SEWARD -- The emotional seeds of Brian Bethard's commanding victory in Monday's 78th running of Mount Marathon were planted during a training run last month in the Chugach Mountains.
As three-time former race champion Marten Martensen saw it, his friend Bethard possessed the right stuff to join the exclusive club of men who have seized glory on the 3,022-foot peak.
Bethard owned the lungs and the legs for the job.
And as a former college hockey player, he was wired with the necessary emotional equipment, too -- a competitive drive and a high tolerance for pain.
Bethard had finished second in the 2004 race, and the word in mountain-running circles was that 2004 champ Toby Schwoerer would not defend his title. Everything seemed perfect for Bethard to break through, but Martensen believed Bethard was a little too casual about his prospects.
What Bethard needed, Martensen decided, was a figurative kick in the butt.
So he delivered it during that training run.
"I said, 'Hey, snap to it!' '' Martensen recalled. " 'You've got to start thinking about this. You're for real, and you can win this race.' ''
Martensen's seriousness caught Bethard's attention.
"He knows what he's talking about,'' Bethard said. "You never want to get your hopes up. But he had a point. It made sense.''
Running in just his fifth Mount Marathon, Bethard proved Martensen correct Monday.
Beneath overcast skies and in cool temperatures perfect for the torture of marching up and then hurtling down a pitch that averages 38 degrees, Bethard clocked a personal-best 45 minutes, 17 seconds.
Bethard, 34, of Anchorage lopped 30 seconds off his previous best in the race of roughly 3 1/2 miles and posted a time equal to the third-fastest of the last 20 years.
He beat Trond Flagstad, 35, whose nasty spill on the harrowing descent left him bloodied, bruised and eventually bandaged. Flagstad still finished second in a personal-best 45:52. Four-time champion Brad Precosky, 38, was third (46:24) for the second straight year and sixth time in his career.
The speedy time produced by Bethard -- pronounced BETH-erd -- topped a race in which blistering efforts spanned three age groups.
Clint McCool, 41, of Anchorage finished fourth in a personal-best 46:33, which topped Barney Griffith's previous 40-49 age group record of 46:59. Griffith, 47, kept improving too, clocking a personal-best 46:54 to finish fifth.
And in the 50-59 age group, Eddie Baxter, 51, of Colorado Springs, Colo., ran 52:53 to shred Fred Moore's 1990 record of 54:18.
Bethard said Martensen's speech helped him decide not only to run Mount Marathon again but to run it with resolve.
"I'm 34; I've got nothing to lose,'' said Bethard, whose hockey career as a Colorado College defenseman spanned 1989-93. "I don't have a game tomorrow.''
Running hard past hundreds of fans who lined Jefferson Street in camp chairs and came equipped with binoculars and spotting scopes to watch the race unfold, Bethard hit the mountain first among the men pegged as legitimate contenders.
Bethard's younger brother, Todd, 30, who finished 11th, ran close behind him as they neared the base of the mountain. Shortly before, they began their ascent on a thickly-wooded trail, little brother barked at big brother.
"I said, 'Brian, get your a-- going,' '' Todd said.
Brian Bethard led the field to the top, powering up the dirt trail that takes runners halfway up the mountain, then scrambling up the loose rock and shale that coat the upper half of the mountain. Griffth, Flagstad, McCool and Precosky gave chase.
"At three-quarters, we were catching up, and I said to Clint, 'Let's go get him,' '' Griffith said.
"He said, 'You get him.' ''
Bethard owned a lead of perhaps 20 seconds over Griffith at the top of the mountain. Flagstad soon caught Griffith, but in a most unusual way -- by tumbling past him in a scary fall down the trail of rocks and boulders.
"I saw him tumbling, and the sound was awful, horrific,'' Griffith said. "He must have tumbled, slid and skid 100 feet. I thought I'd have to go to him and yell for help because he was going to have to be carried off.''
But Flagstad got to his feet and performed a quick systems check before resuming the race.
"I was like, 'OK, nothing broken,' '' Flagstad said.
After finishing, Flagstad went straight to the medical tent in the finish area. He had multiple cuts and scrapes all along his left leg, a gouged left palm, a scraped- up right wrist, and scrapes and welts all along the left side of his rib cage.
But even if he'd stayed upright, Flagstad doubts he would have caught Bethard.
"He was strong going up and strong going down,'' Flagstad said. "There was no way I could have caught him.''
That's because Bethard was determined to win his first title.
"You don't hold anything back,'' he said. "All you can do is keep heading down the mountain.''
He did that powered by the legs and lungs of a champion.
A swift kick from a friend didn't hurt either.
Daily News reporter Doyle Woody can be reached at dwoody@adn.com.
Top five men
1. Brian Bethard, 45:17
2. Trond Flagstad, 45:52
3. Brad Precosky, 46:24
4. Clint McCool, 46:33
5. Barney Griffith, 46:54
