Jerre Wills

M70-79
Jerre Wills
Mountain running
Homer, Alaska

How could you possibly improve upon the mountaintop views of the 49th state? Jerre Wills has an answer. The 71-year-old resident of Homer combines Alaska's breathtaking scenery with lung-busting, thighburning workouts.

"I've got to admit, I'm guilty of almost taking it for granted," Wills says of Alaska's immense landscape. "I had someone ask me once, 'Jerre, don't you ever go up the mountain and stop and take a look around?' She knew I ran the whole thing, up and down, as fast as I could go. So I've paid attention to that, and make sure I look at the grandeur of it all."

He just doesn't stick around long. This past 4th of July, Wills competed in his 21st Mount Marathon race in Seward, Alaska, winning his age division and shaving more than 6 minutes off his age-group record.

A native of Michigan, Wills moved to Alaska when he was 21 and became a commercial fisherman. And he brought his competitive streak. "When I fished commercially, I wanted to be a high-liner," he said. "I wanted to have more fish than anybody when I came in every day. And when I go run the mountain, I just don't try to beat the 70-year-olds. I try to beat everybody that I can."

To keep that edge, Wills works out diligently, often completing 500 sit-ups at a time, doing "lots and lots of lunges" or going to the track to do speed drills. "Running, whether it's up a mountain or on a trail or wherever, is a twofold draw," he says. "One, it's a way of forgetting about everything else.

Maybe if you have things that aren't going well in your life, you aren't thinking about them when you're going up a mountain. So it's a good release valve. "Secondly, there's the after-effect, the feeling that you've accomplished something. Even if that accomplishment is as small as saying I got some fresh air in my lungs, or I did my body some good, it's still a good thing."

Today, Wills has five children from his first marriage, a 23-year-old daughter, Nahanni, from his second, 10 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Winnie, 50, and his oldest daughter, Cheryl, 51, share his love for trail running.