Racers woke up early to promising overcast skies to participate in the Equinox marathon and relay Saturday.

The 44th annual race, sponsored by Running Club North, started at 8 a.m. in front of the Patty Center where hundreds of participants and spectators gathered for the event, including 396 registered competitors.

Racers gathered for various reasons, among them were pleasure, athletic competition and self-challenge.

"Here I am at the point of no return," said K.T. Matolocsy, as she stretched at the starting line.

Matolocsy came up from Anchorage for work and decided to run for fun.

"I'm here, so I figure I'll do it. I just want to finish," she said.

Some runners train all year for the race, while others just stay physically active. Keri Iles, 21, ran her first marathon.

"I am a little apprehensive. I don't feel properly prepared. I do a lot of running in my head, but I didn't train much," said Iles. "My goal is to run the whole thing, except for parts I need to walk."

Iles finished in 52nd place in the women's bracket with a time of 5 minutes, 9 seconds,

Casey Walsh, 20, woke up in time to see the pink sunrise and stretch in the crisp morning air. Walsh, a Juneau resident, said this was his second time running the Equinox.

"I'm an engineer student and had to skip a lot of homework to be here," Walsh said. "I hope to at least come in under five hours." Walsh's final time was 4:40.

First place winner for females was Laura McDonough, 45, with a time of 3:50. Following McDonough was second place winner Nancy Slagle, 25, at 3:51. Third place for females was Ann Farris, 34, at 3:55.

Some runners collapsed, short-of-breath at the finish line, but first place men's winner, Mike Creamer, 38, breezed through with a time of 2:51, appearing full of life and triumphant. Matias Saari, a 36-year-old sports writer for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, took second place with 2:52.

Hartlow Robinson, 39, came in third with 3:03.Wayde Leder, 49, coming in fourth at 3:09, said he had an excellent race and was pleased with his performance. "It was a perfect run, temperatures were just right," Leder said. "Everything just worked."

The first four runners had a distance between them, but once the masses started coming in, they continued steadily for the next four hours when most the finishers had crossed the line.

Winning the relay was team Pork Roll, Egg and Cheese, at 3:11. Following was Nitrate Radicals in second with 3:20:09 and Sweatriver Trio at 3:20:36.

The marathon was the normal 26.2 miles long, but participants said it was unusually difficult due to the trails, highway and extreme elevation changes thanks to Ester Dome.

Relay racer Leslie Almberg ran ran the last leg on a mixed team, which got third overall in relays.

"The last leg is steep. It's kind of scary, it's so steep," Almberg said. "It all went by so fast, but it was a perfect race day."