Ellen Hart has a that includes finishing third in the 10,000 meters at the 1980 Olympic Trials, winning the Bolder Boulder women’s elite title twice and winning her age group at the Kona Ironman World Championships in 2010.
But when she won her age group in Kona for the second time last Saturday, it might have been her greatest achievement, with conditions the toughest of her seven races in Kona. Knee tendinitis severely reduced her running training in the weeks leading up to the race, and the pain bothered her even when she swam or trained on the bike.
“This race took from the inside of me,” said Hart, a longtime Denver resident and member of the Colorado Running Hall of Fame. “In my history of sports, competing since I was 8 years old, it might have been my best race ever. I had to control all the things that I could control. The mental piece was huge.”
She says it is “no exaggeration” that she ran only six times in the last six weeks before the race, but somehow she ran the marathon portion of the event in 3 hours, 37 minutes, 54 seconds — the fastest marathon in her 55-59 age group. Her total time for the Ironman — 2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking and 26.2 miles running — was 11:11:06. Her time of 6:05:05 on the bike segment was second-fastest in her age group.
“I really, truly, didn’t know what would happen on the run,” said Hart, 56. “I was committed to putting on my shoes and running as hard and as long and as fast as I could. That luckily got me to the finish line — the only time I’ve collapsed at the finish line. I was in the med tent for well over an hour. Well, first I was curled up on the grass for 20 or 30 minutes.”
She had finished second at Kona the past three years in her age group.
“I’ve been thinking about this since the day after Ironman last year,” Hart said. “Everything my coach and I talked about was with the aim of trying to win Ironman this year. Then it was like there was no way it was going to happen. I was pretty discouraged. There were a lot of times I said, ‘I don’t want to work out, I just want to stay home and curl up and eat cookies.'”
Hart expressed deep gratitude for her husband, Rob Woodruff, her coach, Boulder’s Neal Henderson, and other family members. She’s also grateful for her recovery from a well-publicized eating disorder that led to a made-for-TV movie in 1996.
“Part of my picture is the history of having an eating disorder and knowing that I can’t go there, anymore, ever,” Hart said. “This sport will just destroy you if you’re not healthy.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or
