At 3,022 feet, with perilous terrain everywhere on its relentlessly steep slopes, Mount Marathon is equally unforgiving of women's and men's racers who labor up it and rocket down it in the iconic Fourth of July races in Seward.
And beginning in 2016, the timing of the pain inflicted will be absorbed on an equal basis of sorts too.
The women's race at Mount Marathon, traditionally a late-morning event, will now be run in the "main event'' afternoon time slot in even-numbered years and the men's race will be the final race of the day in odd-numbered years.
The Mount Marathon race committee cited the "equal value'' of the women's race in announcing the change.
Since 1985, when a separate women's race debuted, the women's race has been run at 11:15 a.m. and the men's race at 3 p.m.
That schedule will flip, and start times will be moved slightly earlier, in 2016, when the men's race will begin at 11 a.m. and the women's race will go off at 2:30 p.m.
The afternoon time slot is considered Mount Marathon's spotlight race because it is the last race of an event that annually attracts spectators by the thousands and has alternately been referred to as the Super Bowl or Olympics of Alaska mountain running.
"It's been a long time coming, and an important step to make,'' said Lori Draper of the race committee. "We feel like the last race of the day has always been the highlighted race, the race that's most important, even though that's not true.''
Long-time men's racer Harlow Robinson applauded the move.
"I think it's progressive,'' Robinson said. "The women are worthy of that prime-time spot every other year.
"If we say we're a gender-equality society, we need to practice it. The women's race is every bit as worthy of the spotlight.''
The Mount Marathon race committee also has instituted a no-pets policy on the mountain and downtown during race day – no dogs allowed, leashed or unleashed -- citing safety and sanitation concerns. Also, timing of races will be pushed forward slightly – for instance, the mixed-gender junior race that traditionally starts at 9:30 a.m. will start at 9 a.m. beginning next year.
Still, the alternating start times for women and men marks the most compelling change ahead at Mount Marathon.
The race committee has in past years discussed alternating the times of the men's and women's race, said committee member and racer Karol Fink. Fink said the committee focused on the idea in earnest after last summer's men's race was televised live by Anchorage-based KTVA Channel 11 but the women's race was not.
"We're making a statement – one, that wasn't right; and, two, if you (televise live) again, you'll be televising the women's race,'' Fink said.
KTVA's live coverage of only the men's race prompted a letter to the editor in the Alaska Dispatch News from Olympic nordic skier and two-time Mount Marathon champion Holly Brooks, who called the disparity in coverage "embarrassing and outdated.''
Gary Donovan, KTVA's chief operating officer and general manager, said the station could not broadcast the 2015 women's race live that Saturday because, as a CBS affiliate, it was contractually obligated to broadcast The Greenbrier Classic golf tournament from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
"It never had anything to do with not wanting to carry (the women's race),'' Donovan said. "I couldn't legally carry it. What we should have done in retrospect is streamed it online.''
Donovan said KTVA intends to cover both the men's and women's races live in 2016, when Mount Marathon will be run on aMonday and his station will have fewer obligations to CBS.
The Fourth of July does not fall on a weekend again until 2020, when it is a Saturday.
Brooks said she was thankful the Mount Marathon race committee decided to alternate start times for men and women – she laughed when she said running in the heat of the afternoon held little appeal – and happy to hear KTVA intends to broadcast both races in 2016.
"Personally, I really, really do not want to race at 2:30 or 3 – that's my selfish reason – but as long as a change in coverage comes with it, I'm a huge fan,'' Brooks said.
Mount Marathon debuted in 1915 – according to race folklore, it began in a very Alaskan way, as a bar bet – and has been run 88 times. The event draws extensive media coverage in the week leading up to the Fourth of July and on race day.
Mount Marathon in 2015 featured a pair of record runs. Sweden's Emelie Forsberg, one of the world's top women's mountain runners, clocked 47 minutes, 48 seconds, to slash 2:42 off the 1990 record of Anchorage's Nancy Pease. Also, six-time junior girls champion Allie Ostrander of Soldotna, bested Pease's mark by two seconds and finished runner-up in her senior-race debut. And Spain's Kilian Jornet, widely considered the best mountain runner in the world, broke the men's record in his race debut, clocking 41:48 to knock 1:07 off the previous standard set by Anchorage's Eric Strabel in 2013.
Both the men's and women's races have delivered tight finishes in the last decade. Brooks in 2014 held off Christy Marvin of Palmer by just two seconds and Strabel in 2013 edged Outsider Rickey Gates by just nine seconds. Also, seven-time women's champion Cedar Bourgeois of Seward beat Brooks by just 10 seconds in 2010, and six-time men's champion Brad Precosky of Anchorage beat two-time champ Trond Flagstad by just 12 seconds in both 2006 and 2007.
Brooks said equal coverage for the women's race would help Alaska girls see their role models competing and would expand the narrative of a race that is never short on compelling storylines among both elite and recreational racers.
"Who wouldn't want to watch Allie Ostrander next year on Mount Marathon?'' Brooks said.
When alternating start times was discussed in Alaska mountain-running circles as long as a decade ago, one concern was whether a significant number of spectators would leave Seward after a men's race that was run in the morning instead of mid-afternoon. Since, though, the women's field has become bigger and matched the roughly 350-runner cap of the men's field, the quality of both the women's elite and recreational fields has become deeper and the Mount Marathon event has become an all-day spectacle.
Robinson thinks the notion of a diminished crowd for a women's race in the afternoon is unlikely.
"People drive to Seward for the Fourth of July, no way they're leaving when there's the races, the parade,'' Robinson said. "It's a destination.''
Two-time women's champion Patti Foldager of Seward pointed out that Mount Marathon long ago evolved from being an event where the junior and women's races were considered mere preludes to the men's race.
"Anymore, it's a family affair,'' Foldager said. "It's mom, it's dad, it's the kids. Dad isn't going to leave town -- he's waiting for mom (to race).''
Alternating start times for the women's and men's races will impact both genders. Men will no longer have to wait around most of the day for their race each year, and in even-numbered years, provided the weather is warm, they will no longer race in the higher temperature of mid-afternoon.
"We always talk about how we wish we could just get it over with,'' Robinson said. "As the day goes on, you become a bundle of nerves. And if it's a sunny day, the weather gets warmer while you wait.''
Alternating start times also portends possible advantages women's racers have never enjoyed. When the mountain was slightly wet for the women's race several times in the last couple decades, men's racers said traffic from the women's race dried the trail and delivered optimal footing for the men. Also, Mount Marathon's downhill begins with a long section of shale that men's racers often report gets churned up – softened -- by women's racers and makes it easier for the men to negotiate at high speed.
Post-race information from women who have always raced in the morning is often used by men as a race-day scouting report on the last-minute conditions on the mountain. For instance, in hot, stifling conditions in 2009, Brooks led much of the race but succumbed to heat exhaustion and made a trip to the emergency room – and later checked herself out so she could officially finish the race. Strabel made note of the conditions and Brooks' struggle, and just prior to his race submerged himself several times in a nearby river to lower his core temperature.
"There are advantages to running in the afternoon and advantages to running in the morning,'' Fink said. "Now, you get to try them all.''
Besides, said Foldager, who supports alternating start times, Mount Marathon is always subject to change.
"If it doesn't work out, we go back to the old way,'' she said. "But I think it's going to be fine.''
Reach Doyle Woody at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr.