Larson runs New York City Marathon

Jan Larson, a 1975 graduate of Stromsburg High School, recently ran in the New York City Marathan, finishing with a time of 4:50.22.

Jan has been running regularly for about three years now, after he decided he was "getting too fat and out of shape." He ran a marathon in Austin in February of 2005 and again in February of this year. He then decided to "go for the gusto" and applied for the lottery to get into the New York marathon and was lucky enough to be selected. Approximately 30% of the lottery applicants were accepted.

Once selected, Jan got on a training program that lasted 19 weeks. He generously ran six days per week, usually starting around 6:00 a.m.

"I'm not nearly as fast as a lot of people, but I accomplished one goal and that was to finish ahead of at least 10,000 runners," Jan said.

There was a total of over 38,000 runners from all 50 states and over 100 countries. The race is run annually through the five boroughs of New York City.

The men's winner was Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil and the women's winner was Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia.

Other competitors included world record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya, seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, and Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.