1500m

Lorraine Moller

/ runningincolorado
Photo: IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times

Photo: IAIN McGREGOR/Waikato Times

Lorraine Moller is a former athlete from New Zealand who competed in track athletics and later specialized in the marathon. Lorraine’s international career lasted over 20 years and included three Commonwealth and four Olympic Games. She won the bronze medal in the marathon at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona at the age of 37. In 1985, Lorraine broke the New Zealand 1,500m record, running 4:10.35 at Brussels. Lorraine ran her first marathon on in 1979, winning Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota in 2:37:37. The time was the fastest ever by a New Zealander and the sixth fastest ever run by a woman. She then won her next seven marathons. She was a triple winner of the Osaka Ladies Marathon, and in 1984 won the Boston Marathon. Lorraine ran the marathon in four Olympic Games: 1984, placing 5th (2:28:34); 1988, placing 33rd (2:37:52);1992 placing 3rd (2:33:59); and 1996 placing 46th (2:42:21). She also won the silver medal at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, running 2:28:17, her lifetime best.

Photo: garymoller.com

Photo: garymoller.com

PattiSue Plumer

/ runningincolorado

photo: gostanford.com

PattiSue Plumer is a retired American long-distance runner who ran twice in the Olympics. She ran first in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea where she finished 13th in the 3,000m. In 1992 in Barcelona, Spain she ran in the 1,500m, finishing 10th, and the 3,000m, finishing 5th. On July 3, 1989 she set the American record in the 5,000m at 14:59.99, and was the first woman to beat one of Mary Decker’s sweep of all distance running American records during the 1980s. She won the 1990 Fifth Avenue Mile, setting a course record which remains unbeaten. Patti Sue attended Stanford University, where she won the 1984 NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championship at 5000m and the NCAA Women’s Indoor Track and Field Championships at two-m,iles in 1983. She won multiple national titles at 3,000m and 5,000m and was a three-time runner-up in the 1,500 meters. She received her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Stanford Law School and worked as a lawyer for several years. She now coaches cross-country and track at Stanford University in Northern California.

Leading in the 1988 Olympics

Leading in the 1988 Olympics

Shayne Culpepper

/ runningincolorado
photo: usatf.org

photo: usatf.org

Shayne Culpepper (neè Willie) is a middle distance track and field athlete who has won multiple national titles and qualified twice for the Olympics: in 2000 in the 1,500m and in 2004 in the 5,000m. After winning the 2004 5,000m Olympic trials, she competed again at the 2004 Summer Olympics and placed 13th in the 5k at the first round, not allowing her to go on to the finals. Now retired, Shayne and her husband Alan Culpepper, 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.

photo: coloradanmagazine.org

photo: coloradanmagazine.org