Kopsack masters mountains

One year he fell while making the wicked descent on Mount Marathon and a piece of shale impaled his palm. Gushing blood, he kept barreling downhill and, like always, finished the race in less than one hour, which is the standard of excellence for men on that 3,022-foot torture test of a mountain.

Once treed by a black bear during the running of the Crow Pass Crossing backcountry marathon, Kopsack pegged rocks at the beast to keep it at bay until it lost interest.

And after once taking an awkward step and breaking his foot not much more than four or five miles into the Crow Pass race, he gritted his teeth and covered the 20 or so miles left. Like always, he finished the race in less than four hours, that event's men's standard for studs.

"By the end,'' Kopsack said evenly, "it was painful.''

Yet, as impressive as Kopsack's grit is his streak of sub one-hour finishes on Mount Marathon and sub four-hour finishes in Crow Pass.

When the 82nd edition of Mount Marathon is run up and down the peak overlooking Seward on Saturday, Kopsack, 52, will be shooting for his 25th straight sub 60-minute finish. He has run the race in less than one hour all 31 times he has competed.

"He's an ironman, he's definitely an icon in the mountain running community, there's no doubt,'' said Harlow Robinson, the two-time Crow Pass champ who also runs Mount Marathon. "I think everyone holds him in high regard.

"There's something about the way he goes about things -- no shirt on, his little cammo shorts, the old backpack he uses at Crow Pass with the duct tape. He's old-school.''

And so revered that six-time Mount Marathon champion Brad Precosky named his son Braun.

Kopsack, a master guide who lives near Palmer and operates Knik Glacier Adventures, only once has even flirted with the hour mark on Mount Marathon -- he clocked 59:07 in 2007. But last year, at 51, he ran 57:51 to finish 44th.

"I want to see how long I can keep that going,'' Kopsack said. "Every year, it gets a little tougher. It's being real disciplined and putting in the time and training, and it's the mental attitude and strength to keep it going.''

Kopsack said his training has been hampered by a sore left knee he hurt while guiding in May and still bothers him when he runs downhill, which is one of his fortes. But he ran a time trial on Mount Marathon on Saturday in 59:03, so he was encouraged.

"That gave me confidence -- I didn't know if it would hold up.''

The model for consistent excellence on Mount Marathon is Fred Moore of Seward, who ran a record 27 consecutive races in less than one hour before his streak ended in 2000, when he was 60. Moore, 69, also has run a record 39 consecutive Mount Marathons.

Kopsack comes from a family of mountain runners. His late father, Dick, won Mount Marathon in 1960. And his younger brother, Lance, 44, is a former Crow Pass champ who Saturday will be shooting for his 20th consecutive sub one-hour finish on Mount Marathon. Lance, who finished 29th last year in 54:45, put together a streak of 10 straight top-10 finishes in Seward from 1991-2000 and was runner-up to Marten Martensen in 1995.

"It's a family tradition,'' Braun Kopsack said. "We've followed in our father's footsteps, and (Mount Marathon) is considered a prestigious race in Alaska mountain running, and it gathers the best.

"It may only be an hour, but it's an intense hour.''

Robinson said the Kopsack brothers, who in 1989 founded the punishing Matanuska Peak Challenge -- that 14-miler covering more than 9,000 vertical feet makes Mount Marathon look like a warm-up -- are beloved among mountain runners.

"They are incredibly humble,'' Robinson said. "They do (mountain races) because they're passionate about it. They have a gleam in their eyes because they love being out there in the mountains.''

The only time Braun Kopsack has missed Mount Marathon since his senior men's race debut in 1977 came in 1984, when he was diagnosed with giardia. In hindsight, he wishes he had a do-over.

"I still should have done it,'' Kopsack said.

Of course.

After all, this is a guy who while once on a Crow Pass training run with his brother, Robinson and Ben Spiess, came across four black bears in a meadow. Robinson said he pulled out his bear spray before Braun Kopsack surmised the bears were feasting on a kill and went to investigate.

"He says, 'I'm gonna go check it out,' " Robinson recalled. "So he's waving his arms and yelling at the bears, and he shoes them off into some alders.''

Find Doyle Woody's blog online at adn.com/hockeyblog or call him at 257-4335.