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SEWARD — Precisely one week before staging yet another stab at seizing victory at Mount Marathon, the race he covets most, three-time runner-up Trond Flagstad joined friends Barney Griffith and Harlow Robinson for one last time trial to gauge his fitness.

The three men power-hiked the south side of Flattop Mountain in Anchorage. Flagstad reached the peak first, stopped his watch and marveled at some divine digits: 16:55.

That was 25 seconds faster than he had ever blazed the ascent, and the result filled him with hope and confidence for Mount Marathon.

“I knew I was fitter,’’ he said.

And Griffith knew his friend was dialed in and capable of generating something special Friday on Mount Marathon, the 3,022-foot peak overlooking Resurrection Bay.

“I could tell he was a different Trond this year,’’ Griffith said.

Exactly.

He’s no longer three-time runner-up Trond Flagstad.

He’s Mount Marathon champion Trond Flagstad.

Faster, stronger and fueled by a gnawing hunger to win the 81st edition of the state’s most prestigious footrace, Flagstad clocked the third-fastest time in race history.

Cheered by thousands of fans as he raced off the mountain and ran alone down city streets on a cloudy Fourth of July afternoon, Flagstad crossed the finish line in 44 minutes, 3 seconds.

At long last, after three straight second-place finishes, the last two by a mere 12 seconds each, Flagstad completed a journey of joy. And just as the field could not stick with him through the trip of nearly 3 1/2 miles over city streets and up and down an unforgiving mountain of dirt, scree, shale and snow, neither could Flagstad’s elation be leashed.

“Yes! Yes! Finally!’’ Flagstad roared. “Finally!’’

The man who wore bib No. 2 was suddenly, finally, No. 1.

“Amazing,’’ Flagstad said as he sat in a metal folding chair while a race volunteer removed the electronic timing chip from his shoelaces. “Everything was perfect.’’

Flagstad, 38, grinned and laughed, then looked back up Fourth Avenue. No other runner was in sight.

“Where are they?’’ he giggled. “It’s my turn, I guess.’’

Flagstad’s time, one minute, 49 seconds faster than his previous best on Mount Marathon, sits behind only the race-record 43:23 eight-time champion Bill Spencer ran in 1981 and a 43:39 blitz by Toby Schwoerer in 2004.

The new champ also crushed the 30-39 age-group record, knocking 46 seconds off Sam Young’s previous standard (44:49 in 1985).

Flagstad, the University of Alaska Anchorage ski coach, celebrated with Robinson after Robinson finished 13th.

“Thanks for helping me,’’ Flagstad said as they embraced.

“I’m so happy for you,’’ Robinson said.

“Amazing,’’ Flagstad replied.

Sam Hill, 30, of Anchorage, employed his usual surpassing speed uphill to lead the race to the peak, where he circled Summit Rock and began his descent 50 seconds ahead of Flagstad.

But Flagstad, one of the fastest downhillers in the field, passed Hill halfway down the mountain.

Hill finished second in a personal-best 45:59. Matias Saari, 37, of Fairbanks, earned third in 46:42, 75 seconds faster than his debut in 2007, when he finished seventh.

Six-time champion and two-time defending champion Brad Precosky, 41, claimed fourth place in 46:59 and Jens Beck, 38, grabbed fifth in a personal-best 47:04. Brent Knight, third each of the two previous years, finished sixth in 48:08.

And Griffith, 50, who four times in the previous 10 years broke the 40-49 age-group record Precosky now owns, obliterated the 50-59 age-group record to finish seventh. He clocked 48:23, which slashed 2:34 of Eddie Baxter’s previous mark (50:57 in 2006).

Women’s Race

Preparing for this year’s Mount Marathon had a touch of mystery for Seward’s experienced mountain-running queen, Cedar Bourgeois.

She hadn’t run a single tune-up race in advance. Only by word of mouth and newspaper clippings did Bourgeois learn that a mountain-racing rookie from Anchorage was on a roll this season, a wild card ready to challenge her quest for a fifth straight title.

“This year was different because I knew about Holly,” Bourgeois said of Holly Brooks, an Alaska Pacific University Nordic ski coach who won the uphill-only Bird Ridge and Government Peak races earlier this season. “That was exciting for me.”

What began as a perfect morning for mountain running — overcast sky with temperatures in the mid 50s — ended with a familiar scene for thousands of spectators gathered along Lowell Canyon Road, Jefferson Avenue and Fourth Avenue between the 3,022-foot mountain and Resurrection Bay.

Bourgeois, 32, blazed her fastest downhill ever and completed the race just shy of 3.5 miles in 52 minutes, 11 seconds, the sixth-fastest women’s time in Mount Marathon history. She joined Nina Kemppel as the only women in race history to win five straight titles.

“I was in control more than usual,” Bourgeois said. “I think I’m getting used to this thing, dealing with emotions and knowing what’s coming up.”

Brooks, 26, crossed the finish line 3:18 later, not terribly disappointed with her second-place finish. After all, she came here prepared to learn how to handle the mountain’s sand, scree, shale and snow that rewards experience.

And the rookie was up against a woman that racers call Seward’s “mountain goat.”

“Hasn’t she won on average by 4 1/2 minutes?” Brooks asked. “Then I took about minute off of it.”

Junior Race

Coming off a ninth-place finish in last year’s junior division race at Mount Marathon, Austin Gillespie of Seward envisioned another top-10 finish Friday.

What he didn’t foresee was victory.

But Gillespie used the strength derived from his 20 or so training trips on the mountain overlooking Resurrection Bay to win the race halfway up the 3,022-foot peak and back into town.

Gillespie, 15, clocked 30 minutes, 4 seconds, in cool, cloudy conditions.

Allison Barnwell, 16, of Seward, made it a hometown sweep minutes later, crossing the line in 36:35 to win the girls division.