Mercury’s Avatar

“Lorraine Moller, now 53 and living in Boulder, Colorado, won the first marathon she ran — a race she hadn’t even intended to finish — and the next eight as well,” writes Barbara Matson for The Boston Globe. “The brilliant runner from New Zealand was both pioneer and champion, winning three world championships (1980, ’82, and ’84) and three Osaka Marathons (1986, ’87, and ’90). The only runner to race in each of the first four women’s Olympic marathons, Moller claimed the bronze medal at the Barcelona Games in 1992 at the age of 37. She won the Boston Marathon in 1984, and she’s back to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that victory. Her recent memoir, On the Wings of Mercury, the Lorraine Moller Story (not yet released in the United States but a top seller in New Zealand), is a vivid, unrestrained telling of her remarkable life, particularly the mental workouts that were as constant and as demanding as the mileage.” Moller was born in Putaruru. She ran her first marathon in 1979, winning the Grandma’s Marathon at Duluth, Minnesota in 2:37:37. The time was the fastest ever by a New Zealander and the sixth-fastest ever run by a woman.