SAMUELSON RETURNS TO BOSTON AFTER 18 YEAR HIATUS
By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly - used with permission

(12-Apr) -- The first-ever Olympic Marathon gold medallist for women, Joan Samuelson, announced yesterday that she will run her first Boston Marathon in 18 years on Monday.  The 53 year-old mother from Freeport, Me., has competed at Boston six times, winning in 1979 and 1983.

"This is something I was thinking about from the beginning of the year," Samuelson told reporters on a conference call hosted by the Boston Athletic Association yesterday.  "I did a lot of 20-mile runs during our long Maine winter."  She added: "It's been a long winter."

Ironically, Samuelson found inspiration to train from the weather.  New England was particularly cold and snowy this year, but Samuelson embraced the snow, adding more Nordic skiing to her routine.  She recently completed a grueling six-day ski-trekking trip from Chamonix, France, to Zermatt, Switzerland, with husband, Scott, sleeping rough in huts and using ropes, crampons and an ice axe to assist her.  She realized after that trip she was strong enough to take on the Hopkinton to Boston course.

"I'll say it's been an unorthodox training period for me," Samuelson explained.  She continued: "It wasn't an easy trip.  The first day we had to belay... It was very treacherous."

At last October's Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Samuelson clocked 2:47:50, one minute and 50 seconds outside of the USA Olympic Marathon Trials qualifying time of 2:46:00.  Samuelson ran the Trials in 2008 --that competition was held in Boston but was not part of the Boston Marathon-- but tried to tamp down speculation that she'll try for that qualifying time on Monday.  Indeed, she and race organizers haven't yet decided if she will run in the all-women's professional race or the mass (mixed-gender) race.  Samuelson said she prefers the latter where her 23 year-old daughter, Abby, will also be running.

"I'm leaning towards starting with the masses," she said.  "I always run better in the pack... I think that's probably where I'll wind up."

Clocking 2:22:43 in 1983 at Boston, Samuelson recorded a world best time.  She would run Boston three times after that, finishing 9th in 1989, 4th in 1991 and 6th in 1993.  At the Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston in 2008, Samuelson ran 2:49:08 at age 50, setting an American age-group record for the distance and finishing 90th out of 124 finishers.  She completed the race wearing a Boston Red Sox cap and received enthusiastic support from the crowds.

"It's home," Samuelson said of Boston's hilly course.  "I feel grounded there."

PHOTO: Joan Samuelson and daughter Abby after the 2010 Freihofer's Run for Women (courtesy photo)

ENDS

asdfasdf

tesat

tesat

tesat

tesat

tesat