Viel zu jung gestorben - sehr traurig.
Erinnert sich noch jemand an ihren rührenden, letzten NY-Marathon?
1992 ist sie ihn mit dem von schwerer Krankheit (Hirntumor) gezeichneten Fred Lebow, dem Gründer des NYC Marathon, gemeinsam gelaufen. Für ihn; es sollte sein letzter Lauf sein, in dem Bewusstsein, dass er nicht mehr lange leben würde. Ich muss jedesmal weinen, wenn ich das sehe.
The ING New York City Marathon
Und hier ist dazu ein Artikel aus der NY Daily News vom 30. Oktober 2008:
"Grete Waitz reflects on her, & Fred Lebow's, last NYC Marathon
BY Wayne Coffey
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Thursday, October 30th 2008, 9:43 PM
Every finisher in Sunday's New York City Marathon will receive a medal featuring the likeness of a former Norwegian schoolteacher. Flip the medal over, and the runners will find out why.
"Grete Waitz - The Greatest Champion in New York City Marathon History," the medal says.
It has been 30 years since Waitz first showed up at the starting line, a pony-tailed middle-school teacher from Oslo who made her marathon debut by winning in world-record time (two hours, 32 minutes, 30 seconds).
It has been 20 years since Waitz won New York for the ninth and last time - a championship run that likely will never be duplicated.
At 55, Waitz's indomitable will is more apparent these days than ever. Diagnosed with cancer three years ago, she is still fighting the disease, undergoing intensive blasts of chemotherapy every third week. She works out before she goes in for treatment, and again after.
Jack Waitz said he had never seen his wife succumb to self-pity. "If you give up, you lose - that's always been her statement," Jack Waitz said.
Notwithstanding her nine titles, Waitz may be best remembered for the last, and slowest, marathon she ever ran - one she ran with a dear friend. The year was 1992, and Waitz's running partner was the race founder and visionary, Fred Lebow.
Lebow had been diagnosed with brain cancer two years before, and vowed to run his own race before it was too late. Waitz made her own vow - to run with him - and it produced the most poignant moment in race history, Lebow and Waitz running, walking, trudging through 26.2 miles.
"It was the most emotional race of my life," said Waitz, who welled up again yestedray as she watched footage of the race, voted the second most memorable event in the 50-year history of New York Road Runners.
"We both ran the last two miles crying," Waitz said. They finished in 5:32:34, and Lebow fell into her arms.
Fred Lebow died two years later. Now Waitz, who has not run a marathon since that day, raises funds for research through her foundation, Active Against Cancer."
R.I.P. Grete Waitz
