Joan Benoit Samuelson probably shouldn’t have run Sunday, but she did anyway.
Samuelson, winner of the first women’s Olympic marathon in 1984, ran a 5K leg on a Colorado Colfax Marathon relay team with an injury because she felt obligated to team members who donated $4,700 to charity to run with her.
Then she ran the last 12K leg with a teammate.
“If my doctor knew, he’d probably (object),” Samuelson said while icing her left calf. She also has plantar fasciitis in her left foot.
Samuelson, who lives in Maine, is a frequent visitor to Colorado but had never raced here. Her father was stationed with the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale during World War II.
Tuesday she plans to climb Pikes Peak with a brother and a nephew. Wednesday she wants to climb Grays and Torreys peaks with old college friends.
“I really want to glissade down Grays and Torreys,” said Samuelson, 50.
An advanced mountaineering technique, a glissade is the descent of a snowfield using an ice ax for control.
Finishing feels fantastic
Sherrie Muldoon of Jefferson, a small town in South Park, was overcome with emotion after finishing Sunday’s half-marathon in 2 hours, 48 minutes, 11 seconds.
Muldoon, 45, battled asthma much of her life and was overweight because the disease prevented her from exercising until recently.
“When I was a kid, I was really fat,” Muldoon explained. “I lost 100 pounds and I got treatment for my asthma. I could never do this before. I just thank God because I did it, I finished. It’s a really incredible feeling.”
Muldoon still feels the childhood pain asthma caused her.
“It was really bad,” Muldoon said. “You’d look out and see all the other kids playing on field day, and things like that, things that people take for granted – running, playing soccer. It was very traumatic.”
Muldoon had another reason to feel emotional Sunday: Her 93-year-old grandmother died a week ago today. During the race, Muldoon wore a brooch her grandmother gave her.
“She had a real problem with people who didn’t finish what they started,” Muldoon said. “I knew I had to finish it for her.”
Whatever it takes
Michael McBride of Arvada walked the half-marathon in 4:21:44 while pulling a mini-trailer loaded with four bottles of oxygen. McBride, 53, suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was hospitalized in February 2005.
“They weren’t sure I was going to live,” McBride said. “I was one of those oddballs who would work out three or four days a week and smoke (cigarettes) on the way home. I stopped smoking and started walking, and walking, and walking.”
McBride walked the Bolder Boulder in 2005. Last December he walked the Las Vegas Marathon in 8:20:51. He only has use of 45 percent of his lungs.
“The part that doesn’t work, doesn’t work at all,” McBride said. “The part that does works really well.”
