In 1984, 11-year-old Deena Kastor sat in her living room with her parents, eyes glued to the first women’s Olympic Marathon. American Joan Benoit Samuelson emerged from the tunnel into the Los Angeles Coliseum to claim the gold, waving her white hat. “No matter what my profession turned out to be in life, her performance that day would’ve inspired me to be better,” Kastor said during a recent visit to Chicago. Read the full article for Runner’s World.