![]() ![]() “They could be just starting, they may not even be runners, (all the way) to kind of your elite athletes to people who run trails.” I’m on the floor, I’m getting shoes, I’m talking to runners of all levels,” Hilton said. ![]() “Every day, all I do is talk with runners. Shortly after planting his own flag in the mountain town, Hilton got a job at Run Flagstaff, a specialty running store located downtown on Historic Route 66. Some travel to Flagstaff for a short stint to improve their times before a big race, while others, like Hilton, have something more permanent in mind. Since 2012, the company has boasted a total of 85 Olympic and Paralympic medals from athletes in 44 different countries, and was created with staff from the highly regarded Center for High Altitude Training at Northern Arizona, which closed in 2009 because of budget cuts. A 2008 study on altitude adaptation found that runners experienced “a significant increase in red blood cell mass” over the course of just three weeks at an elevation similar to that of Flagstaff.Īthletes from all over the world flock to the running mecca to take advantage of this phenomenon, often referred to as “natural blood doping.” The city is an even more appealing training location when considering the overwhelming number of trails - it has more than 56 miles of urban trails, according to Discover Flagstaff - and the existence of HYPO2, a world-class training center for elite athletes. With oxygen less available at higher altitudes, the human body is forced to create additional red blood cells, which distribute oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. The secret to the city’s importance to the endurance athlete community is in the science. “Flagstaff and Boulder, Colorado, are probably the two biggest centers for elite distance runners in the country.” “It’s one of two really big hubs for training,” Hilton said of his home of seven years. That combination makes it a popular destination for tourists, but for distance runners - Hilton among them - it makes Flagstaff a practically unparalleled paradise. He admits to feeling the natural concerns of such a move on his Kerouacian drive across the country, but Hilton knew what to expect.Īs he would later put it, “Its reputation precedes it.”Īt 7,000 feet above sea level, Flagstaff overlooks sprawling coniferous forests and sits safely above the sweltering heat domestic to Arizona. Hilton, a four-time Division II All-American runner for Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, had just graduated and had never been to Arizona, or much of anywhere west of it. FLAGSTAFF – When Nick Hilton crammed everything he owned into his 1999 Volkswagen GTI back in 2012, he had only seen pictures of Flagstaff, the city that would soon be his home. ![]()
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