Anchorage Daily News

Three-time men's Mount Marathon champion Sam Young began taking folks from Seward on Sunday snowshoeing hikes during the winter, and one weekend five-time defending women's Mount Marathon champ Cedar Bourgeois showed up.

And then she was gone -- leading the group down the trail.

"She just took off,'' Young recalled with a laugh. "I knew I was in trouble.''

Now, when the 82nd edition of Mount Marathon unfolds Saturday in Seward, the women's field could possibly be in for something even worse than its usual thumping by Bourgeois.

Bourgeois, whose average winning margin on the 3,022-foot peak exceeds four minutes, has begun training with Young, and taking coaching tips and counsel from the master, one of six men to break the 45-minute barrier in Mount Marathon.

That collaboration has rejuvenated Bourgeois, 33. Prior to teaming with Young, she said, her solo training had grown stale and her enthusiasm to race had waned.

"I always wanted someone in Seward I could train with, and it's been absolutely perfect,'' Bourgeois said. "Sam is so energetic and so encouraging. It's the best thing that's happened to me in a while.

"This definitely breathes new life into me.''

Bourgeois will be the prohibitive favorite to collect her sixth crown in her hometown. A victory would make her the third athlete in race history to win six consecutive years -- Nina Kemppel of Anchorage won a record eight straight (1996-2003) and Sven Johanson won six straight (1954-59). Another win also would make Bourgeois the seventh athlete to win six overall titles -- Kemppel won a record nine, and race record-holder Bill Spencer's eight wins lead men.

On the men's side, defending champion Trond Flagstad, 39, of Anchorage, will be back after last year blistering the third-fastest time (44:03) in history. He'll face a stacked field -- also returning are Sam Hill (last year's runner-up), Matias Saari (third last year), six-time champion Brad Precosky (fourth last year) and the entire top 25 from 2008. That includes Brent Knight, who was sixth last year, and has won the two mountain races -- Government Peak and the Bob Spurr Memorial Hill Climb -- contested this season.

Bourgeois said working with Young has proved beneficial on several fronts. They have much the same training pace. Also, Young has bolstered her confidence -- Bourgeois, a mother of two who works as a cook at a Seward restaurant, can be tough on herself. And Young has also tempered her training, getting her to work smarter, in part by reducing her frequency of wicked workouts.

"This spring we looked at my (past) training logs, and he had his head in his hands,'' Bourgeois said.

"I told her that she was overtraining, and that it was really common for solo people who train themselves,'' Young said. "I was amazed at the amount of work she was doing -- it was huge.''

Bourgeois said her victory last month at the uphill-only Bob Spurr race on Bird Ridge -- she beat 2008 Mount Marathon runner-up Holly Brooks by 2:43 -- bolstered her confidence enough to believe a personal record (PR) on Mount Marathon is possible.

Bourgeois' best mark in Seward is 51:44, which she clocked in 2005 and stands as the fifth-fastest women's time in history.

"I can't stop thinking about it -- runners obsess about that PR,'' she said. "I'm definitely chasing that. It's always hard to know when it will happen.

"I have a good feeling in my heart, a good buzz. I think it's approachable.''

One thing seems certain: Any woman who wants to threaten Bourgeois' supremacy will need to throw down a spectacular climbing time. Bourgeois last year clocked a downhill time of 12:14, which was 80 seconds faster than Brooks and equal to the 12th-fastest time by a man.

Among men, Flagstad has been floating the Grand Canyon recently, but his rivals can't imagine he will show up with anything less than sharp fitness Saturday.

"Trond's in shape; Trond's always in shape,'' Knight said of the UAA ski coach. "He's going to be a hard guy to beat, for sure.''

Hill has not run either mountain race that proceeds Mount Marathon, but he's known for his disciplined and demanding training, and his uphill abilities are unassailable. He led the field to the top of Mount Marathon in each of the last two races but was slow coming down -- last year, his downhill time of 12:58 ranked 28th in the field and was 2:40 slower than Flagstad's rocketing, race-best 10:18.

Like Bourgeois, Knight, a nordic skier with Olympic ambitions, has modified his training, and he won the uphill Government Peak and Bird Ridge races by an average of about 90 seconds. Knight, 25, said he's abandoned doing so much interval work in favor of longer tempo workouts.

"It feels like my body has responded a lot better to it,'' he said.

Knight's primary ambitions lie in skiing. Mountain racing is an offseason passion for training purposes, sure, but he also enjoys being around the people in those races.

With an Olympic year approaching, Knight must tread a fine line in tempering his downhill running. Mount Marathon's steep pitch and uncertain footing -- scree, shale, assorted tumbling rocks and a cliff at the base of the mountain -- make for a dicey descent. Knight's climbing time of 35:38 on Mount Marathon last year ranked fifth, 2:47 behind Hill, but his downhill of 12:30 ranked 19th.

"There's a slight reserve,'' Knight said of his approach to the downhill. "You either need to A) have a three-minute lead at the top so you can take it sort of easy coming down, or B) have the guts to let it all out on the downhill.

"I'm not going to jeopardize my ski career. I'm going to try to get to the top as fast as I can and get down the mountain as fast as I (safely) can.''

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

82nd Mount Marathon

Saturday in Seward

Race times

9:30 a.m. -- Junior race

11:15 a.m. -- Women's race

3 p.m. -- Men's race

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