It takes a certain type of runner -- a certain type of person -- to keep coming back to a race like the Matanuska Peak Challenge

With 9,100 feet of climbing over 14 mountainous miles, the race is so difficult many of Alaska's elite runners skip it.

At the finish line for Saturday's race, for example, former winner Brad Precosky of Anchorage stood in street clothes. Precosky is a multiple winner of Alaska's most prestigious footrace, Seward's Mount Marathon, and he used to compete in the Mat Peak Challenge.

As Precosky pulled into the parking lot at the Lazy Mountain trail head parking lot, he saw Barney Griffith of Anchorage and Hugh Gren of Eagle River crashed out on the pavement after finishing the race.

Both spent men were covered in sweat.

"I saw that, and I was glad I didn't do it," he said.

Gyongyver Schilling of Hope, who placed second among women, put it this way:

"You have to be a glutton for punishment," she said. "It's not really fun, but it sure feels good afterwards. You feel such an overwhelming sense of accomplishment."

Harlow Robinson of Anchorage keeps coming back -- and winning. The 41-year-old captured his fifth straight title in record time, 3 hours, 4 minutes, 6 seconds.

Robinson passed Matias Saari of Fairbanks on the final descent of Lazy Mountain to win. Robinson, Saari and Griffith hiked and ran together for most of the race, trading the lead.

Robinson skipped the Crow Pass Crossing two weeks ago -- a race he has won -- to focus on the Matanuska Peak Challenge. Two weeks of recovery after Crow Pass just isn't enough time to prepare for the punishment of Mat Peak, he said.

"It's a classic race," said Robinson, a Susitna Valley High grad who grew up with a mountaineering father in Talkeetna. "People in the mountain running community hold this race is high regard. Whether you win this race or finish last, it's a big accomplishment. It's like hiking half of Denali in an afternoon."

It's a race that favors the more dogged runner, the one who likes distance, rather than speed. Mental strength doesn't hurt either.

"It taps your mental stamina, your mental tenacity," said Eagle River's Hugh Gren, 40. "It is painful. You cramp in various places. But you just keep going, no matter what."

Griffith, 50, is a Zen master at that. He recently set the 50 to 59 age-group record at Mount Marathon. His time of 3:15.33 in Saturday's 20th running of the Mat Peak Challenge was the eighth fastest all time.

Griffith said there generally isn't any strategy in the Matanuska Peak Challenge, which features three climb-and-descend portions -- up and over 3,720-foot Lazy Mountain, up and back down 6,119-foot Matanuska Peak, then another climb back up and over Lazy Mountain.

"It depends on how tough you are," said Griffith, the son of legendary backcountry adventurer Dick Griffith, who has hiked solo throughout remote Alaska and is about as tough as they come.

"It's just what you've got in the tank," he said. "(The race) is long. So my strategy is to stay relaxed as much as possible and see what happens."

Women's winner Rachel James, 27 and from Palmer, likes the Challenge because it's close and because it plays to her strength -- hills.

"I like this race because it's long," said James, who won her third title in four years with a time of 3:58:40. "And because there's more hiking than running."

Schilling said it played to her strength, too -- distance.

"The longer races allow me to reach down and see if my training is appropriate," she said. "Longer races allow the runner to make mistakes, because you can make it up. You end up racing yourself."