75-year-old will go for Ascent age group record in her 1,000th race

Photo: Vici and Warren DeHann

Vici DeHaan walked up to the PikesPeakSports.us booth on Saturday with the calm confidence of a lioness. Then she pinned us with a story that blew us away.

On Saturday the 24-year veteran of the Pikes Peak Ascent will take aim at a record that few have ever attempted. She intends to break the record in the women’s 75-79 age group. The current mark is 8:10:23 set by Bess James in 1988.  A little perspective: DeHaan made the
roundtrip 10 years ago in 8:16:39 (the current marathon record in the 65-69
group).

She is the only runner in her age group this year. And get this … it will be her 1,000^th race.

“I figured this would be a good one to do for No. 1,000,” DeHaan said. “My friends ask me why I keep coming back. I don’t know, maybe I don’t have any sense.”

She winked as she said those words. DeHaan, of Boulder, loves running. She was completely at home with some of the world’s best mountain runners – 50 years younger - at Saturday’s Pikes
Peak Ascent and Marathon Expo in Manitou Springs’ Memorial Park.

She admitted that she still runs because she can – because at 75 it’s a gift to shuffle up and down Colorado’s trails. She isn’t about to let the opportunity get away
from her.

“People my age can’t because they … fill in the blank,” she said. “I’m going to keep going as long as I can.”

Her husband, Warren, knows there is at least one other reason Vici has kept at it.

“She almost always wins,” he said.

DeHaan loves the trails. Vici and Warren have a home in the foothills. The nearest trailhead is not far from home.

“I’m a Coloradoan by birth,” she said with 75 years of pride in her voice. “All I do is train.”