Principia Cross Country Runner Challenges Pushes Himself to New Heights
Principia College's Wylie Mangelsdorf, a junior cross country runner, has taken to a new challenge in training for his upcoming Cross Country season; mountain racing. Mangelsdorf won the Bird Ridge race this past weekend and is quickly making a name for himself.
With just a few mountain races under his belt, Wylie
Mangelsdorf has caught the attention of the elite mountain
runners. Wylie shocked the crowds with a win on Bird Ridge
where he passed Eric Strabel, the 2010 champion and Matt
Novakovich, last year's champion in the up-hill only race.
Wylie clocked the second fastest time ever on the mountain with a
time of 39:03.9. Wylie also took 3rd in the famous
Mt. Marathon race, which is one of the oldest standing races in
American history. Wylie helped to push the other top runners
which caused Eric Strabel, the winner, to finally break the 32 year
old record, one of the longest standing record in sports
today. Wylie raced up and down the 3.5 miles in 44 minutes, 9
seconds, which is the 7th fastest time in the race's
history. Read below as Wylie answers some questions about his
recent successes in mountain racing.
Congratulations Wylie on your win in the Bird Ridge race
and your 3rd place finish in the Mt. Marathon
race! How does it feel to be a rising star?
Well, yeah…honestly I am still in shock! Both of
those were kind of surprises. I did Bird Ridge last year for
the first time and got 4th. I think the one
advantage I had in that race was the fact that the last third of
the course is a slow incline to the finish, and with all the
training I have done for cross country- that gave me an
advantage. That is where I made my move to the front.
It was all very surreal to me. And after Mt. Marathon, I
can't believe I am even competing with these mountain running
legends.
How long have you been racing mountains?
Last summer was my first mountain race, Bird Ridge, and this year
I have done three, so not very long. Mt. Marathon is the only race
that I have been consistently trying to get into since 2001.
It's so fun to be around the Mt. Marathon race on the
4th of July, because of the great atmosphere!
Government peak was the first race I did this summer, I was in
second place for the first half, but then Eric Strabel passed me,
and I ended up 5th overall in that one. That was
the steepest race and mountain I have ever hiked/raced! Then I did
Bird Ridge and Mt. Marathon.
What are some of the strategies you use that are specific
towards mountain running? I have seen some mountain racers using
their hands to push on their legs, is that pretty
typical?
Yeah…the guy that won, Eric has a different strategy and
does not use his arms at all, but aside from him, most people push
on their legs. It really saves your legs to use your arms to
push down on them. When you are on a steep incline at 45
degrees or more it's easy to have your hands there anyways. I
take larger steps, but some people take smaller steps and some are
in between. It all depends on the person.
I read somewhere that one of your competitors was talking
about you before the Mt. Marathon race and said you were good going
up the mountain, but they assumed you couldn't go down very
well…how did you feel about that when you heard it?...Did it
make you race differently?
I thought it was pretty cool that he (Brent Knight) even thought
of me and commented, because he was set to crush the record a few
years ago, but ran into someone and had to be taken to the hospital
before finishing. I always thought of him as one of Alaska's
professional racers. He also trains with members on the USA
ski team. So being new to mountain racing and knowing he was in my
age group of 18-29 and I would have to beat him to race again in
two years, it was exciting and got me a bit pumped up!
However, I'm not training this summer specifically for mountain
races and I knew I was trying to get ready and be careful for cross
country this year. I was more cautious than the rest of the
competitors in Mt. Marathon, because I did not want to mess
something up in my training or my goal of getting a top 3 finish at
NCAA D3 Cross Country Nationals.
Does this type of racing help prepare you for cross
country season in college?
Well, you know I asked Chuck the same question. I asked him
if it's ok if I raced mountain races. He said he never had
any athlete race mountains before but he thought it would be
ok. He said it seemed to work out for me last year with the
one race I did, so why not, just pay attention to my body and don't
over do it. I agreed and thought it could not hurt. If
anything it would definitely strengthens my legs for the
season.
I've heard the Mt. Marathon race has quite an amazing
atmosphere surrounding race day, can you tell me a little about
it?
The Mountain Marathon race is so much fun because of the
atmosphere! The population goes from 3,000 to 30,000 over-night and
only 500 of those people are racers! One year it actually got
up to 50,000! IT'S SO MUCH FUN!!!!
Also, the way that the race was initiated is pretty interesting in
itself. The whole race started in 1908 with a few men in a
bar. Some guys bet one guy that he couldn't race up the
mountain and back down in under an hour. He tried and missed
by seconds which meant he had to buy the other guys a round of
beers. They decided to make it a tradition on the
4th of July and it has been a tradition ever
since.
Anything else you think people should know about you or
your races?
Well, just that Eric Strabel winning and breaking this record has
been a really big deal….it was one of the longest standing
record among any sport. It also showed what someone could
really do if they set their mind to it. Eric knew this record
could be broken a few years ago after watching Brent Knight come so
close. He spent 364 days of the year training for that
365th day where he hoped to prove that it could be
broken and he did!
The Mt. Marathon race was pretty special because all the top
racers really worked together as if they were all teammates.
None of us would have gotten the times we got without each
other. It is very rare to find someone like Eric Strabel who
just broke this huge record and is an amazing athlete, to then come
up to me, a 21 year old still 5-10 years before peaking, and wanted
to help me train and show me the best paths on the mountain to try
and lower that record even more. It was just so neat to find
those kinds of athletes who are not all about themselves and are
happy to work together with others just for the love of the
sport! That is the atmosphere with the Mountain Running
community! It is so neat! All I can think about is next year
and how excited I am to come back and train with all these Legends
of Alaska Mountain Running!
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