Olympic Gold Medalist Frank Shorter will be the keynote spacer at the Colorado Running Hall of Fame at the Denver Athletic Club on April 9. The event is being held to induct the 2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame class of 2014. Shorter is a member of the inaugural Colorado Running Hall of Fame class of 2007. Tickets to the event are $25.
Shorter won the U.S. national cross-country championships four times (1970, 1971, 1972, 1973). He was the U.S. Olympic Trials Champion in both…
When Simon Gutierrez considers his running career he doesn’t think of his three wins in the Pikes Peak Ascent, or the seven times he ran as a member of the USA World Mountain Running Championship team. It’s not about his three world championships as a masters mountain runner.
Gutierrez remembers the people who contributed to his success. And he talks about having fun and enjoying the experience.
“I think I’m pretty relaxed about running,” he said. “I’m dedicated to it, but not to where I worry about it all the time. If I have a bad race, I don’t let it affect me. I just move on to the next one. You know I just try to have a lot of fun with it…
Via Colorado Runner Magazine: Colorado Running Hall of Fame Announces 2014 Inductees
The Colorado Running Hall of Fame Selection Committee announces the 2014 inductees into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame: Constantina Diţă, Simon Gutierrez, Anita Ortiz, Rick Trujillo, and Priscilla Welch. The 8th annual induction ceremony and reception will be held on Wednesday, April 9th at the Denver Athletic Club. Olympic running legend Frank Shorter, an inductee in the inaugural 2007 class, will be the keynote speaker. The Colorado Running Hall of Fame recognizes Coloradans for their remarkable achievement and influence on the sport of distance running.
Via Running USA: Colorado Running Hall of Fame Announces 2014 Inductees
The Colorado Running Hall of Fame Selection Committee announces the 2014 inductees into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame: Constantina Diţă, Simon Gutierrez, Anita Ortiz, Rick Trujillo, and Priscilla Welch. The 8th annual induction ceremony and reception will be held on Wednesday, April 9th at the Denver Athletic Club. Olympic running legend Frank Shorter, an inductee in the inaugural 2007 class, will be the keynote speaker. The Colorado Running Hall of Fame recognizes Coloradans for their remarkable achievement and influence on the sport of distance running.
Via The Denver Post/ John Meyer: Colorado Running Hall of Fame names five for 2014 class
“Three mountain runners are included in the eighth class of inductees into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame, which will be honored on April 9 at the Denver Athletic Club.
Simon Gutierrez, Anita Ortiz and Rick Trujillo, who all had outstanding careers in mountain running, will be joined by Constantina Dita, who won the women’s marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Priscilla Welch, who won the New York City Marathon in 1987.”
Read more: Colorado Running Hall of Fame names five for 2014 class – The Denver Post
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Constantina Diţă is one of the most successful Romanian athletes of all-time, currently holding the Romanian national road records for the 5K, 10K, 15K, Half Marathon and the Marathon.
Winning gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Photo courtesy constantinadita.com
Diţă finished 20th in the marathon at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and went on to win the Chicago Marathon later that year, running a personal best of 2:21:30. After winning the marathon bronze at the 2005 World Championships, she became the World Half Marathon Champion. She won a silver medal at the 2006 IAAF World Road Running Championships and took third place at the 2007 London Marathon. In her career highlight, Diţă won the women’s marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics in 2:26:44, becoming the oldest Olympic marathon champion in history (male or female) at age 38. She lives and trains at altitude in Boulder and continues her running career, competing the marathon at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:
Simon Gutierrez is versatile athlete as a three-time member of the USA National Cross Country team, an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon, and is a seven-time member of the USA National Mountain Team. He is a three-time World Masters Mountain Overall Champion (2006, 2007, and 2008) and has won the La Luz mountain race in New Mexico a record eight times. He is a three-time Champion in the Pikes Peak Ascent as well as Mt. Washington Road Race. Gutierrez is also a mountain representative to the USATF Mountain, Ultra, and Trail Running Council and in 2005 he was named the USATF Mountain Runner of the Year. Now 48, Gutierrez is enjoying a career as a physical therapist in Colorado Springs.
2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:
Rick Trujillo is considered a pioneer in the sport of mountain running, earning his reputation as an
Rick Trujillo 1977– Pikes Peak Marathon, on the Golden Stairs
elite and unconventional runner over his long career. Trujillo enjoyed an early cross-country running career in high school and college, but later preferred mountain running. He is a five-time champion of the Pikes Peak Marathon, holding the course record from 1973-1982. He founded the Imogene Pass Run, winning the race several times and holding the course record from 1974-1985. In 1995, at age 47, Trujillo ascended Colorado’s 54 14,000-foot peaks in record time of 15 days, nine hours, and 55 minutes. He also won the Hardrock 100 Mile Run (66,000 feet of ascent and descent with average elevation of 11,000 feet) in 1996. Trujillo has never yielded to traditional training conventions, making his achievements that much more impactful.
2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:
photo via: runningfreeonline.com
Priscilla Welch began her remarkable running career at the age of 35, when she quit smoking and took up running under the guidance of her husband and coach, Dave Welch, and ran the 1980 London Marathon. Four years later, she qualified for the British Olympic team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, placing sixth in the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon. On her 40th birthday, Welsh qualified for the Masters division and began setting age group world records. In 1987, she won the New York Marathon in 2:30:17. This was coupled with her second place finish in London where she set an age group world record running a 2:26:51, earning the sixth fastest time in the world in 1987, and holding the women’s masters marathon world record for 21 years. Welch again set an age group world record in the 1988 Boston Marathon in 2:30:48, holding the record for 14 years. Welch continued to run until a 1992 bout with breast cancer curtailed her career and she moved from her longtime home of Boulder to Tabernash, in the high country of Colorado, later relocating to Bend, Oregon.
2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:
Colorado Running Hall of Fame 