Who Was Sue Krenn???
By: Victoria Barana
Photos: San Diego Track Club News, August 1984
It has been a long time since Sue Krenn ran among us, but we wanted you all to feel inspired by her memory this coming Saturday, March 4th.
March 4th, 2017 @ 7am
$10 run cost(Free for SDTC RnR program members)
According to those who knew her, Sue was not only an amazing runner, but also a generous, kind, and adventurous woman who was deeply passionate about her friends, the running community, and traveling the world.
Sue became a runner relatively late in life and running fast definitely did not come easy for her. As a young woman, Sue was a rower. When Sue began running, she still had the physique of a strong rower (read: not the physique of an elite runner!).
Despite being rather slow, when Sue started running, she was determined to train with the faster runners. During group workouts, Sue would start with the faster runners, only to soon be left behind. Undeterred, she would line up with the faster runners again the following week. Sue was incredibly disciplined about her training and she gradually became a fast runner herself. It was not long before Sue began winning local races.
Sue ran marathons in San Francisco (1978), Boston (1979), Seoul (1982), Vancouver (1982), and Venezuela (1984). She finished all of these marathons, except the one in Venezuela, in less than 3 hours. For a time, Sue was the US women’s national record holder at the 50K distance. In 1979, Sue ranked 7th among all US female marathoners.
Sue’s marathon PR was 2:38:50, good for third place among all the women in the 1979 Boston Marathon!! (For a little perspective, Joan Benoit won that race, setting a new American Record in 2:35:15.)
Sue was an enthusiastic supporter of her running community. She was a member of the San Diego Track Club and was the race director for SDTC’s 15K race, which has since been renamed in her memory. The motto of the race, No Wussies, comes from something Sue used to say to someone being negative about the conditions of a workout, be it because of fatigue or the weather (i.e. too much wind or rain); Sue would say “come on, don’t be a wussie!”
Sue also loved to travel. She was a Spanish teacher and went to South America to teach. In 1984 she competed in the Venezuela Marathon and placed third among the women. A few days after running in that marathon, she went scuba diving off Bonaire Island in the Dutch Antilles north of Venezuela. Sue died during the dive, at the age of 34.
This coming Saturday, when you are running along in Sue’s memory, we hope you will feel inspired by the San Diego legend Sue Krenn!
