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By Davy Crockett
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Congratulations to Eric Clifton, originally from North Carolina, now of California, who was inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame on November 19, 2021. Clifton was the fastest and most dominating 100-mile trail runner during the 1990s as trail ultras became popular in America. His “go for broke” race strategy was legendary, as he demonstrated to the rapidly expanding sport that amazing speed on trails could be achieved. During his entire career, he has attained more than 60 ultra wins, including 17 of his 31 100-mile finishes. He was known for his colorful running tights and was the original “Jester” of ultrarunning.
During the 1990s, Clifton had the most overall 100-mile trail wins in the world. He was a prolific ultrarunner and very fast, with more sub-15-hour 100-mile finishes on trails than anyone during that era. He would win by wide margins on hilly trail courses, sometimes by hours. He set more than 20 course records, still holding some of them after three decades.
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Eric Clifton was born in 1958, Albuquerque, New Mexico but moved to North Carolina when he was young where his father went into the milk business. Eric started distance running as a senior at Northeast Guilford High School in 1976, in North Carolina, where he ran the two-miler. After finished his first race, he swore to himself that he would never run that hard, and that fast for the rest of his life. A friend suggested that he go out for cross-country. Clifton said, “Running cross-country? That sounds like me, I want to do that. I asked, ‘How many miles a day do you guys run?’ He replied, “About ten miles a day.’ OK, I’m out. He scared me away.” Little did Clifton know that he would average running 10 miles a day for much of his future running career.
Serious Running Begins
Clifton went to college at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where running teams were not fielded. The running boom had not yet reached North Carolina. But in 1977, he started his true running career. As a college freshman, he read an article in the school newspaper about a professor who would be running in the Boston Marathon. He recalled, “I read this article and I was amazed. Wait a minute, there are races that are competitive events for people who aren’t in school doing track or cross-country? It blew my mind.” Within a week he entered his first race, a seven-miler. He had a blast and was hooked on running after that.
Running at Boston became his primary goal. At the time, the qualifying standard for him was 2:50. He ran his first marathon in 3:38. As he kept trying, his finish times went up instead of down. It took him three years before his times dramatically improved. “I finally had a race where I didn’t die. I ran strongly the entire way and did a 2:39. And everybody asked, ‘What did you do?’ I replied, ‘It was what I didn’t do, I didn’t die.’” But by the time he qualified for Boston, he had lost interest and did not run there until many years later.
Triathlons
In 1980, Clifton watched the Ironman on television in its third year and knew that the event was for him. During the ‘80s, Clifton shifted away from running marathons, turned to triathlons and excelled. He ran his first of several Ironmans in 1981.
First Ultra – 1982
In 1982, Clifton ran in his first ultra, a 50-mile road race in Wilmington, North Carolina, called “The Lite Ultra” that ran on a four-mile loop. Don Aycock, age 30, originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, one of Clifton’s training partners, had subscribed to Ultrarunning Magazine. Clifton recalled, “He told me, ‘Hey, there is this 50-miler in Wilmington, let’s go do that.’ I thought he was a little nuts, but I was doing Ironmans, so I said ‘I’m game.’”
But Clifton first wanted to try to run 50 miles in training, to convince himself that he could do it. They picked a 50-mile bike course and attempted to run it using stores as aid stations. Aycock dropped out after 42 miles, but Clifton continued. At the 50-miler mark, was his wife at that time, Shelby Hayden-Clifton, and his mother. He remembered, “When I ran around the turn, and I saw them 200 yards away, and I knew I was going to finish the 50-miler, I got so emotional and was weepy. That was a really impactful moment for me.”
When he later did the 50-mile race, it was an awful experience. It was held during a tropical storm and very cold. He injured his knee, and it took him months to heal. He finished 8th in 7:25:11, but had no desire to run anymore ultras, because that one hurt so much.
First Trail Ultra – Mountain Masochist 50
Clifton eventually became burned out on triathlons because there was so much cheating going on. He turned to ultra-cycling with Shelby. But after she broke her neck from a crash during “Race Across America,” and had a long recovery, Clifton turned back to running with the encouragement of Aycock. He discovered there was 50-mile trail race in the Blue Ridge Mountains, west of Lynchburg, Virgina, put on by David Horton, called, “Mountain Masochist” in its 4th year. Clifton had limited experience on trails because the trails were few near his home. But he found some, did some training and fell in love with the experience.
On race day, there were 79 starters at Mountain Masochist. A tropical storm had moved through the area the night before, and it was raining at the start. “I was standing there at the start line with all these legends standing there. I was just a kid of 28 years old. I didn’t know what I was doing. We started off and I was a bundle of energy. They started off at the sedate pace but seemed to know what they were doing so I held back.” He continued on with the frontrunners for several miles when they came to a hill. “I heard somebody say, ‘This one’s a walker.’ I stopped, looked back, and everybody was starting to walk up this hill. I thought, ‘No! I don’t care what happens. This is pathetic, I’m going for it,’ so I took off.”
He continued ahead of the group until mile 14 when he needed to make a bathroom stop. Like the rookie, he was, he went way off into the woods for a long stop, watching runner after runner go by while he was doing his business.
When he tried to take off to catch up, his legs were dead, and others passed him. At mile 34, in cold rain, at the beginning of the “infamous loop,” a five-mile stretch, the hardest part of the course, he was ready to drop out. But he wanted to at least do the loop before quitting. His crew gave him a soft drink and soon his energy kicked in and he blasted along and finished strong in 6th place, in 8:22:47. “I was astounded, I couldn’t believe it. I was hooked on trail ultras after that.” Clifton would place second the next year and would win in 1990, setting the course record.
First 100-milers
Clifton, like most serious trail ultrarunners, next set his sights to run Western States 100 in 1987. He ran strong through Foresthill (about mile 62) and then faded a bit. Then he experienced his first 100-mile nausea spell and thought he was seriously sick with a bug. Not knowing that this was common during a very long race, he pulled out. Looking back he said, “Oh, man, that was nothing. I could have pushed through that if I’d have just known, I thought I was dying.”
Early in his career, Clifton liked to register for races using funny aliases, like “Jester Wag,” or “Toots AsIGo.” Some serious runners without a sense of humor would be bothered by this comedy. While Clifton was always serious about running, he never “took it seriously” since it was just running.
Learning from his rookie mistakes, Clifton next tried Angeles Crest 100, but again after reaching about mile 75, he dopped out because the climbs ahead intimidated him. He then DNFed his third 100-miler but did not give up trying.
Barkley Marathons
Despite being intimidated by steep mountains, and without a 100-mile finish yet, in 1988, Clifton went to run The Barkley Marathons in his backyard in the South. This difficult race (or journey) was the brainchild of Gary Cantrell and Karl Henn in 1986. Clifton went for Barkley’s third year, when it was billed as being 55-60 miler with 27,000 feet of climbing and a 36-hour cut-off. In his letter to the entrants, Cantrell wrote, “There is no way you’ll be finishing the race.”
Clifton already knew what a character Cantrell was. He met him for the first time in 1980, at Grandfather Mountain Marathon in North Carolina. Clifton and his wife Shelby had finished the race and were standing where runners entered a track for a finishing lap.
“We saw this blond-haired guy come jogging up and he stopped right at the entrance to the track. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. He took a cigarette, stuck it his mouth, held a lighter, but didn’t use it yet. He stood there, and we asked, ‘Aren’t you going to finish?’ He said, ‘yes, I’m waiting for a woman to come in.’” In those early days, women running marathons were still a rare sight and he knew the next woman finisher would get huge cheers as she ran around the track. “So a girl came running up and he tucked in behind her. He lit his cigarette and started smoking behind the woman. The huge crowd started cheering for her and he was smoking his cigarette, waving, taking in the cheers, but stayed behind her. He knew it was a great way to get accolades.”
At the 1988 Barkley, Clifton flew around the first loop, finishing first in a speedy 5:50. During the second loop he made a critical error missing a short section going to the top of Frozen Head again. Clifton finished that loop in second place but decided to quit.
In 1990, Clifton returned to Barkley. It had been extended to five loops. Clifton, David Horton, and David Drach (1956-2018) finished loop three together in 26:22. Clifton was the first to ever start loop four, but wisely returned after 100 meters. Horton was just waiting for his chance. With only seconds remaining to leave on loop 4, he went out and traveled 150 meters to claim the record for the longest Barkley up to that time. Clifton later tried to measure the 1990 course carefully on a map and thought that one loop was actually 35 miles and the three loops he ran were more than 100 miles.
“When we were doing it for the first few years, the trails were not only unmarked, the trails were not there. We were bushwhacking, finding the books. You could look off to your right see someone 100 yards going down the mountain that way, you could look to your left and see someone 100 yards going down that way. It was wild.”
1989 Vermont 100 – First 100-mile Finish and Win
In 1989, Clifton went to run the inaugural running of Vermont 100, a hilly, mostly-dirt road course with more than 14,000 feet of climbing. Over the months, Clifton had been taking in all the advice from veteran 100-milers. It seemed like there were so many “rules” to follow, like pacing yourself and fueling. At Western States he was even chewed out by another runner for not wearing a hat. “At Vermont, I just said, ‘I’m going to drop out of this race anyway, let me just have some fun, and run like I want to run for a change, and see what happens.’”
It was reported, “The consensus before the race among those familiar with Clifton’s style was that he would be the easy winner, as long as he didn’t “blow up. Some traditionalists in the crowd called for his removal from the race for showing up at the start wearing a pair of outrageous tights, the right leg consisting of horizontal yellow and black stripes and the left leg violet polka dots on a shocking pink background.” (He eventually had a small home business where he made running tights from wild fabrics, and many ultrarunners still have them today.)
When the start gun was fired, Clifton took off with 114 starters and began to have a great time in the lead. He struggled a bit in the pre-dawn because he didn’t carry a light, but saw lights behind him, giving him confidence that he was going the right way. He kept pushing hard, always running, and just kept waiting to “die” but he didn’t.
Coming into a large field, he missed a turn. He ran all the way around the field until he discovered that he was back at his starting point, running a bonus mile. He continued on but soon went off the course because some kids had took markings down at a critical junction. “I’m running and I’m going for it! I got to a major intersection in a tiny town, and there were no course markings. I went into the post office and asked if this was part of the racecourse. ‘What race?’ So I went back out and ran back uphill toward the last place I saw a marking. As I was coming back, the race director drove up in a truck and explained the marking problem. I didn’t care, I was having such a good time, I was so relaxed.”
Clifton had run six bonus miles because of that blunder and had lost his lead. He caught up with Lion Caldwell and asked him who was ahead, thinking he had lost about 20 places. Caldwell replied, “’There is one guy right in front of us, and then there’s another guy who was just gone.’ I laughed and said that I thought that was me.” Clifton ran hard ahead and within four miles, caught the runner and was back in the lead.
Around mile 71, he started to feel tired, and decided to try walking. “I hit a steep hill, and I walked for about a half mile. I got to the top and discovered that walking hurt more than running, so I started running again.”
Clifton went on to win, finishing in the daylight in 15:48:59. His first 100-mile finish had been a win with seven bonus miles. In the coming years, he would continue to run well at Vermont 100, winning for four straight years, improving his course record which he held for six years. He still holds the 4th fastest time ever at Vermont with 14:25:00.
Clifton learned a lot from this first 100-mile finish. It truly got him hooked on running 100-milers. “I didn’t realize you could feel great running 100 miles. Every race I did after that, I tried to recapture that experience.”
1992 – Four 100-mile Wins – Ultrarunner of the Year
Winning wasn’t enough for Clifton, he went after setting course records. When he went to a race, he looked at the course record and decided that would the slowest that he would run. In 1992, he won four trail 100-milers during that calendar year, something no one had ever accomplished before. It took 14 years before anyone exceeded that milestone, when far more 100-milers were available to run. Not only did Clifton win in 1992, he came away holding the course records for all four 100-mile courses: Old Dominion, Vermont, Superior Trail, and Arkansas Traveller. Those feats earned him the honor to be named the 1992 “Ultrarunner of the Year” by Ultrarunning Magazine.
At 1992 Old Dominion 100 in Virginia, it was said that Clifton was running so fast that the race director had difficulty keeping up for a while riding his bike. It was believed the course record was untouchable, but Clifton beat it by seven minutes for at time of 15:10:00 and he still holds that course record nearly 30 years later.
At the 1992 Vermont 100, with 212 starters, it was reported, “Eric Clifton seems to own this course as he successfully defended his title from last year.” He won with a time of 14:52:16.
The 1992 Superior Trail 100 was one of the best races of Clifton’s amazing career. He considered it a true trail race, mostly on narrow single-track, with occasional rocky, rooty, and marshy sections.
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At the time, I had been experimenting with high mileage, so the month before I was running about 120 miles a week. So I was tired when I started the race, but I was at the point where I was so fit, that it really didn’t matter. I just kept cranking and in retrospect, I couldn’t believe the time that I did.” During the race he only stopped to walk a few short sections. He finished in 17:21:42 on that difficult course and still holds that course record after nearly 30 years, more than 1.5 hours faster than the next time.
At 1992 Arkansas Traveller 100, Clifton used hard determination to succeed there. He had quit this race the year before at mile 80, due to fatigue. But this year, for the first 41 miles went “all out.” “I was flying. It was like I was dancing on everything, the trails the rocks, the roads. I felt so great. But at mile 42, I started to get nauseous, ten times as bad as at Western States when I dropped out.” He continued on for five miles, hoping it would go away, but it did not.
He wanted to drop out, but he had made a commitment to himself a few months earlier that he would never again drop out of a race while leading it. He slowed down and hoped that someone would eventually pass him, but no one did. At mile 85, he was angry that no one had caught up, that he had suffered for 43 miles. His attitude changed, and he hammered it to the finish for a course record of 16:30:02, and a win by more than an hour.
JFK 50
In 1990, Clifton went to run America’s oldest ultramarathon, the JFK 50 in Maryland for the first time. The course runs on the Appalachian Trail and the C&O Towpath. The weather for the race was usually wet and cold, and he did not like running in cold weather, but decided to give it a try. He went there hoping to win and finished well, in third place, with 6:19:06, only three minutes behind the winner, Joe Blackmon, with David Horton coming in second place. The next year Clifton did win, with 6:06:09, beating Horton by 20 minutes.
1994 was Clifton’s historic year at JFK 50. He came to the race in very good shape, having run high mileage that year. It really wasn’t a focus race for him that year, but it was on his schedule. The night before the race, Clifton and several others lodged together and read a Washington Post article previewing the race. The long article was mostly about Carl Andersen, coming from California, who the reporter called out as the favorite. He gave past winners Clifton, Horton, and Chris Gibson a small honorable mention. Andersen was indeed an elite ultrarunner and at the time was married to Ann Trason. He and Clifton had dueled for many miles at the 1993 Vermont 100 with Andersen winning in 14:46 after Clifton dropped out, breaking Clifton’s steak of four wins there.
On race morning, the starters included many of the greatest American ultrarunners of the era. Clifton was still stewing over the article. He thought, “’OK, Carl may win, but let’s see what he’s got.’ After the gun went off, I went through the two-mile point in 11:18. I was hauling. When I hit the Appalachian Trail, I was hitting splits that I didn’t even think I could do.”
It was reported, “If anyone was going to beat Clifton this day, they would have to do it by coming from behind, way behind.” He came off the AT (mile 15.7) in 1:52, faster than anyone had run it, with a ten-minute lead over Andersen. Doubters here heard saying, “This guy is going to die a big death on the canal.”
Clifton continued to run hard on the C&O Canal. “Normally, I would slack off on the C&O, because I’m not a flat runner, and its flat for a marathon. But that year it was, ‘No, he’s back there!’ So, I just kept pushing and pushing.” He completed the marathon section on the canal in an amazing 2:52 but so did Andersen. Clifton held him off to win by ten minutes, smashing the course record with a time of 5:46:22. He said, “I was amazed, it was one of those special races that I just couldn’t believe.
Mike Spinnler, the former record holder and JFK 50 race director wrote that year, “In arguably one of the greatest ultramarathon performances in U.S. history, Eric Clifton crushed a field of 478 starters in a sterling course record.” He went on to finish JFK 50 twenty-one times, with a total of four wins. His course record stood for 17 years.
Fighting Depression
Throughout his life, Clifton has struggled with mild depression. “One of the reasons I run, is because I find it is one of my most effective therapies for combatting depression. Back in my day we didn’t talk about it.” At 1992 JFK 50, Clifton had a big lead at mile 28, but dropped out because of a serious depression spell. It was a surprise to everyone, even the eventual winner, Chris Gibson.
Looking back, Clifton credited running for saving his life. He had a best friend in high school who grimly said it would be a race between them to see who would take their own life the first. Sadly, his friend did take his life in 1988 at the age of 29. “I definitely give credit to running. I don’t know why, but I just know it staves off much of the darkness. I still get depressed, but it is tolerable.”
1996 Rocky Raccoon 100
Clifton continued to win at multiple ultra distances during the mid-90s, but he was starting to be challenged by younger elite trail runners that came into the sport gunning for him. At the 1996 Rocky Raccoon 100, both Clifton, age 37, and Ben Hian, age 26, came to break the course record and pushed each other on the root-invested trails.
“Eric Clifton led the rest of the field into the woods, as is his custom, and then ran away from the field for the rest of the race.” Clifton’s first 20-mile loop was a blistering 2:19. His last loop was run in 2:57. The race director observed, “On his last loop in the gathering darkness, he ran by without a flashlight, moving as fast as if it were broad daylight and he were fresh.”
In the end, they both broke the record, but Clifton came out on top, smashing it with his career best 100-miler time of 13:16:02, more than an hour ahead of the much younger Hian.
Clifton said, “The only 100-mile race I ever broke 14 hours in, was because of Ben. I was racing Ben the whole way. I just hammered from step one. I give him full credit for that race, having him back there pushing me. It wasn’t until the last 20-mile lap that I got 20-minutes ahead of him.”
It was reported, “Clifton’s 13:16 is believed to be the fastest 100-mile trail run ever, as well as one of the best 100-mile times on any course in the U.S. in recent years.”
Clifton always set high goals for his races. “Once you accept that something is possible, then you start working for that, and that makes in probable. You have got to think it before you can do it. I think that is one of the things that led to my early success. I think back in the day so many people knew what they couldn’t do. New people coming into the sport today don’t know what they can’t do so they do it and set a whole new level.”
Goal to Win Western States 100
During the 1990s, Western States 100 was the most well-known 100-miler in the sport. Through all its years since its inaugural year, in 1977, there had never been an overall winner outside of California. Other 100-miler races of the time had diverse winners outside of their home state, but for some reason California had a strangle-hold on its championship. One thing was very clear back then, the course was not well-marked for those unfamiliar with it, and thus locals had home-cooking advantages. Getting off course, was always a struggle.
Clifton set a goal to be the first one outside of California to win the famed race. He tried, and several times led the coveted race in the latter stages but could not hold on. He estimated that more than 100 runners had come up to him, convinced that he could win if he only would change the aggressive way he ran. There seemed to be “The right way, the wrong way, and the Western States way.”
Clifton had moved to Maryland in 1996 and started training with Mike Morton and Courtney Campbell who were young, talented, and very fast ultrarunners. Together they went to California that year to try to break the California streak. Upon arriving, they were surprised to learn that they, east coast runners, were being singled out as the favorites that year.
During the 1996 race, at about mile 53, Clifton was running in fifth with Morton and Campbell ahead of him. Both Morton and Campbell missed a key turn because the single marking there was practically hidden. About a dozen others, not intimately familiar with the course, also went off track. Morton was really fired up about the problem, got back into the race, but later dropped. A Californian again took the win. Clifton, Campbell, and Aycock finished together, well back in 22:57:38. The race that year was a big disappointment, but a very determined Mike Morton finally broke the 20-year California streak by winning Western States the following year in course record time (for the 100-mile version of the course). Clifton started Western States ten times, but could never pull together good race there and only finished twice.
Going Out Fast
Clifton was well-known for going out fast in races, but also has been criticized for his large number of DNFs, a total of 80 lifetime DNFs in his 304 ultra starts, and about half of his 100-mile starts. He had his own style of aggressive racing, doing it his own way, that successfully racked up his numerous wins.
Clifton explained his aggressive racing strategy: “Anytime I tried to run conservatively, pacing myself, they always were awful races. I would get to 50 miles and feel wiped out. The way I looked at it, if I was going to get tired at 50-70 miles anyway, I should at least run the way I wanted to run, as long as I could, and then see what happened. As long as I can have a good start and a good finish, I didn’t care about the middle. If I had to pay a price for the fast part in the middle, and it took me a while to recover, that was OK, I didn’t mind.”
When asked what was the cause of his high number of DNFs, he said, “If you are running on a knife edge, sometimes you go just a little too far over. When I fall apart, it’s like complete total exhaustion. “Whenever I started a 100-miler, I never knew if I was going to finish it. A lot of that was because of the way I raced it, because I wanted to go as hard as I could.”
Looking back, he now understands that in some races, if he would have stopped for an hour, he probably would have been able to go on, but in his mind that was not doing really well. Once it became more work than play, he would choose to stop.
“What was important to me, was the feeling I got when I was running well. I get a peak performance when I push myself, so why should take the chance, be conservative, pace myself, to get to a finish line, without a peak performance? Once I finally finished a 100-miler, I knew I could, so it wasn’t so much the challenge of getting to the finish line, I wanted to get to the finish line as well as I could.”
Iditarun
Clifton never liked to run in the cold, but in 1994, he decided to challenge himself and run the Iditasport, a grueling 100 miles over Alaska tundra. Temperatures dipped below zero and at times the snow was more the two feet deep. He wore five layers of clothes, two pair of gloves, and specially spiked shoes. He won the race five hours faster than the next runner but finished with frostbite on his toes. He permanently lost the feeling in some of the tips of his toes, but for ultrarunners, that isn’t a big deal.
Badwater
While Clifton is known mostly for his exploits on trails, he also competed in many roads ultras and won there. He was especially elite on the hilly road courses. He won Gary Cantrell’s difficult hilly Strolling Jim 40-miler twice, in 1992 and 1993, and won the prestigious Edmund Fitzgerald 100K in Minnesota, in 1999 and 2000. He also ran marathons with many wins and podium places.
After two failed attempts running the blazing hot Badwater Ultramarathon across Death Valley, he won the 1999 race and was featured in the documentary movie, Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135. He won in 27:49:00.
Running in the Later Years
Into his 50s, the wins continued for Clifton. He had a streak of 19 years winning at least one ultra each year. As he slowed down and could not compete at the level he did for many years, instead of leaving the sport like so many elite ultrarunners have, he made a mental shift. “I have been trying to discover the joy of just being out there, even though I’m running 20 minutes a mile. I’ve shifted into more of a finish mentality.” In recent years he has finished nearly all of the ultras that he has started.
In his competitive years, at races, he usually ran alone in races because he was so far in front, but today that has all changed. “I love being out there, I love the smells, the sights, the sounds, the people. The older I get the more I appreciate other people and getting their stories and hearing them.”
With an ultrarunning career spanning nearly forty years, in 2021, at the age of 63, Clifton was still running and racing at an elite level for his age group. He is a streak runner, and never misses a day running at least one mile to continue to help combat depression.
As of 2021, Clifton has run about 141,000 life-time miles, finished 224 ultras, 99 marathons, and 88 triathlons/duathlons. His personal records are mile: 4:44, 10K 33:00, marathon 2:31:56, 50K 4:04:20, 50 miles 5:46:22, 100K 7:55:06, and 100 miles: 13:16:02.
Clifton’s aggressive style was patterned after by many of the next generation of elite trail runners. Hall of Famer, Kevin Setnes wrote: “Clifton has established many course records on trails that seem unimaginable to most of us. He did not set these records by holding back, but by being aggressive and attacking the course. Surely there were times when he would crash and burn from such tactics, but seemingly just as often he would end up winning by a wide margin, in course record time.” Hal Koerner added: “Growing up, I was a great admirer of ultra legend Eric Clifton. He held virtually every 100-mile record for years and was a guy who didn’t believe in walking or hiking during a race.”
