Eric Clifton from North Carolina, and later from California 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. He is the first Hall of Fame member to be inducted that branched out to win Badwater in Death Valley, the Iditasport in Alaska, and to excel at the Barkley Marathons in the rugged Tennessee mountains.
During the 1990s, Clifton had the most overall 100-mile trail wins in the world. He was a prolific trail runner 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.
Clifton started distance running at Northeast Guilford High School in 1976, in North Carolina, where he ran the two-miler. He went to college at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where they did not field running teams. But he trained on his own, started running on roads, and kept a running journal. He worked up to running marathons and also found his way to triathlons, competing in about 50.
Clifton ran his first ultra in 1982, a 50-mile road race. A few years later, he discovered trail running, and started his long career running trail ultras. He attempted his first 100-miler at 1987 Western States but did not finish and went on to DNF two more 100s until he better figured out how to recover from the typical problems experienced running that distance.
Still a rookie ultrarunner, Clifton dared to run The Barkley Marathons during its third year in 1988 when it was only 55-60 miles. He flew around the first loop finishing it first in 5:50 but made a course error during the next loop. He returned in 1990 to try again. He finished the three loop “fun run” and was the first in history to start loop four, wisely turning back after 100 meters.
Clifton finally succeeded running 100 miles by finishing and winning the inaugural 1989 Vermont 100 with an outstanding time of 15:48. Winning wasn’t enough for Clifton; he went after setting course records. 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, but he also came away holding the course records for all four 100-mile courses: Old Dominion (still holds), Vermont (held for six years), Superior Trail (still holds), and Arkansas Traveller (held for ten years). Those feats earned him the honor to be named the 1992 “Ultrarunner of the Year” by Ultrarunning Magazine.
Perhaps Clifton’s greatest ultrarunning accomplishment came at America’s oldest ultra, JFK 50 in Maryland. In 1994 he went out very fast, running the 15.7-mile Appalachian Trail section faster than any before him. Doubters said, “This guy is going to die a big death on the canal.” The demise never came, and he finished ahead of a stacked field of many of the best ultrarunners of that era, with a course record time of 5:46:22. 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.
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 won the 1994 100-mile Iditarun in Alaska and the 1999 Badwater 135 Ultramarathon in Death Valley.
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. 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 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. His 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.”
Clifton once stated: “The key is not in making myself run hard but in letting myself run hard, completely releasing the heart and soul to go.” Into his 50s, the wins continued. He had a streak of 19 years winning at least one ultra each year. 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.
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
Read/Listen/Watch an Ultrarunning History Podcast episode featuring Eric Clifton: https://ultrarunninghistory.com/eric-clifton/