It was before 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning. Sixteen middle school girls toed the starting line on Dolphin Street in front of Petersburg’s Elementary School.
Don Holmes, the race starter, blew a whistle, getting everyone’s attention.
“There’ll only be two commands,” he told the runners. “And that’s gonna be: ‘Runners to your marks,’ and then the gun will fire.”
He gave the first command. The runners, girls from Kake are in red, the Petersburg Vikings in black, took their mark.
He fired the gun.
The 2.1 mile course takes runners up a slow incline to a network of trails through the muskeg. Then back down, to the northernmost point of Mitkof Island, along the water, and finally, up a long, slow, unkind hill to the finish line.
It’s the fifth Petersburg Invitational since 2016, when the middle school running club shifted to become a competing team, but it’s the first time for the Kake runners. Coach Anthony Ross said he’s excited they’re getting some competition.
“We compete against ourselves every day,” he said. “But to have that extra competition really goes a long way, especially athletes – just to see other communities, kind of broaden their culture, broaden their horizon a little bit, you know, it’s great for our kids.”
He said he wasn’t really worried about that hill at the end.
“We’re kind of used to that hill,” he said. “The girls [are] a little humble. You know, we finish on a hill every single day.”
Less than 15 minutes after the gun went off, the first runner appeared way down North Nordic Drive. It was seventh grader Arya Holmgrain, running for Peterburg. The crowd erupted in cheers. There was nobody on her tail, but she didn’t slow down as she closed in on the finish line.
After she caught her breath, Holmgrain told me she just focused on what was ahead of her as she ran.
“I was just thinking, ‘Just look forward. Keep on going. It’s okay if you get third or last. It doesn’t matter. At least you tried your best,’” she said.
She has straightforward goals when she’s running.
“Get in front, try to do my best and then cheer on my teammates, or help, like, cheer on Kake the other team,’ she said.
Petersburg Activities Director Jaime Cabral likes to cheer on the other team too.
I caught him cheering on Kake’s Cadence Padgett, fourth place finisher, by name. After the race, I asked him about it. He said yes, he did learn the names of Kake’s teammates.
Cabral said he reached out to Kake’s coach, and a whole bunch of coaches around Southeast, trying to get as much competition as possible for the Mitkof Middle School team.
“You know, we don’t have the luxury of going on a bus and just driving up to another school and running,” he said. “So it’s all logistically challenging, but worth it for the kids.”
The boys race was next, and we headed back to Dolphin Street for the start. Cabral said he was excited, after watching the competitive girls race. When I asked him if the Viking should be a little bit worried, he laughed.
“Maybe, just a little bit!” he said. “But they’ve been working hard. Coach Joe’s got them ready.”
That’s the team’s coach, Joe Viechnicki. And coach Joe did have them ready, huddled near the starting line. Heads in, they counted, “One, two, three…GO VIKINGS!”
They lined up. They took their mark. The gun fired.
This time it wasn’t much more than ten minutes before the speck of a Viking runner appeared, climbing the long hill.
It was 8th grader Joe Hofstetter, blocks ahead of anyone else. He flow across the finish line, knees high, with a time just shy of 12 minutes, 40 seconds. When I asked him if he thought he would win, he admitted that he did – but he also thought he’d break the course record. He came up just 14 seconds shy. But, coach Joe Viechnicki tells me later, Hofstetter now holds the record for Mitkof Middle School runners on that course.
Hofstetter’s dad, Phil Hofstetter, told me his son has been training hard this season, getting up at 5 a.m. Joe Hofstetter said no – 4 a.m. He runs again in the afternoon with the team. He said it does take a lot to fuel all that running, so he eats lots of carbs – granola and yogurt, spaghetti, bread.
“It’s hard,” he said. “I really love running. I used to hate it, and then I learned to really like it.”
As we talked, more runners crossed the finish line. Petersburg 8th grader Camden Johnson finished second, half a minute after Hofstetter, followed by five more Vikings in a row.
At the end of the meet, Coach Viechnicki said he’s not going to take it easy on the kids, even though he’s proud of them.
“Practices get harder from here,” he said. He turned to some runners standing nearby. “Right, girls?” They grimaced.
“We just ramp up our intensity through the month and build our muscles,” Viechnicki said. “I know, they’re looking at me like, ‘What are you talking about?!’” Viechnicki laughed.
He said the team has a meet in Craig at the end of the month, where they’ll also compete against Klawock.
Results from the races can be found here.
