An emotional 1984 Olympic champion Joan Benoit Samuelson covered Sunday’s Chicago Marathon in 3:12:13, missing her goal of breaking the age 60-and-over world record but finishing with her daughter.
“Last year I could barely run the 5k,” Samuelson, who withdrew before the 2017 Chicago Marathon with a knee injury but ran an accompanying 5K in 21:47, said in an NBC Chicago interview. “I was determined to come back this year and go the distance. You know, I just got the monkey off my back.”
Samuelson, 61, is the most accomplished U.S. female marathoner in history.