Her family and her coach think the time has come for Joan Benoit Samuelson to stop subjecting herself to the physical demands of the marathon. Benoit thinks that time is less than 2 hours 20 minutes. Her failure to go that fast Sunday is the main reason why the willful young woman from Freeport, Me., won`t listen to her advisers and her body, which is demanding surgery on both feet later this month.
”We had her all convinced about getting out of the marathon, and now I don`t know,” said her coach, Bob Sevene.
After running an American record of 2:21:21 to beat world record-holder Ingrid Kristiansen in America`s Marathon/Chicago, Benoit plainly intimated this race would have been her final marathon had she broken 2:20. That would have given her an ineradicable place in the record books as the first woman to pass that significant landmark.
”It`s going to be a while before I run another marathon,” Benoit said.
”I had an idea that if I ran really well here, I could probably call it my last.
”But that 2:20 barrier is yet to be broken . . . and I didn`t break it, so I will be running another marathon.”
Let there be no misunderstanding about what Benoit did in America`s Marathon. She ran what Sevene called ”her best marathon,” beating a women`s field second in quality only to the field Benoit topped for the 1984 Olympic gold medal. She reestablished herself as the best women`s marathoner in the world.
Benoit`s winning time, although 15 seconds slower than Kristiansen`s 6-month-old world record, was 82 seconds faster than her own previous American record. Despite a tough wind on an otherwise perfect day for a marathon, Benoit led from start to finish, breaking away from Kristiansen after 19 miles of the 26.2-mile race.
Kristiansen held on to take second in 2:23:05, only 24 seconds ahead of steady Rosa Mota of Portugal, the 1983-84 America`s Marathon winner. Mota`s time bettered her personal record by more than two minutes. The other two women who finished under 2:30, Carla Buerskens of the Netherlands (2:27:50)
and Veronique Marot of England (2:28:04), also ran personal bests.
”I said at the press conference Friday that I was looking for a personal record, but deep down I was looking for a world record and deeper down at sub- 2:20,” Benoit said.
Benoit and Kristiansen, the latter staying just a step or two off the lead, kept up a sub-2:20 pace of 5:20.5 per mile for 16 miles. They went through 10 miles in a stunning 52:42 and the half marathon in 1:09:33.
”Joan and Ingrid were too fast for me,” Mota said through an interpreter. ”As soon as they passed the first mile (in 5:09), I let them go.”
Benoit had applied early pressure by running an elastic pace, following a 5:08 fourth mile with a 5:34 and then a 5:04. She couldn`t shake Kristiansen, who through the first half of the race was able to stick to her race plan of 33 minutes for each 10 kilometers. The two even talked and shared refreshment from a bottle of electrolyte solution.
”The first 15 kilometers (9.3 miles), I was concerned we had gone out too fast,” Benoit said. ”From 15 to 30 kilometers, I was waiting for Ingrid to take over, and I was surprised she didn`t.”
”I didn`t want to make the race,” Kristiansen said. ”I wanted to follow Joan until the last few 100 meters and try to get her at the finish.” Kristiansen, a 29-year-old from Oslo, was able to get back on Benoit`s heels after the winner opened a 10-meter lead near the 18-mile mark. But she could not keep up when Benoit pulled away the second time.
”In my head, I wanted to be with her, but my feet were not working,”
Kristiansen said. ”They were going up and down instead of forward. I don`t know why–maybe from running too many races this season.”
Those closest to the 28-year-old Benoit worry that even though this was her first marathon since the Olympics, she has already run too many–14 since her first in 1979. The imminent surgery to repair problems near both Achilles tendons, including a bone spur on her right heel, will be Benoit`s second set of foot operations. She also had knee surgery 17 days before winning the 1984 Olympic trials and internal bleeding from her intestines last winter.
”This is a 28-year-old with the body of a 55-year-old,” Sevene said.
Benoit had promised her coach this would be her last marathon if she broke 2:20. He wants her to concentrate on the 10,000-meter track race, which has been added to the women`s program for the 1988 Olympics.
”I prayed to God it would have been under 2:20,” Sevene said. ”The lady has run 14 marathons, and all the studies I read now say you`re supposed to be at your peak at seven or eight. I think we`re on borrowed time.
”She has only `X` number of races left in her. It (a sub-2:20) may never happen, because she doesn`t get the right course at the right time.”
Benoit seemed to sense that when, with both Kristiansen and the world record presumably out of reach, she forgot a nauseous stomach and picked up the pace in the final three miles of America`s Marathon. It was a
characteristic show of toughness by the little beast from the northeast.
”From 15 to 25 kilometers, I came very close to saying, `Okay, just hold on for second,` ” Benoit said. ”I was happy I was able to keep my bull head and push on.”
That bullheadedness is why no one–not Sevene, not her father, not her husband, Scott Samuelson–thinks there is any way to dissuade her from taking another shot at breaking 2:20. Sevene knows Benoit well enough to realize that her first words after the race, ”never again,” were not to be taken seriously.
”I could advise her to do something, but it won`t help,” Scott said.
”She`s in charge of her running 100 percent.”
Benoit`s father, Andre, a ski trooper in World War II, offered his opinion to his daughter nevertheless. When he caught up to her in the recovery tent after the race, Andre Benoit asked, ”Now, Joanie, will you please hang up your shoes?”
She shrugged and answered, ”Not yet, Dad.”
The time wasn`t right.
