Robinson completes six-pack

All of that up-and-down action makes mincemeat of both bodies and minds, doling out punishment to even the fittest athletes -- who are pretty much the only ones willing to enter the race.

But on Saturday, a couple of runners struck back and thrashed the race's record book.

Gail Taylor, a 43-year-old from Wasilla who began racing two summers ago, crushed the women's record by taking more than five minutes off the previous record held by perennial Mount Marathon winner Cedar Bourgeois.

And Harlow Robinson, a 42-year-old from Anchorage, tied the record for most individual wins by a man, racking up his sixth in a row to tie the mark set by race-founder Braun Kopsack. Robinson's record gets an asterisk -- the good kind -- because his six victories came consecutively and Kopsack's did not.

"Every year's difficult. Every year's a challenge," Robinson said. "Every year I've gotta earn it."

He earned this year's victory in 3 hours, 8 minutes, 13.2 seconds -- a little more than four minutes off the record he set last year. Matias Saari of Fairbanks, the winner of last month's Mount Marathon, was second in 3:12:33.

Taylor finished 10th overall in the field of 65 racers. Her time of 3:36:44 obliterated the record of 3:41:55 set in 2006 by Bourgeois.

Gyongyver Schilling was the runner-up in 3:56:40, which placed her 15th overall.

The race was created in 1989 by brothers Lance and Braun Kopsack, mountain runners from the Valley who devised the merciless event so they'd have a place near home to train for Mount Marathon.

Runners begin by climbing 3,720-foot Lazy Mountain, a steep trail with minimal switchbacks. They descend the backside of the peak, run across an alpine meadow and then begin the relentless climb up 6,119-foot Matanuska Peak, which looms over Palmer.

Once they reach the summit, they're halfway done. They descend Mat Peak, run across the meadow again to Lazy Mountain, ascend its backside and descend the straight trail down the frontside to the finish line.

Add it all up and you have a race of about 14 miles with 9,100 feet of climbing and 9,100 feet of descent.

Saari was leading the race after the first climb-and-descent of Lazy Mountain, but Robinson passed him on the climb up Matanuska Peak, where new snow awaited runners at the top.

Robinson never trailed again but he knew Saari -- and a pack of other challengers that included Hugh Gren and Trond Flagstad -- weren't terribly far behind.

"I could see (Saari) all the way to the top of Lazy Mountain on my way back," he said.

Robinson, a former Crow Pass champ and a regular top-10 finisher at Mount Marathon, said the Matanuska Peak Challenge is the race that means the most to him these days.

"I love it," he said. "To me, it's the most challenging race in Alaska. I love what it's about. They call it the ultimate mountain run."

21st annual Matanuska Peak Challenge

(14 miles with 9,100 feet of elevation)

Overall results

1) Harlow Robinson 3:08:13; 2) Matias Saari 3:12:33; 3) Hugh Gren 3:13:35; 4) Trond Flagstad 3:14:39; 5) Barney Griffith 3:27:47; 6) Darren Mattingley 3:31:04; 7) Lance Kopsack 3:34:20; 8) Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins 3:34:41; 9) Mark Brady 3:36:09; 10) Gail Taylor 3:36:44 (first woman finisher; new women's record); 11) Braun Kopsack 3:39:26; 12) Jonathan Harvey 3:39:49; 13) Karl Romig 3:41:34; 14) Alex Alonso 3:52:54; 15) Gyongyver Schilling 3:56:40; 16) William Tarantino 4:00:39; 17) J. Potts 4:04:45; 18) David Apperson 4:07:46; 19) Aubrey Smith 4:09:06; 20) Patrick Conway 4:13:23; 21) Mark Carr 4:17:02; 22) Kevin Vig 4:18:52; 23) Clarence Ess 4:24:00; 24) Jamie Bruchart 4:24:24; 25) Danelle Dalton 4:25:28; 26) Brad Precosky 4:25:30; 27) Shawn Hull 4:26:45; 28) Nathan Kasukonis 4:32:30; 29) Brad Benter 4:33:10; 30) Bill English 4:34:32; 31) Scott Brockett 4:35:27; 32) Jane Baldwin 4:36:38; 33) Lars Sparkland 4:38:00; 34) Brian Burnett 4:38:07; 35) Charlie Ess 4:41:07; 36) Keri Kogan 4:42:03; 37) Ellyn Brown 4:42:25; 38) Jim McDonough 4:44:25; 39) Ben Summitt 4:45:31; 40) Jason Bozenik 4:45:33; 41) Shelly Schwenn 4:46:00; 42) Amber McDonough 4:54:21; 43) Alex Morris 4:56:45; 44) David Rebische 4:58:56; 45) Cheryl Ess 5:07:31; 46) Curt Hollier 5:12:08; 47) Jarrett Finley 5:13:01; 48) Adam Jackson 5:15:47; 49) David Robinson 5:16:23; 50) Dan Virgin 5:18:59; 51) Matt Setian 5:21:29; 52) Patrick Mettenbrink 5:22:58; 53) Serena Wilcox 5:33:01; 54) Cloyd Crow 5:39:37; 55) Duke Ruzicka 5:47:57; 56) Stacy Johnson 5:50:14; 57) Jana Ozturgut 5:51:02; 58) Doug Harvey 6:07:35; 59) Andy Schaffer 6:10:20; 60) Emily Grossman 6:17:05; 61) Norm Johnson 6:53:19; 62) Evan Steinhauser 7:19:09; 63) Ron Nicholls 7:34:40.