Dipsea Star Varner Seeks to be Both Fast and Lucky

Alex Varner says you have to be lucky to win the Dipsea Race.

If that’s the case, the San Rafael native and Branson School graduate has to rank among the unluckiest men in the race’s 100-year history.

Varner has recorded the fast times in each of the past two Dipseas, but has nothing better than a fourth-place finish to show for it thanks to the race’s unique handicapping system.

“So much of that is out of my control,” Varner said of his chances of winning the 101st Dipsea on Sunday. “Basically everybody starts in front of me and I can’t control how fast they run.

“For me, it’s kind of a luck of the draw. Run as fast as I can. That’s all I can do. In terms of translating the fastest time into finishing first … a lot would have to go right for that to happen,” he said.

Varner finished the 7.5-mile course in 48 minutes, 54 seconds last year, which was about 24 minutes faster than Reilly Johnson. But the 8-year-old was given such a big head-start on Varner, she was the first to reach the finish line and thus was declared the race winner.

As the defending champ, Johnson’s handicap this year will be five minutes less. But that doesn’t mean Varner will ever see her – or anyone else who might parlay the head-start and lesser traffic into a first-place finish.

“The spread for the first 5-10 (finishers) is usually pretty small. But on the course, there are so many twists and turns at the end, I never saw those three in front of me,” he said of last year’s fourth-place finish.

“You never know. You might turn a corner and they might come into view. Or like last year, you might never see them.”

Varner, a veteran of seven previous Dipseas, has learned not to trust what he hears from the spectators who line the course.

“People were telling me on the course: You’re in the top 10, or whatever,” the 25-year-old said. “But I’ve learned that people who are telling you where you are are notoriously wrong. I was just focused on how I was doing.”

Varner, who was on the track team at Davidson College in North Carolina before graduating in 2007, hopes to be the lucky one this time around. He’s certainly trained hard enough, admitting, “I haven’t told a ton of people this, but I think I’m in better shape than I was the last two years – arguably the best shape I’ve been in for the Dipsea ever.”

He’s done most of his training around Phoenix or Lagunitas lakes, although many times he finds himself on a trail in and around China Camp.

It might not pay off in the first-place medal Sunday, but Varner gladly would accept the same consolation prize he earned in 2009 and ’10.

“Being the fastest time, that’s definitely something I’m proud to say,” he gushed. “It’s the one award or recognition I can shoot for and train for and have a realistic shot of winning it.

“Most of the people close to my time, I train with. Gus Gibbs, Mark McManus … As a result, I kinda know what they’ve been doing and they know what I’ve been doing.”

Varner, who ran his first Dipsea as a Branson senior at his cross-country coach’s urging, has a feeling he knows where this year’s race will be won or lost. Surprisingly, it’s not on the infamous stairs that greet the runners shortly after the start.

“(The traffic on the stairs) definitely has slowed me down, but in some ways it’s a good thing because it prevents me from going up the stairs too fast,” he said. “The first time I ran the race, I went up the stairs as fast as I could, and by the time I reached the top, I was spent.

“In this race, if you go out too fast, it’ll chew you up and spit you out.

“Where it (the traffic) hampers me most is on the first downhill. Just fighting through people there where I could be going faster. On the uphills, people are pretty good about getting out of your way. But on the downhills, they think they’re going pretty fast, so they don’t think they have to move out of the way.”

Varner is living with his parents in San Rafael this summer and working in San Francisco as he takes a short break from getting his MBA at the University of North Carolina. His goal Sunday is clear: To win.

“Having run in high school and college and after college, I’ve won a couple of races. I don’t think you can ever win a race without thinking you have a shot to win it,” he said.

“I know I have a shot to win this race. But in this race, there are so many unknowns. So many things out of my control. But knowing I have a shot to win it, that’s something that’s very important.”