One of her favorite causes is Friends of Casco Bay, which aims to improve and protect the environmental health of Casco Bay. Like running, she has a passion for her native Maine, where she has started the very popular and continuously growing Beach to Beacon 10k. The side I wasn't aware of about Samuelson was her dedication to the environment. She later went on to run 2:47:50 at the Chicago Marathon that Fall on a day where it was very hot and very uncomfortable. But I distinctly remember the guy moving over three feet and me being totally intimidated. She barked at him something along the lines of "watch the *** out." Maybe she cursed, maybe not. I distinctly remember another competitor running along side her and stepping in front of her stride. I immediately tucked in and dueled with her up and down the hills, for the next mile and a half, before she left me in the dust on the flats. I heard the roar of the crowd when she rolled up on me about a mile and a half into the race. At the time, I was 31 and pretty fit (for me) and she was 53! I had no problem besting Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers that day, but Samuelson personified the title of the film in the way she ran this race. Then the film talks about on thing I was aware of (her continued dominance into her 50's), and one thing I wasn't (her passion for environmentalism).Īs noted in one of my earlier race reports, I tangled with Samuelson at Falmouth in the Summer of 2010. The film shows Samuelson's burst onto the international scene at the Boston Marathon in 1979, running 2:35:15, and then winning the first ever Women's Marathon at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, with admiring accounts from many people who are idols in their own right in the running world. "There is No Finish Line" was produced by the late Geoff Hollister and directed by Erich Little, both of whom served the same respective roles on the extremely popular, "Fire on the Track: The Steve Prefontaine Story." The delivery is very similar to "Fire" and the only disappointment is the fact that the film is only 48 minutes long. From Alberto Salazar to Bill Rodgers to Nike Co-Founder and Chairman, Phil Knight, everyone is equally in awe of how Samuelson has continued to run incredibly over a span of five decades. And after watching "There is No Finish Line: The Joan Benoit-Samuelson Story," it appears I'm not the only one. Joan Benoit-Samuelson is one of those people that truly amazes me.
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