finish line.
In 2009, she led the race while descending the mountain, but heat exhaustion prompted a detour to the emergency room along the race route leading to the mountain. She was so dehydrated it took doctors an hour to find an accessible vein to feed her intravenous fluids. Still, Brooks eventually checked herself out and finished the race.
Brooks calls 2009 her "epiphany race'' -- that was when she decided to transition from her career as a ski coach and make a bid for the Olympics. She competed in the Games in 2010 and 2014.
"It really changed the course of my life for good,'' she said. "It was a blessing. It was really a blessing.''
Brooks' first Mount Marathon victory, in 2012, served as redemption following three runner-up finishes and her 2009 ordeal.
"I can put the demons to rest,'' she said that Independence Day.
With Brooks absent, contenders for this year's title will include Marvin, six-time junior champion Allie Ostrander, who will be making her debut in the women's field, and Emelie Forsberg, the Swede who won the 2014 Skyrunner World Series and will also debut in Seward.
Brooks, who is heavily involved in community endeavors like the Healthy Futures program for kids and visiting schools, said she doubts she will attend Mount Marathon as a spectator.
"I have a really hard time watching races I desperately want to be in,'' she said.
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockey-blog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr