Constantina Diţă

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

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 her gold in the 2008 Beijing Olympics

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

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

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:

Anita Ortiz

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

Anita Ortiz started racing at age 36, building her career in Mountain Running, Ultra Running and

Photo via ultrachixunite.com

snowshoe racing, competing in over 200 races and breaking 55 records in just nine years. She has competed on the U.S. Mountain Running team five times, placing highest U.S. finisher four times. She was the Mountain Running National Champion in 2002 and 2003 as well as the Masters Mountain Running World Champion in 2004. She’s won the Pikes Peak Ascent three times, setting and holding the record time for five years in 2002 in 2:44:33. Ortiz was also the National Snowshoe Champion in 2002 and runner-up in 2004. She was named the USATF Female Mountain Runner of the Year in both 2002 and 2003 and the USATF Female Masters Mountain Runner of the Year in 2004. A kindergarten teacher and mother of four, Anita is still active in the racing community, serving as Board member for the All American Trail Running Association, the United States Snowshoe Association, and coaching elementary students on the Eagle Valley Elementary Running Team.

2014 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

March 10, 2014February 22, 2015 / tramsdell

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:

Libby James Tops the Masters Charts | Running Times

February 15, 2014February 15, 2014 / runningincolorado

Running Times profiles Libby James: The Colorado 77-year-old’s 2013 performances exceed world-record efforts

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

March 9, 2013February 21, 2015 / runningincolorado / 1 Comment

jane high res crop 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.

janew running

2013 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

Doug Bell

March 9, 2013February 21, 2015 / runningincolorado

Doug Bell has been running since the 1970’s and still holds several national age group records. He has three Denver Marathon victories under his belt, in 1980, 1982, and 1986, and he set his marathon personal best of 2:23:24 at the 1981 Dallas White Rock Marathon. As a Masters runner, Bell continued to excel, and was named 1991 USATF 40-44 Age Division Runner of the Year. He set Masters Records in 1992 in both the 5K (14:36) and 25K (1:21:24), as well as set the American Indoor Mile record in 2006 in 4:49:62 at age 55. He was the 2011 USATF Cross Country Masters 60-64 Age Division Winner and led his Master’s Team to the Team Championship. He started Bells Running Store in Greeley in 1986 and continues to train in his own Bells Running Group.

Photo: Juan Leal, http://www.runnersworld.com

2013 Colorado Running Hall of Fame:

Libby James Sets World Record at Walt Disney Half Marathon

February 15, 2013February 15, 2014 / runningincolorado

Records set at Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend | Runner’s World

Libby James photo from Runners World

“A 76-year-old woman ran a 1:45:56 half-marathon last weekend at the Walt Disney World Half-Marathon, breaking the previous age group world record for women between the ages of 75-79.

Libby James, 76, of Fort Collins, Colorado, blew away the previous record of 1:55:19 set in 2009 by Ginette Benard.”

Ellen Hart

January 31, 2013February 1, 2013 / 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

Benji Durden

January 31, 2013February 1, 2013 / 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