Edwards runner Sally Clair never, ever misses the Vail Hillclimb

Sally Clair’s climbing covenant is nearing its golden anniversary. She intends to get there, too.

“My husband goes, ‘you’re going to be doing this until you’re 85,” the 73-year-old Edwards runner, who has competed in all 45 Vail Hillclimb trail run races — including Saturday’s — laughed before doing some easy math. 

“I go, it’s only five more years to 50 — I can make it.”

In “the early days,” Clair remembers gathering herself on the starting line with Diane Boyer and another elite competitor out of Boulder.

“We’d all look at each other and say, ‘well, whose going to get first place this year?” she recalled. Clair did on multiple occasions. She knows there’s at least four signboards — the old trophy — somewhere in her house. Another fond memory: breaking an hour on the original 6-mile course out of Lionshead. Clair’s not sure what her personal best is on the new 7.7-mile, 2,233-foot climb, which ends at Mid-Vail, but she’s totally content just being a part of the atmosphere.

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Year after year.

“I just think everybody does it because it’s such a challenge,” she said. “It’s a beautiful course, and it’s so rewarding when you get to the top. I think that’s why people do it and I think that’s why I enjoy doing it. Everybody is kind of going, ‘yeah! I did the hill climb!’ It’s very satisfying.”

The route isn’t the only alteration Clair has witnessed over nearly five decades of town series racing.

“The original races had kegs of beers at the top,” she gleamed. Why did they take that away? 

“I don’t know!” she laughed in response.

Clair arrived in Vail from San Francisco right around the event’s first iteration. Her resume contains many well-known California races as well as nine road marathons and several triathlons. She even qualified for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.

“I never went because it was always our busy time of year. I couldn’t get away,” she said. Ironically, one rare planned getaway almost ruined the Vail Hillclimb streak.

“Originally they were going to do the race on the Fourth, and then they switched it. We had a trip planned. We were leaving to go to Europe,” she recalled of a VRD HillClimb race from years ago.

“So I called them and said, ‘I thought it was going to be today. If I get a friend to run it with me, and we time it and do the whole course, will you trust me?”

Clair time-trialed the whole thing. When asked to defend her dedication (wouldn’t we all have just taken the year off?) she said, “Just because I love doing it.”

“I think it’s a really fun race to do and get to the top,” she continued. “There’s such good camaraderie. Back then, there was such a strong group of people that did it.”

A lifetime of races would eventually catch up with her tendons, joints and bones, but it hasn’t taken the fire out of her heart.

“One of the doctors said, If you keep running Sally, we’re going to be replacing your knees and your hips and everything … and I’m like, ‘I don’t want surgery,'” she said. Still, she continues to make the hillclimb happen.

“I walk and kinda slog it,” she said after finishing in 2 hours, 5 minutes and 53 seconds in No. 45. There’s little evidence of bitterness common to once-prolific endurance athletes unable to maintain elite performance. Instead, the runner displays a contented smile when asked if there are other races that make her calendar.

“I usually don’t (have any),” she stated matter of factly. “I’d rather go out and hike a 14er now. I’ve kind of been there done that. … Done a lot of races, put a lot of miles in.”