Keenan Wins USATF's Steinfeld Award

Grandma's Marathon executive director Scott Keenan earned USA Track and Field's Allan Steinfield Award at the group's annual meeting recently.

The award, conferred by the Men's Long Distance Running Committee, recognizes "outstanding contributions to men’s long distance running within a road race organization." The honor is named after long-time New York City Marathon director Allan Steinfeld.

Keenan is the founder of Grandma's Marathon and the director of the event for its entire 33-year history.

"I was extremely honored to be selected as a recipient of this award," Keenan told DtB. "Allan Steinfeld has been instrumental in the development and success of long distance running, so to receive any recognition associated with his name is a great honor. Allan’s leadership, vision and friendship have been so important to my career that I eagerly accepted the opportunity to be presented with the award."

In Other Grandma's News ... Race organizers announced that registration for next spring's Fitger's 5K will be conducted on-line exclusively. The sign-up period for the race will open Thursday, January 8, 2009 on the Grandma's web-site. Officials said that in an effort to become more environmentally-friendly, paper entry forms for the 3.1-mile race will no longer be printed.

In Other Duluth News ... Two Duluth natives made Running USA's "10 Best Moments for U.S. Distance Running in 2008."

Ranked #9 is Scott Jurek's third straight win at the Spartathlon endurance race in Greece. The Seattle resident traversed the grueling 152.8 mile course from Athens to Sparta in 22 hours, 20 minutes, 1 second, his fastest time there and the 5th-fastest ever.

Ranked #6 is Kara Goucher's third place, 2:25:53 marathon debut at the ING New York City Marathon. Goucher broke Deena Kastor's U.S. marathon debut record of 2:26:58 from New York in 2001. Goucher is the third fastest U.S. woman marathoner ever behind Kastor and Joan Benoit Samuelson.

The full Running USA listing can be found HERE.

One More Duluth Thing ... Former Duluth resident Brandy Erholtz was named USA Track and Field's female Mountain Runner of the Year. Erholtz currently resides in Bailey, Colorado.