Kilian Jornet to race Mount Marathon

Popular ulta- and mountain runner Kilian Jornet has returned to the United States from his home in Spain to race two tough events, the arguably tougher of the two being only 5K.

On July 4, Independence Day in the United States, Jornet will run the Mount Marathon race in Seward, Alaska. The race is one from the town up to the 921 metre-high peak of Mount Marathon and back to the town. It is only 5K but has given some of the best mountain runners challenge. The record for the race stands at 43:55 from 2013, run by Eric Strabel, who has won the race three of the last four years. Strabel is a skier from Anchorage.

Jornet’s fans are wondering if he will be able to take the record. He’s set himself a standard of winning high-profile mountain and ultra races, but the Mount Marathon has dug itself a niche of being some tough it seems to lend itself better to mountaineers than runners, though Jornet himself grew up in Catalonia, in the Spanish Pyrenees.

After taking on Mount Marathon, Jornet will travel to Colorado to race the Hardrock 100, a 100-miler known as one of the toughest.