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RELEASED: May 31, 2001
DANVILLE, KY—Athletic triumphs are not expected to come easy. But Centre College student Carrie Lear seems to make running long distances look fairly simple.
Lear, a senior from Lexington, recently qualified to run in the Boston Marathon next spring. Before this past fall, Lear had never run in a competitive race. Prior to running in a 5K in the fall, she had never run more than two miles at one time.
She first started running to stay in shape for soccer. After running in her first 5K, Lear took a step up and ran in a mini-marathon (13.1 miles) in Louisville. She then decided she would run a marathon in a year.
In March, Lear signed up to run in the Flying Pigs Marathon held in Cincinnati. She ran with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training to raise money for a child with cancer. She learned of the team through fellow Centre students Liz Leming and Audra Cain, who had previously run in marathons with the team.
On May 6, Lear, after a few weeks training, ran the 26.2-mile marathon in 3:31.42, qualifying to run in the Boston Marathon.
"While I never actually trained with the team, the coordinator told me everything I needed to know about getting sponsors," she said. "The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has chapters all over the country and raises millions of dollars annually to help patients with Leukemia and Lymphoma. And I run because I love it."
The 106th Boston Marathon will take place April 15, 2002. To qualify, athletes must meet a designated time that corresponds to their age group. For Lear's age group (women, 18-34), the qualifying time was 3 hours, 40 minutes. Lear, who attended Henry Clay High School, is a Faculty Scholar, a member of the Centre Dancers and is a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority. She is the daughter of William and Evangeline Lear of Lexington.
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