Oct 24, 2008 6:16 am US/Eastern
FINALLY: NYC Runner Gets Her S.F. Marathon Win
Despite Finishing 11 Minutes Ahead Of Recognized Winner, Brooklyn's Arien O'Connell Was Overlooked
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Imagine running a marathon and having the fastest time, but someone else is named the winner. That's what happened to a teacher from Brooklyn, who had to fight for first place.
Thousands of women ran the Nike Marathon in San Francisco last Sunday, including Arien O'Connell, a special education teacher in Williamsburg who ran it in 2 hours, 55 minutes -- her best time ever.
"I threw my arms up, I was shouting, I was screaming shortly thereafter," O'Connell said. "I burst into tears it was an excellent feeling. It was amazing!"
O'Connell had no idea, she'd run 11 minutes faster than the No. 1 elite runner, who clocked in at 3:06. The "elite running group" had started 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the pack, and there's a rule that you must start with that group to win.
"I've never considered myself elite," O'Connell said. "I've run Boston, New York, Chicago marathons where the best female runners in the world are competing, running 2:15, 2:20 times, which is just amazing."
Nike offered the following statement:
"Because of their earlier start time, the runners in the elite group had no knowledge of the outstanding race Arien was running and could not adjust their strategies accordingly."
But after word got out, and runners across the country started blogging about the issue, Nike announced O'Connell as a co-winner of the marathon, so she'll soon receive the same Tiffany trophy as the elite runner.
"I'm gonna come and share it with my kids at school, because they've been really supportive and they've been running with me all the time I've been doing this," O'Connell said.
Because of what happened, Nike has decided to eliminate the "elite running group" from its future marathons. So next year all runners will run in the same group and everyone will be eligible to win.
O'Connell said she'll run her next marathon in Boston in April.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
World's Most Useless Facts
Click to enlarge
CPSC Announces Largest Crib Recall In History 16 mins ago 
Holiday Shoppers On Fence On When To Start 41 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Comments