Celebrating Greatness

I had the opportunity last weekend to attend the Endurance LIVE Awards Gala in San Diego, CA. The event is a celebration of the best of the best endurance athletes and performances from the 2010 year in sport. Hosted at San Diego’s downtown Hard Rock Hotel, the event brings out a huge gathering of fitness enthusiasts and industry insiders along with the award-winning athletes.

Most notably on the running side of the spectrum, Olympian Shalane Flanagan was honored as the Female Runner of the Year. Her long-distance debut at the 2010 New York City Marathon nabbed a 2^nd place finish (the best by an American woman since 1990) and earned Flanagan the U.S. Marathon Championship title.

Also honored was Australian multi-sport phenom and reigning Ironman World Champion Mirinda Carfrae. Lauded as the Female Triathlete of the Year, Carfrae clinched the world championship title in large part due to her lightning-fast marathon run split (2:53), the fastest run by a woman in the event’s history – beating out a majority of the race’s professional men contenders.

Mirinda Carfrae, photo credit Nils Nilsen

It was indeed an inspirational evening, being in the company of these two women and the entire roster of award winners. A complete recap of the honored athletes can be found here.

– Holly Bennett