A Beautiful Day for a Race

“Isn’t it a beautiful day for a race?”
she said as she passed men by.
Trained as she was for the altitude,
she continued to reach for the sky.

Practiced and ready for one special day,
running history she would make,
Yet, unaware of her spot as “the first,”
or, “glass ceiling” which she would break.

“I feel pretty good. I can continue,”
she thought as she reached the top.
“I can run back down. Yes, I think I can.
There’s no reason for me to stop.”

The mountain she conquered was more than Pikes Peak.
It was more than completing a goal.
More than a marathon run by a woman,
for our hearts, by her grit, she stole.

© 2017 gratefulsue

(In honor of Arlene Pieper, who in 1959 was the first woman to complete a marathon, 26.2 miles, in the United States. She ran to the summit of Pikes Peak and back down, in Manitou Springs, CO.)

back to Authenticity and Empathy

April 21, 2022
______________________________
I wrote this poem after listening to a radio program interviewing Arlene Pieper in 2017. I was so inspired by her humility and casual manner. The quotes in the poem come straight from the interview. She had been a runner for some time when she decided to run the full Pikes Peak Marathon, and had thought to herself, “Why not try?” Can we all just pause for a minute to appreciate that simple wisdom? Thus, in anticipation of the event, she trained for it for a year.

Imagine the grit she possessed to keep going, when there were no other women ahead of her finishing the race! She perhaps also endured less than friendly looks from some of the men competing. She was running to advertise a gym she and her husband owned in Colorado Springs, and she was running for herself, not for glory. Arlene did not learn of her status as the first woman to run a marathon in the U.S. until 50 years later!

I sent my poem to the Pikes Peak Marathon + Ascent organization, just to let them know that I had appreciated the interview. They wrote back and told me they liked it so much that they made a graphic out of it (shown above): my poem on top of an actual photo of Arlene. What fun!