Archive--Boston Marathon

Sports

04/19/00

USU's Leslie Jensen makes it over Heartbreak Hill and lives to tell the tale

By Leah Culler and Sachia Martin, with research by the Online Journalism class

Leslie Jensen, wearing a gray shirt and purple shorts, just after crossing the finish line at Copley Square in Boston. / Photo by Boston Marathon

Editor's note: This was an on-deadline exercise
for Professor Nancy Williams' Online Journalism class, COMM 2110.

Utah State University student Leslie Jensen ran the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon, an experience she described as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Jensen said she now feels a great sense of accomplishment and knows it will be a memorable experience.

"I can honestly say that this was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life," she said.

Jensen, 22, was one of two qualifiers from Logan. The other was 57-year-old John Nelson, a doctor, who had planned to run but then decided not to take part.

In order to qualify, a female in Jensen's age category had to finish a certified 26.2 mile (40K) course in three hours and 40 minutes or less. Jensen finished the St. George International Marathon in 3:33:16 on Oct. 2, 1999. When she learned she had qualified to participate in America's oldest footrace, she decided she couldn't miss the opportunity, she said.

The race, held every Patriots Day (April 18), was first run in the spring of 1897 and is in its 104th year. It began as a vision by the Boston Athletic Association founders, after witnessing the first-of-its-kind race at the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. At exactly 12:19 p.m. that first year, 18 men leaped from the starting line in front of Metcalf's Mill in Ashland, Mass. The starting official for that first race, in the spring of 1897, had no gun; he simply shouted "Go!" to start the marathon.

This year, the 17,813 entrants were placed in corrals of 1,000 participants according to their bib number. Jensen was in the 10th corral and didn't actually cross the starting line until about seven minutes after she started running, she said.

First-place winner for women was Catherine Ndereba with a time of 2:26:11.

According to the gun, Jensen's time was 3:33:42. But thanks to new technology, a computer chip attached to her shoelace recorded her time from crossing the starting line to the finish. This time was 3:29:17. Of the 6,371 women in the race, Jensen was number 856. This places her in the top 25 percent in her age division.

Jensen said it was mentally draining to have to wait in the cold at the starting line for three hours. She said it was a mild 40 degrees when she started the race, but headwinds throughout the race were up to 15 miles per hour. The last 10 miles, as she would take sips from her water bottle, it would spill on her arms and freeze. As she crossed the finish line, they told her it was about 35 degrees, she said.

"Immediately, volunteers wrapped me in blankets when I crossed the finish line," she said. "I was freezing."

She said the temperature and weather conditions contributed significantly to the difficulty of the marathon.

Jensen says her body is a little sore, especially her quads. She said her body has "adapted to the torture," however.

"Heartbreak Hill (between miles 16 and 18) lived up to its name because of the position it is in the race," she said. "By the time I got there it took all my energy to power up the hill. The crowds were a huge motivation for me."

Is there another big race in the near future for Jensen?

"I want to run another one in a few years," she said, "but I don't know about running the Boston one again. The average age was 30 to 38, so I might take a few years off and run it again when I am older."

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