Battle Mountain alumna wins Vail Hill Climb in first attempt at iconic trail run race

Battle Mountain alumna wins Vail Hill Climb in first attempt at iconic trail run race

When it comes to uphill running, ignorance usually isn’t bliss. Course familiarization helps. While most of the 275 runners — representing 18 states and three different countries — toed the Vail Hill Climb start line Saturday morning knowing they’d signed up for a suffer fest, Milaina Almonte made her first try at the 7.7-mile, 2,200 foot ascent to Mid-Vail look easy. “My strategy was to start pretty conservative. I didn’t want to push it not kn…