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Photo by Sam Harrel

They are a remarkable group of athletes who turn 50 in 2008 and are working hard to defy conventional wisdom that says one slows down with age.

Many of them are also good friends and intense competitors not only against each another but against skiers, runners, cyclists and swimmers who are decades younger.

“It’s just an amazing group that is very active,” Bob Baker said. “It’s very peculiar (that everyone is 50).”

The “Class of 58 Turns 50” even had a party in January at Dave Edic’s house, conveniently located a minute’s walk from the Birch Hill ski trails. The temperature of 21 below that night didn’t deter several of them from two seven-minute skiing stints wearing nothing but wind briefs, an event immortalized on film.

“We weren’t quite naked,” Edic said Thursday. “We had to do it twice because of the camera (malfunction).”

Edic (actually born in December 1957) is the oldest of the bunch. Next in line is Mark Ross (Jan. 16, 1958). The two grew up within miles of each other in upstate New York.

“We had our first race in second grade,” said Ross, who lists his most memorable skiing experiences as “demolishing” Edic in ski races in 1992 and 2005.

Then there’s Ken Leary (Jan. 21), the only man to finish every Sonot Kkaazoot ski marathon. He currently lives in Salt Lake City, but is Edic’s next-door neighbor when in Fairbanks.

Next is Baker (Jan. 31), a former classmate of Leary’s at Lathrop High School whose exploits include co-founding the Sonot Kkaazoot and skiing the entire Iditarod and Yukon Quest trails; Tim Viavant (Feb. 17), who started skiing at age 5; Roselynn Ressa (Feb. 21); Roger Sayre (Feb. 22), who recently participated in the U.S. Distance National Ski Championships 20 years after his last foray; Wendy Beavis (March 11) and Karl Hanneman (March 16).

They’ve all already hit the half-century mark, but a large group will still do so in the coming nine months. They are Jim Gillis (May 8), a former UAF hockey player turned endurance athlete; Greg Hoffman (June 8); Sharon Baker (July 28), who, with husband Bob, relishes skiing in the backcountry and in various competitions; Equinox marathon veteran Dave Bloom (Aug. 23); Bruce Gard (Aug. 25); Donovan Granger (Aug. 30); Dave Norum (Oct. 26); Kent Karns (Oct. 31), who skied for the University of Vermont; Greg Whisenhant (Nov. 9), the head ski coach at West Valley High School, whose late father Jim had the Birch Hill trails named in his honor; and Laura Jacobs (Dec. 15).

For good measure, throw in competitive marathoner Wayde Leder (August 1957) and Jim Lokken, the top skier born in 1959, and they more than hold their own against any age group.

They just might be having the most fun, too.

“For me, it’s mainly just kind of mental health. I need to do something physical every day,” Ressa said about what keeps her motivated. “I’m not nearly as competitive as these guys (Edic, Baker and Sayre). But I don’t have a group like you guys do.”

If that trio isn’t trying to bury each other in races, it is using experience and pain tolerance in chasing top high schoolers.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction in beating high school skiers. We can hurt ourselves a lot more than a high schooler,” Baker said. “They don’t know pain.”

Edic’s daughter, Heather, now skis for Lathrop, and Dave has gotten to know several of her male teammates.

“They go ‘I’m not going to get beat by a 50-year-old guy,’” he said, though Edic accomplished just that against most of them this season.

Edic and Baker also have a long-standing rivalry that includes trips to the 1992 U.S. Nationals in Minnesota, various U.S. Masters and World Masters Championships plus the Besh Cup races across the state, where they are among the oldest competitors.

“We’ve been hammering each other for a long time,” Baker, ever the joker, said. “My gift to him this year was not to beat him any more.”

That, Baker knows, had plenty to do with Edic’s ramped-up training, which featured sessions at Birch Hill five or six days a week.

Sayre, who moved to Fairbanks from Colorado four years ago, used this March’s Tour of Anchorage and Sonot Kkaazoot as training inspiration. He also entered the 30-kilometer Skiathlon at U.S. Nationals, although guys like Edic and Baker opted out.

“We said ‘Hey, let’s do it’ but then one by one it kind of dropped off,” Sayre said. “I wanted to see how I compared to what I did 20 years ago.”

Sayre had a tough outing as the oldest participant by more than a decade. But he finished, and Baker was there to document the accomplishment.

“I get to the top of the hill and there’s Bob in orange with his (video) camera. I think I fell,” Sayre, who suffered from leg cramps, said.

“You did, flat on your face, right at my feet,” Baker said.

Leder, meanwhile, prefers running shoes over Nordic skis. Along with 51-year-old Andy Holland, he’ll again be running the Boston Marathon on April 21.

In a “fantasy” scenario, they’ll land on the awards stage for finishing in the top five among 50-59-year-olds. They’ve talked about that goal since their mid-40s, and used to think it was quite manageable. Not so any more.

“If you’re a betting man, you better get big odds,” Leder said. “Neither one of us has broken three hours in the last few races.”

Leder (seven Boston Marathons) and Holland (more than 20) have been training harder than normal this winter as members of the 50+ group.

“We definitely taking it more seriously,” Leder said.