I didn't intend this shot, but it's hard to catch a running Miles.
Congratulations to Miles Knotek who won the Junior Mt. Marathon race for the second year in a row. Moose Pass is proud of you, Miles.
This race, up to the half way point of Mt. Marathon, and back to Seward's main street, is the second oldest foot race, and is the premier mountain running race in Alaska.
Entries are limited and places fill almost as soon as entries are opened.
And they're off. I snapped this shot hoping Miles was somewhere in the front runners.
There he was, biding his time. He's the shirtless one right under the fire station sign. In front of him is 15 year old Allison Ostrander, who claimed her fourth consecutive girls' title.
It wasn't a great day for spectators in Seward, but the cooler temps favored the runners.
And here he comes down main street.
Fifty-nine seconds slower than last year, but this year the trail was slippery and treacherous. The next finisher was 45 seconds behind him.
Miles explaining all this to the press.
Miles congratulating his neighbors and friends, the Berry brothers.
Miles being interviewed by KTUU CH. 2 TV as a newly-arrived runner takes a seat.
Looking for a hug from family as yet another runner takes an end of the race break.
Nice going, Miles. Now next year you can strike fear into the men who run the Senior race. All the way to the top of the mountain and back.
I don't have any photos to go with a story about my neighbor Miles, so I'm posting this one I took a little while ago. Didn't want you to miss it. Or the story about Miles.
Moonrise in Mauve
Now, for the story I ripped off from Erin's Facebook page. She is Miles's mom.
Flight Response
I was hiking up Mount Healy Overlook trail in Denali National Park in August, accompanied by a young man named Simon.He had joined me after stashing his mountain bike in the woods when hikers coming down told him the trail ahead was too steep for a bike.
Simon was from Bulgaria and was working two jobs at lodges in the commercial zone outside the park entrance.He asked me about bears, saying he’d been told to run downhill if he saw one because bears couldn’t run downhill very well.
“Don’t ever run from a bear,” I said.“It triggers a chase response and they might go after you even if they hadn’t intended to do so.
Fast forward to Saturday night in Moose Pass.
My 16 year old neighbor Miles had five of his buddies at his house Saturday.The boys were playing flashlight tag in the dark around the house and creek.One of them pointed the flashlight at what he thought was another boy.
The boy turned out to be a large brown bear looking for spawning salmon in the stream about 30 feet from them.That’s about 1.5 seconds in bear speed.
“You never saw boys move so fast,” said Miles’s mom Erin.“They got to the house pretty fast.”
I can imagine.Miles and another boy are state champions in cross country running, and several others are members of a state champion running team.
“So much for not running from bears,” said Erin.Miles and his younger sister Kara have lived with bears in their yard and looking in their windows since they were born.
Incidentally, Miles won another race Wednesday, posting a time of 16:54 in the USA Track and Field Alaska Klondike Advertising 5K run, beating the second place runner by 7 seconds.
Elsewhere in the 'hood, someone saw a black bear. It's that time of year. Berries are about gone and the bears are porking up on spawning salmon, which just happen to be in our neighborhood.
Remember my neighbor MilesKnotek, the 16 year old who won the 2011 Mt. Marathon junior race in Seward this year?The one who posted the second fastest time ever?Who finished a minute and fifteen seconds faster than the second place runner?
Yeah, that Miles.
Since then he’s won a few other varsity races, including the high school Regionals for 1-2-3-A schools last weekend.He was also selected as the most valuable runner in Regionals.After that, at least one television sports announcer mentioned his name.
Today Miles won the State Championship meet in Anchorage.It looked dicey from a spectator’s view for almost the entire race because another boy led in the 5000m course. Miles was on his shoulder the whole time.
Two hundred yards from the finish line, and in full view of the spectators crowded into the arena, Miles pulled his Secretariat move and sprinted ahead. He finished first in 16:23 minutes, fully nine seconds ahead of the boy he’d run with the entire race.
That kid down the road got his name in the newspaper this week. Again. For running away.
And his name wasn’t in the police log, either.
The view most runners get of Miles.
No, my neighbor Miles got a big shout out for running up a mountain and running away from everyone in his age group, plus a passel of adult men. In fact, as the Anchorage Daily News reported, “The performance of the day among teenagers in the race that covers three miles and gains 3,400 feet of elevation on Bird Ridge was Miles Knotek, 16, who finished seventh among men in 42 minutes, 43 seconds. That placed him just 3:19 behind [the] winner.”
Miles is in the center, shirtless, blue shorts. Photo by Heather Williams
I’ve climbed that ridge. It isn’t an easy climb and I was walking, not running.
Then, Miles was congratulated by none other than Brad Precosky, who is a six-time champion of the Mt. Marathon race held in Seward every Fourth of July. I think Miles has Brad’s number and two years from now when Miles is old enough to compete in the men’s division, Brad better hang up his shoes or stay out of Miles’s way.
I try to keep track of Miles’s latest accomplishments. He posts all this stuff on Facebook.
Now, why would a seventy-ish woman follow the Facebook page of a sixteen-year-old high school student?
Because he’s my neighbor, because we share interests in writing and photography?
Miles: I've rediscovered my love of writing stories, especially ones about adventures in running!
By Miles Knotek
For a glimpse into how teen-age life in the twenty-first century differs from my own in the 1950s?
Miles: runnin' mountains and reading Harry Potter all day every day!
Miles: had a really fun day hanging with michael and shredding a sick new line. and then got called to get a roadkill moose! all 4 quarters and 2 backstraps for my first time butchering a moose!
Miles: loves the beginning of winter! Got my sled out for the first time and my cross country skis. Fall is still here though with the brown bear tracks in the snow.
To learn of his remarkable achievements?
Miles in front, photo by Nikki Wray
Miles: had an awesome weekend at regions coming back with three second place metals.
Feet from the top. Photo by John Collins
Miles: had a fun day racing Government Peak! Finished in 7th overall and 1st in age group with a time of [52:30]. A lot tougher than I thought it would be!
Greg: … I checked the race archives and you now own the fastest time for anyone age 20 or younger! You beat your closest competitor today by 2 1/2 minutes. Wow.
Cole: dude for government peak you got the time that Brad Precosky got last year, … which is pretty damn amazing
Miles Knotek runs to the finish. At 16, Miles' time of 52:30 is the fastest time so far recorded by any runner 20 or under for this race. Photo and cutline by Holly Brooks.
For his philosophical insight?
Miles [quoting from a Harry Potter book]:"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -Albus Dumbledore
Miles: An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets, he must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head. -Emil Zatopek
Miles: the good side of 40 degrees in [D]ecember is being able to go for a run in nothing but shorts and a t-shirt.
The humor?
Miles: Felt like Farley Mowat as I ran half naked through the tundra today with a bunch of mountain goats.
Ray: dances with goats? Haha.
If you are on Facebook, you know that you are privy to your friends’ postings plus their friends’ responses.
Miles and his friends speak of music, like most teenagers. They post links to their favorite artists and to songs that resonate with them.
They upload photos showing their arms draped over each others shoulders. I smile when I look at these photos and imagine that in a couple decades, they will view these pictures with the same nostalgia as did generations of men and women before them.
Miles on right with Jaz, left, and Tannen, center.
Here’s where they break from the norm, here’s where these teenagers who are my extended neighbors differ from teenagers in Anytown, USA.
Those photos? The photos of high school pals, posed with seemingly dislocated fingers signaling the signs of their times?
Miles in center with friends Sam and Jaz.
They’re taken on top of mountains. These aren’t sissy mountains, either. These mountains spring up from the earth with no foothills to anchor them. These mountains mean business.
They hike up these mountains. They put climbing skins on their skis and climb up these mountains.
Miles. Photo by Jaz Odhner
They RUN up these mountains. They use snowmobiles to get to the bottom of mountains, then strap on their skis and climb up! No couch potatoes here.
Photo by Miles
So, yes, I follow Miles on Facebook for all the above reasons—to keep in touch, to listen in on their humor, enjoy their friendships, and to learn their philosophical views.
But there’s one more reason, one very special reason. I follow Miles so I can listen to the poetry in a young man’s heart.
Miles: just had probably one of the raddest shreds of my life! Climbed all the way up this chute to the rocks and looked up to see a mtn. goat checkin' me out! Along with 15 ptarmigan fluttering around the cliffs.
Miles: can't wait to go to Hawaii to get away from this horrible winter and to come back to skiing a golden god.
Miles: likes being able to get off the school bus, slap on my climbing skins, climb up a mountain, and ski down with a headlamp and under the stars...
