Melody Fairchild

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: MelodyFairchild.com

Melody Fairchild was called the greatest high school distance runner in U.S. history. She was the first high school girl in history to break 10 minutes in the 2-mile (9:55.9) and although she struggled initially at the University of Oregon in the mid-1990s, she came away a 3,000m indoor NCAA champion and an Olympic trials qualifier in the 10K. Melody Fairchild was considered a star constantly on the rise from her earliest years, until 2000, when after a disappointing showing at the U.S. Olympic marathon trials, her name disappeared from race results for a decade. Fairchild, now 39 and living in Boulder, is rising once again and back at the top of the race results, this time on the trails. In 2012 she made the U.S. Mountain Running Team and went on to the World Mountain Running Championships in Italy, where she placed eighth, helping Team USA earn a gold medal for the first time since 2007. She then helped Team USA win another gold medal at the World Long Distance Mountain Running Challenge at the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland. In 2007 she founded the Melody Fairchild Running Camp for High School Girls in an effort to help other athletes overcome the struggles she experienced first-hand in her own running career. Fairchild-500_edit

Ellen Hart

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: Kit Williams

Ellen Hart is a former world-class runner and lawyer. She competed in the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials 10,000m, finishing third, the 1984 U.S. Olympic Trials marathon, and held the U.S. record for the 30K and the world’s best time for the 20K. She has since obtained a law degree and practiced law, co-founded the Eating Disorders Foundation, served on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, served as a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee, and was married to former Denver Mayor Federico Peña. She was the subject of a made-for-television movie about her life, Dying to Be Perfect: the Ellen Hart Pena Story, which chronicled her battle with anorexia and bulimia. She has made an unprecedented comeback in the highly competitive world of marathons and triathlons. At 50, she finished first in her age division in the Clearwater Half Ironman Tournament. Since moving from runner to triathlete, Hart has easily won or ranked in nearly all the events she has entered, setting new course records in some of the more prestigious events.

photo: Kit Williams

Mark Plaatjes

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: Brooksrunning.com

Mark Plaatjes was the marathon champion at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics in Stuttgart. Born in South Africa under apartheid, Mark won two national titles at the marathon and two at cross-country. He ran a personal best marathon of 2:08:58 in 1985 in Port Elizabeth, but was unable to compete outside South Africa, barred from the 1984 and 1988 Olympic games due to the international boycott of South Africa. He sought political asylum in the United States in 1988. In 1993, Mark finished 6th in the Boston Marathon, qualifying for the U.S. team at the World Championships. In the greatest success of his career, Mark stole the lead in the last three minutes of the race at the 1993 World Championships in Stuttgart with a time of 2:13:57, becoming the first American to win a gold medal in a long-distance event at World Championships. Mark is the winner of 38 marathons worldwide and has made his home in Boulder, Colorado, where he is a coach, physical therapist, and the owner of Boulder Running Company. mark plaatjes

Steve Jones

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: pjstar.com

Steve Jones is a Welsh athlete and former world marathon record holder. He has won both the New York City and London Marathons, as well as the Chicago Marathon twice. He finished 8th in the 1984 Olympic 10,000m. In his first full marathon, he won the Chicago Marathon, coming in at 2:08:05 and thus breaking the world marathon record. In 1985 he achieved his career best marathon time of 2:07:13 in winning the Chicago Marathon, just missing the world record again by one second. This time remains the fastest of any British runner. In the 1988 New York City Marathon, Steve won by over three minutes with a time of 2:08:20. He was the first Welsh athlete to appear on the cover of the prestigious running magazine Running Times. Steve currently coaches runners through the training group Boulder Express.

photo: welshathletics.com

Maureen Roben

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: Rick Heitman for Denverwoman.com

Maureen Roben is one of a few American women to qualify for four Olympic trials for the marathon. She has held the women’s Colorado half-marathon record with a time of 1:14:08 since 1986. In 1987 she was the top female marathoner in the country and graced the cover of Runner’s World Magazine. She attended the 1988 Olympics and placed seventh in the marathon. Through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program, she’s prepared over 5000 athletes to complete marathons and half marathons. Maureen is the Co-Race Director of the Platte River Half Marathon, the Buckhorn Exchange Relay, and the Aetna Park to Park 5 and 10-Mile races. As the owner of Run Strong, a Denver based running club, Maureen prepares personalized programs, weekly workouts, and running related clinics including nutrition, injury prevention and form evaluation.

photo: coloradorunnermag.com

Stan Mavis

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: triathlonbusiness.com

Stan Mavis was a world-class runner at Michigan State and was part of the fabled Athletics West Track Club. Stan attended Michigan State on a running scholarship in 1973, where he made it to nationals several times. Stan set an American record for the half marathon in 1980 with a time of 1:02:16. Stan become a prominent name is the sporting goods industry, working and managing the Frank Shorter stores in Boulder, building the Pearl Izumi brand from the ground up, and leading Brooks Sports and Sugoi Performance Apparel. He remains a runner and an avid cyclist.

1980 10,000m Olympic Trials (mavis is third from right). Photo: letsrun.com

Creigh Kelley

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: blacktie-colorado.com

Creigh Kelley (pronounced “Cree”) has been a competitor, agent, race director, national consultant, and elected leader in the national and international running community for 30 years. Since moving to Denver in 1978, he has represented elite athletes as an agent and put on more than 1,000 races across the country. He is President of BKB Limited, which has managed, produced and directly assisted with over 1,000 recreation special events throughout the nation. He has been an integral part of the Kaiser Permanente Colfax Marathon since its inaugural race in 2006, and has been the Race Director since 2008. Creigh has been running since his sophomore year in high school and ran college track at Virginia Military Institute.

Creigh Kelley being passed by Marathon Great Greta Waitz

Creigh being passed by marathon great Greta Waitz

Kim Jones

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

(photo: ptleader.com)

Considered one of the best female marathoners in U.S. history, Kim Jones could also be included in a list of the country’s top 5 marathoners, male or female. She has more high level placings in world class marathons than any other U.S. female marathoner in history with 17 performances under 2:33.

Kim’s experience as a marathoner is unrivaled and her ability to coach that event extends from the beginning level to world class. She is also uniquely qualified to work with people struggling with asthma and allergy issues as she has herself successfully overcome asthma problems to become a world class runner.

During her career as a marathoner Kim has trained with and learned from some of the best runners in the world (Steve Jones, Rob DeCastella, Benji Durden, and Mark Plattjes, Colleen DeReuck, to name just a few).

(photo: anaerobic.net)

Benji Durden

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

: photo: http://lifeskillsconsultingllc.com

photo: lifeskillsconsultingllc.com

Benji Durden is a Boulder, Colorado based coach of elite runners who came to prominence as a distance runner in the early 1980s. Benji was a member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic marathon team, placing second. Benji recorded 25 sub-2:20 marathons in less than a decade and ranked among the top ten U.S. marathoners for six straight years, reaching seventh in the world in 1982. His lifetime best of 2:09:57 came with his 3rd place finish in the 1983 Boston Marathon. Benji continues to run as a Grand Masters (50 and older) in marathons around the country.

1983 Boston Marathon (Durden is on right). Photo: Bob Howard for the Chicago Sun Times

Alan Culpepper

January 31, 2013January 27, 2026 / runningincolorado

photo: Lisa Coniglio, http://www.usatf.org

Alan Culpepper is a track and field and cross-country athlete, qualifying twice in the Olympics: in 2000 in the 10,000m and in 2004 in the marathon. Culpepper finished 17th in the 10,000-meter run in Sydney and 12th in the marathon in Athens. He was also a seven-time All-American, earning three of the honors in cross-country and four in track. When he began running the marathon in 2002, his time of 2:09.41 in Chicago tied him for the fastest American debut in U.S. history. In 2005, his fourth place finish in the Boston Marathon was the highest finish for an American in 20 years. The next year, he finished fifth in the Boston Marathon and won the Denver Half-Marathon. Now retired, Alan and his wife Shayne Culpepper (neè Willie), fellow Olympian and CU alum, spend their time enjoying life with their four children and leading an after-school running program at Boulder’s Douglass Elementary School.