Joan Benoit Samuelson is an icon in our sport! Joan is the gold medalist from the first women’s Olympic marathon in 1984. She held the American record for 28 years in the marathon, 2:21:21, which she ran in Chicago. She won the Boston Marathon in 1979 while a college student and she won it again in 1983. She is the founder of the Beach to Beacon race.

She is one of the founders of the Donna Marathon which is how we met each other! The Donna Marathon supports families walking through a breast cancer diagnosis through the Donna Foundation and it supports ground breaking research.