U.S. Mountain Running Team | Colorado Running Hall of Fame

Jay Johnson is an elite mountain runner and record holder. He was the first American to win the World Mountain Championships in 1987, and also placed 9th in 1980, 22nd in 1991, and 24th in 1992. He held the uphill record at the 32-kilometer Sierre-Zinal Mountain Race for many years at 1:45. He won the Vail Hill Climb in 1987, as well as the Vogorno-Bardughee in 1988. He was an impressive high school distance runner, running a 2:28 marathon as junior at Paavo Nurmi in 1977, earning one of the top five times in the US. He founded the LaSportiva Mountain Cup in 2008, and is a donor & supporter of many US mountain running teams. Johnson is a long-time Boulder resident and his wife Lilly, a two-time Bolder Boulder winner herself, owns Fleet Feet Sports there.

2013 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

photo: examiner.com

Pablo Vigil may be called the greatest mountain runner in the world. He is the only man to have won four straight 32-kilometer Sierre-Zinal Mountain race titles (1979-82), setting a race record that lasted for a decade. He also won the Cleveland Marathon three times and competed in three U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials (1980, 1984 & 1988) and was a member of the United States World Cross Country Championship Team in 1978 and the World Mountain Running Championship Team in 1980. He boasts a 1989 win in the Super Marathon de Hoggar, a 100-mile stage race in Tamanrasset, Algeria and was a National 25k Masters Champion in the Old Kent River Run in 1995. Pablo continues to run cross country and mountain races around the world. He lives in Loveland and teaches literacy in both English and Spanish at Harris Bilingual Elementary School. 13329936444f73de6c8b832