Libby James Image byCourtesy of marathonfoto.com
Libby James ran one of the best races of her life at the 2013 Disney World Half Marathon in January, to finish in 1:45:52 (1:46:08 gun time). Her age-graded score of 103.75 percent topped all other performances of 2013 of any age or gender.
“I had 16 relatives running the Thanksgiving Day run with me in downtown Ft. Collins,” she says. “It’s a 4-miler and I finished right in the middle of my six grandsons, three ahead of me and three behind me. To me, that’s the legacy of having run all this time, that my kids and my grandkids run. I love that. And yeah, I feel older, and yeah, it does get harder. But I guess I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.”
Jane Welzel is a five-time Olympic Trials Marathon participant (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000). She has won several marathons including the 1979 Nittany Valley Marathon (2:48:47), the 1983 Philadelphia Marathon (2:36:18), and the 1988 Hokkaido Marathon (2:40:53). Following a terrible car accident in 1984 that broke her neck and left her in a body cast for three months, Welzel amazingly recovered, again qualifying for the Olympic Trials, and was named Runners World Comeback Runner of the Year in 1988. She went on to become the National Marathon Champion in 1990 (2:33:24) and then win the 1992 Grandma’s Marathon in 2:33:01, setting a personal best. She was the 1996 USATF National 25K Champion (open and master) (1:29:47), both the 1996 and 1997 USATF Master Runner of the year, as well as the 1997 Runners World Master Runner of the year.
Lidia Simon is an elite long-distance runner, earning a silver medal in the marathon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics where she represented Romania. She competed in five Olympic Marathons (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012). She is a six-time participant at the World Championships in Athletics, winning gold in 2001 and taking bronze medals at the Marathon World Championships in 1997 and 1999. She holds three victories at the Osaka Ladies Marathon (1998, 1999, and 2000) and set her personal best during her win in 2000 at 2:22:54. She placed 1st in the 2007 Toray Cup Shanghai Marathon. She also won the first edition of the combined Osaka Marathon in 2011, and then again in 2012. Her half-marathon personal best time of 1:08:34 is the Romanian national record and she won the Bolder Boulder in 1999 and the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon in 2011.
Colorado Running Hall of Fame 