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| Cheering for an Icon |
| Friday, April 25, 2008 |
The women's Olympic Trials qualifying race was the day before the Boston Marathon and even though I wanted to sleep in, it was too good to be missed. They had set up a multiple loop course that was very spectator friendly. I took my chair to Memorial Drive along the Charles River in front of MIT. This was a prefect spot to watch because Memorial Drive has a beautiful grassy median divider. The race came by going in one direction, went about a half-mile and came back on the other side of the median. This vantage point enabled me to see the runners eight times during the race.
The race for the three coveted Olympic team spots was exciting. Magdalena Lewy Boulet went out hard and at one point had almost a two minute lead. When she went by me at 18 miles her lead was 1:42. When Deena Kastor came by in second you could tell by the look on her face that she was going after the leader. When I next saw them at 24 miles, Deena had caught her and was leading by about 10 seconds. Magdalena held on for second, with local Boston favorite Blake Russell taking third.
For most of the spectators, the race up front was almost secondary. We saved our loudest cheers for 50 year old Joan Benoit Samuelson. She was easy to spot with her yellow Livestrong cap. Each time she came by the cheers were explosive. I'm sure it was like that the whole 26.2 miles of her race. Where I was there was a group of 6 shirtless college guys, each with a big letter painted on the front of their chests and bellies: J O A N I E. Each time Joan came by, they lined up to spell her name and cheer for her. The first time she saw them her game face flashed into a huge smile as she gave them a thumbs up.
Joan had set herself a rather tough goal. She wanted to break 2:50 at age 50. Her form was never great, needless to say it hasn't gotten any smoother since she won her Olympic gold medal 24 years ago. Still, she powered along, looking exactly the same at 40K as she did the first time I saw her at 10K. Looking at her split at 40K, I knew it was going to be close. She achieved her goal, finishing in 2:49:08, setting a new American age group record. She says it's her last competitive marathon. I'm really glad I got to cheer her on. |
posted by Steve @ 9:12 AM  |
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MHRRC track workouts are scheduled for:
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please email me at
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