He said the pace was hard right from the gun

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with a runner bolting clear of the field.

“So that was kind of cool,” Norris said. “I was surprised. I felt really good climbing, but my time was behind previous years.”

When Norris got to the top with a minute and a half lead, he was able to show the other half of what makes him so good — his technical ability on downhill terrain.

Just below the summit, there was a snowfield this year. Norris thrilled the crowd watching the Jumbotron at the finish line by gliding down the snow on his feet and sticking the landing on the sharp c level contact list scree unscathed.

“Probably just growing up a multisport athlete and always playing,” Norris said of his technical abilities. “I think that’s a big part of it.

“It’s keeping training and your workouts more like a game, and when it’s more like a game, you just end up jumping around in the mountains and doing fun stuff like sliding on the snow up there.”

Those workouts used to be solely focused on being a World Cup cross-country skier. When Norris first won Mount Marathon in 2016 and snapped Killian’s record, he began talking to pro runners like Rickey Gates and discovered all that racing trails could offer.

“By doing that, I was checking out new places and had an excuse to travel in the summer to run in beautiful places,” he said. “And it’s like a whole new world of amazing people to get to know.”

This past winter, Norris mixed in running intervals on the treadmill with skiing for the first time. He said it actually helped his skiing and he finished second at the American Birkebeiner 50K freestyle in February. He also has a running coach for the first time since high school cross-country.

He won the U.S. Mountain Running Championships in May in New Hampshire, qualifying for the World Trail Running Championships in Spain in September.

“I just kind of always know if I run hard all summer, it’ll make me fit for skiing,” Norris said. “If I get fit for skiing, it’ll help my running.

“It’s just kind of this endless cycle.”

The competitors at Mount Marathon know it all to well, particularly Max King of Bend, Oregon. King has won two titles, but finished second to Norris for the third time Friday with his time of 44:23. Take Norris and Jornet out of the picture, and King would have the top two times in race history.