Suzanne Lundgren qualified for the Boston Marathon on Sunday, crossing the finish line of the Denver Marathon with a blissful smile and arms raised in triumph. Monday she goes to the doctor to find out how far the cancer that started in her liver has spread.
“This gives me power,” said Lundgren, 47, who finished in just under 3 hours, 45 minutes. “It could be bad news, it could be good news, but (the marathon) will give me power to take whatever they say.”
A friend, Henry Guzman, ran with her and held one of her upstretched hands as they crossed the finish line. It was a bittersweet moment for him, too.
“Hey, we do what we can,” said Guzman, a marathon veteran clearly humbled by the experience. “If you look at someone who can run through (cancer), train through it and keep their mind focused, it’s a great inspiration. I’m just glad I’m part of it.”
Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1967, captured the essence of the marathoning phenomenon with a line in a book she wrote with her husband: “If you are losing faith in human nature, go and watch a marathon.”
Former University of Colorado runner Clint Wells won Sunday’s race in what he considered a training run, but the stars of the day were the ordinary people who achieved something extraordinary: finding a way to train while keeping up with the demands of jobs and families and then surviving the arduous demands of a 26.2-mile foot race.
“When people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I raise the level of self-confidence and self-esteem of people in America,” said race director Dave McGillvray, also race director of the Boston Marathon. “They say, ‘How do you do that? Do you have a medical degree?’ No, I put on road races.”
Sallie Tipton of Denver, 36, was one of many runners overcome by emotion at the finish line. Tipton began running in April and said it has helped her achieve emotional growth after surviving some abusive relationships.
“Every mile meant something,” Tipton said between sobs. “It’s all the way up from here. I’m finally learning to love myself.”
Suzanne McMillan of Littleton, 35, lost 100 pounds through running in the past year. Her time of 5:41:27 was far from the time she would need to qualify for Boston (3:45) but McGillvray was so moved he gave her a special invitation.
“I’m euphoric,” McMillan said. “This is huge. I did it. This is bigger than my biggest dream come true. This was my lifetime dream, this is beyond my lifetime dream. I’m going to Boston! I can’t wait.”
A former “fat couch potato,” McMillan signed up for the marathon thinking if she paid for an entry, she would follow through.
“Then I started looking at the training schedule and I thought, ‘I don’t know that I’ll ever do it, I’ll just pretend.’ I kept pretending. Each long run, I hit it, I kept going and going. Then it wasn’t pretending, it was accomplishing.”
McMillan’s husband, Luke, followed her progress on a bicycle riding much of the way on a flat tire. At the finish line he gave her 26 red roses.
“I’m so proud of her,” he said. “It’s just an amazing transformation that happened within her.”
Casey McClurkin burst into tears as she crossed her first marathon finish line. A year ago, she had a hard time making it once around Washington Park.
“This is the most important thing I’ve ever done for myself,” said McClurkin, 31. “I set a goal, I committed to it, and then I did it … I can do anything. There’s nothing like it. I recommend it to everyone. What a great way to find yourself.”
Jean Morrison of Lakewood, 32, is in graduate school at Colorado School of Mines while working fulltime for the U.S. Geological Survey. She figures if she’s strong enough to tackle that load and train for a marathon, she can handle the defense of her doctoral thesis, too.
“Doing this makes me feel empowered,” Morrison said. “I know now if I’m mentally tough enough to handle this, I’m pretty much mentally tough enough to handle anything.”
The marathon often is about friends helping friends, too. A veteran of five previous marathons, Chris Rodriguez of Lakewood paced Morrison.
“That was amazing,” Morrison said. “It was so perfect. She would say, ‘Get your arms down … Your feet are light … You’re on a cloud … You’re strong, you can do this, you trained hard.’ I owe her such a debt.”
Staff writer John Meyer can be reached at 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com.
