Susan Loken Three-Peats as Champion of More Magazine Marathon

Lyubov Denisova, Trina Painter join forces to win accompanying team half-marathon

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New York, Sunday, March 25—Approaching the finish line of the More Magazine Marathon this morning, Susan Loken, 43, was all smiles. Thrusting her arms in the air as she broke the tape, Loken three-peated as champion of this event, the only marathon exclusively for women age 40 and over. Her time: a spectacular 2:47:52 over a challenging five-loop course in Central Park.

Loken ran unchallenged on a course that has become familiar to her since her first win here, back in 2005. Leading from the gun, she finished more than 23 minutes in front of runner-up Gordon Bakoulis, 46, of New York City (3:11:24). Peggy Nelson-Panzer, 45, of Aurora, CO, rounded out the top three with her 3:16:55 finish. Temperatures were in the low 40s with partly cloudy skies.

The event also featured a half-marathon in which teams of two women, one of whom had to be 40+, competed together and were scored based on their combined times. Forty-year-old Trina Painter of Flagstaff, AZ (1:19:10), teamed up with Lyubov Denisova (1:16:49), 35, a Russian citizen who resides in Gainesville, FL, to claim the title. Denisova, who also has trained in New York City, was the individual half-marathon winner, followed by runner-up Claudia Camargo (1:17:27), 35, a native of Argentina living in Danbury, CT. Painter claimed the third individual spot.

Denisova, the 2006 Honolulu Marathon champion, finished in the top three at the ING New York City Marathon in 2002 and 2004. Painter has a half-marathon personal best time of 1:11:07, set in 1993, and was the women’s over-40 winner at the 2007 Aramco Houston Half-Marathon, finishing in 1:19:29. Camargo set a half-marathon PR of 1:13:39 last August at the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE, and a marathon PR of 2:35:04 at the ING New York City Marathon in November.

Nearly 4,500 women finished the races, which are put on by New York Road Runners and More Magazine, a lifestyle publication for over-40 women. The event has become a destination event for women across the country and overseas, representing all ages and fitness levels.

Loken perfectly represents the over-40 health and vitality that the event seeks to promote and inspire. Amazingly, she didn’t begin running until she was in her mid-30s, and ran her first marathon at 38. Loken keeps improving every year. Loken is the reigning USA Masters Marathon champion and one of the top 30 U.S. women marathoners of all ages. Loken set the More Magazine Marathon record at her first outing, in 2005, when she won in 2:45:35, the fastest women’s marathon time on a course entirely within Central Park.

When asked if she would have ever imagined becoming a world-class runner, Loken responded, “Never, ever, ever! If you knew me in high school, I skipped gym! I don’t even know if I passed gym, now that I think about it.”

Minutes after finishing the race, as reporters swarmed around her, one asked if it had been difficult to compete while lapping thousands of women walking and running the marathon and half-marathon on the multi-loop course. “No, it wasn’t hard,” Loken answered. “They were inspiring. The More Magazine Marathon is different from any other marathon because you have people cheering you on for 26 miles.”

This year’s event was extra special for Loken because she brought with her with a team of women she coaches at Foothills Sports Medicine, a physical therapy firm where she works as a marketing manager, and My Wine Cellar. Loken formed a training group last year to train for the P.F. Chang’s Rock ’N’ Roll Marathon in Phoenix in January; she then inspired 10 of the women to continue training and accompany her to New York for the More Magazine Marathon and Half-Marathon. Sporting bright orange shirts that read “We run for wine, not time,” the runners were hard to miss on the course. The team included Loken’s sister Charlotte Bain, 40, who had never run a step before last August, and finished the half-marathon in 2:13:00—a time 20 minutes faster than her time at P.F. Chang’s. “Can you believe it? 20 minutes!” Charlotte exclaimed.

With Loken as a coach, it seems anything is possible. Loken sincerely believes that if you put your mind to something, you can accomplish it. She attributes this conviction to her upbringing. “I was raised being told that I could do anything. Any dream, any desire I had, my mom said that I could absolutely do that,” she said. Loken’s mother also accompanied her daughters to the race as a spectator, and showed obvious pride in both of them.

“Susan’s just an incredibly inspirational person,” said Debbie Wood, another member of the Foothills Medicine and My Wine Cellar team. “She makes you believe that you accomplish just about anything. She knows where we all are; she knows what each of us is capable of. She really wants to understand you individually.”

Though Loken is 100 percent devoted to her runners, she is not a full-time coach. Instead, like most over-40 women, she has as many responsibilities. She is a single mother of three sons, ages 10, 14, and 21. She works about 30 hours a week in her marketing manager job at Foothills Sports Medicine. As for running, she logs most of her miles before dawn. She will compete in the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s Marathon on April 20, 2008, in Boston.

More than all of her fast times and victories, Loken is grateful for the lifestyle that running has provided her. “The most that I have gotten out of it is a healthier lifestyle, feeling good, and amazing lifetime friends,” she said.

“Being over 40 is now a reason for women to celebrate,” said Mary Wittenberg, president and CEO of New York Road Runners, who completed the More Magazine Half-Marathon in 1:35:32. “The More Magazine Marathon and Half-Marathon is a work-hard party for women who are strong and want to feel good about life.”

Complete Results: Marathon | Half-Marathon