Art Vinall was the 87th person out of 93 participants across the finish line Saturday at the 13th Annual Pilot Butte Challenge.

The 93-year-old Bend resident walked the mile-long course — with its 493 feet in elevation gain to the top of the iconic east-Bend volcano cone — in 28 minutes and 43.1 seconds. Vinall was greeted at the finish line by a small group of vocally supportive friends and family members.

He headed to a refreshment tent at the summit of Pilot Butte for shade and sustenance on a warm, breezy morning. He talked and commiserated with other participants and onlookers, remarkably showing no signs of fatigue.

Race directors presented Vinall with a gift: a yellow LIVESTRONG bracelet. The gift was a token of admiration for Vinall’s most pressing challenge of late — fighting cancer into remission.

Runners and walkers alike huffed and puffed up the dirt nature trail that spirals up Pilot Butte. For many of them, the Pilot Butte Challenge was not about place or time. It was about a community landmark; registration fees go toward maintenance and improvements in Pilot Butte State Park. Too, it was about willpower and desire.

Angel Hernandez, a senior cross-country runner at Bend’s Mountain View High School, was the first person across the finish line on the day and the top overall finisher, clocking in at 8 minutes, 15.8 seconds.

“I had a cold. I’ve been sick for a whole week,” said Hernandez, 18. “I wasn’t able to train. It was really hard to race.”

One minute after Hernandez, Melissa Hubler crossed the finish line, the first female to do so. Hubler, 16 and a junior cross-country runner at Bend High School, was motivated to run a fast time by the Challenge age-group records board located at the trailhead at the base of the butte.

“I’ve always just wanted to do it (run in the Challenge) and I never got around to it,” Hubler said. “I always run by the (records) board and I think, ‘My name should be up there.’ ”

It will be now. Hubler completed the course in 9:34.1, beating the old record for the women’s 15-18 age group — 11:09, set last year by Sara-Anne Leavitt, of Redmond.

Hubler’s age-group record was one of three set on the day. Brayden Durfee, 13 and of Bend, finished his mile in 8:48.9 to set a new record in the men’s 13-14 division, while Suzi MacLeod, 77 and of Bend, shaved two minutes off the record in the women’s 75-79 division with a time of 16:14.1.

For Vinall, the oldest participant in Saturday’s event, the challenge began in June, when he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

“I was scared to death,” he recalled.

Vinall immediately underwent treatment, including seven weeks of chemotherapy that wracked his vocal cords. He could not raise his voice above a whisper during an interview Saturday. (He said he is scheduled to undergo corrective surgery to restore his voice in the coming week.)

Vinall said he maintains an active lifestyle, hiking Pilot Butte “most days” in the warmer months and skiing Mt. Bachelor in the winter. One of his immediate goals: to have hiked Pilot Butte for 500 miles, up and down the trails. He said that, after Saturday, he has 12 miles to go.

Though Vinall claims that the air capacity in his left lung has decreased as a result of the cancer, he was able to complete his third Pilot Butte Challenge without incident. “Every year it gets better,” he said.

Upon receiving the first-place medal for his age group — he was the only entrant in the men’s 90-98 division — Vinall was treated to a hearty round of applause from family members and fellow entrants.

He said he wanted to “get the word out that hey, (a cancer diagnosis) ain’t as bad as it used to be.” On Saturday, his actions spoke louder than his words.

“It’s getting easier,” he said. “If you keep at it, you can do anything.”