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Two decades later, Joan Samuelson still running _ but no longer alone

ROB GLOSTER, AP Sports Writer
Monday, March 15, 2004

The cars would pause, allowing passengers to gawk. Young Joanie Benoit would slow her training run to a walk and pretend to be looking at the flowers. Often she'd escape to an abandoned military base near her Maine home, so no one could see her running.

A decade later, she helped bring women runners out of the shadows by winning the first women's Olympic marathon. Today, Joan Benoit Samuelson still is running -- but she's no longer alone.

The 46-year-old Samuelson plans to run in the U.S. Olympic women's marathon trials in early April in St. Louis, though she realizes she has little chance of qualifying for the Athens Games. And she hopes to run in a San Francisco marathon designed for women set to debut in October.

"I could be the mother of half my competitors," she says. "I'm still passionate about the sport, but I'm not focused like I used to be. I don't have the same energy and drive I used to, but the passion still burns."

Samuelson already had won the Boston Marathon in 1979 and 1983 when she became a national hero with her historic Los Angeles Games gold medal. In her typical all-or-nothing style, she broke away from the field -- and favorites Grete Waitz and Ingrid Kristiansen -- early in the race and ran alone most of the way.

"I would definitely say I was inspired by her. I remember watching her in 1984, I watched her win the gold medal on TV," says Marla Runyan, who was 14 at that time and now is one of the top U.S. distance runners.

"I think what is remarkable about her is that you have to remember she is from a different era, a time where we didn't have the support we have now. They didn't even think women could compete at that distance," Runyan says. "There's never going to be another Joanie, no matter how fast anyone runs."

After the win, Samuelson circled the Los Angeles Coliseum track wearing a painter's cap and waving an American flag.

"I remember her running into the Coliseum, and the national anthem playing after she won," says Deena Drossin Kastor, a top U.S. marathoner who was 10 at the time and focused on soccer. "I started running the very next year."

Samuelson still runs about 50-70 miles a week. She competes in master's races -- her time of 2 hours, 42.28 seconds in the 2002 Chicago Marathon set a national 45-49 age group record -- and an occasional marathon.

Her last marathon was in Honolulu last December. She was there as a speaker and decided on the morning of the race to run, finishing in 2:53.54.

Samuelson has not qualified for the Olympics since 1984. During the past two decades she has often been derailed by injuries, as well as raising two children -- 16-year-old Abby and 14-year-old Anders.

"I break my running career down into BC and AD -- before children and after diapers," she says. "I used to base my day around running, now I base my running around my day."

She also coaches at a middle school in her hometown of Freeport, Maine, does volunteer work focusing on children and the environment and is the founder of the Peoples Beach to Beacon 10-kilometer race in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

"Running and marathoning is a lifelong pursuit. It's a cheap form of therapy, it clears my mind and sets me up for the day," she says. "It's important I find time for running. The kids understand that it's a passion, and my husband and I try to emphasize the importance of finding passion in one's life.

"I'll try to qualify for one more trials in 2008, when I'll be 50. Just being part of the Olympic trials is exciting for me at this time."

Allan Steinfeld, race director for the New York City Marathon, says Samuelson's victory at the 1984 Olympics was a breakthrough for American women runners. He was chief referee for that race, and was on the lead vehicle when Samuelson made her break.

"I said to myself, `Boy, is Joanie crazy. What is she trying to do?' Grete and Ingrid assumed Joanie would just come back to them, but she kept opening up the lead," Steinfeld says. "Then she comes through the tunnel and the crowd goes absolutely wild. I've never heard anything like it. There were tears in people's eyes."

For Kathrine Switzer, who made headlines in 1967 by becoming the first woman to run in the Boston Marathon despite race officials' efforts to pull her off the course, Samuelson carried on the tradition of groundbreaking women's runners -- and still is doing that.,

"What Joan did is she kind of took everything the pioneers did and pushed the physical barriers way, way out there and electrified this country," Switzer says.

"Joan is right out there once again showing the way. This is the new territory. I've always said as wome get older they get better. There are no barriers. Women over 40 used to be little old ladies. But now women over 40 are hell on wheels."