Martin keeps running, keeps winning

Kathy Martin still remembers lying in the street in her Long Island, N.Y., neighborhood exhausted after a loop around the block when she was 30 years old. Her husband told her to get up off the pavement before she was run over by a car. "Good, let them run me over," Martin said. "I can't do this."

Martin got up and kept running. At first, it was just to the next telephone poll, or the next mailbox, simple goals. Now, 27 years later Martin is fit enough to run to the next zip code and the next area code.

At the 2008 USATF Masters Outdoor Championships in Spokane, Wash., Martin was dominant. She won the 800-meter (2:38.56), 1,500-meter (5:13.49), 5,000-meter (19:09.20), and 10,000-meter (41:13.60) races. Just to fend off boredom, Martin entered the 2,000-meter steeplechase. She won, of course, in 8:23.20.

The accomplishments are made better by the fact Martin, 57, raced in the 55-59 age group, but her times in each of the races would have also won gold medals in the women's 50-54 category. She has never lost a race in her age group.

Martin, a former nurse who is now a real estate agent, is hitting her stride in competition, because she has started to stretch more and get loose. "I never stretched in my life," she said, "but this year I took up yoga. I do it twice a week for an hour. I think it elongates the muscles, keeps things moving."

Martin is remarkably versatile. She can run in a 5K and perform well, but she can also run a shorter race, the 800, and also perform well. How long can she keep this up?

"Forever," Martin said. "I don't ever see myself stopping; it's too much fun."