Kennedy Named USATF Masters Athlete of the Year

Kennedy, 56, owned the roads in 2011 by winning the USA Masters 5 km,
10 km, and 15 km championships this year. Kennedy also won two events
at the 2011 World Masters Athletics Championships. In a span of nine
days, Kennedy won both the 5,000m and the marathon. Her marathon finish
of 3:00:48 was good enough to finish as the third-place female overall
and win gold in her age-group.

Kennedy‰Ûªs highest age-graded performance of the year came from the
Boston Marathon where she finished in 2:56:17. Kenedy won her age-group
with time to spare; she finished nearly 12 minutes faster than the
second woman in her age-group.

‰ÛÏI feel that USA Track & Field has done an amazing job of bringing
masters competitions to the high level that they are today,‰Û Kennedy
said. ‰ÛÏAnd I just wanted to be a part of that. The championships have
given me a great inspiration to continue to race the best that I can.‰Û

Kennedy started running while an Irish citizen at the age of 27.
Kennedy was inspired after watching the Dublin Marathon and she decided
that she too would go run a marathon and someday win one. When she told
her husband and family, they first thought she was joking and laughed
at her idea.

‰ÛÏI was so hurt by that [their laughter] I decided to start training,
and it took me five years to win the Dublin Marathon, and I haven‰Ûªt
looked back since,‰Û Kennedy said.

‰ÛÏThe committee really was very proud to name her athlete of the year in
a unanimous decision,‰Û said Don Lein, Chair of the Masters Long
Distance Running Committee. ‰ÛÏShe is a phenomenal athlete. We were
impressed with not only what she had done this year, but her record
over the years has been outstanding.‰Û

Now a U.S. citizen, Kennedy finds special meaning in being named the
Masters Athlete of the Year.

‰ÛÏI was shocked,‰Û she said. ‰ÛÏTo receive an award like this is
unbelievable. Being a U.S. citizen now and running for the U.S. at the
Masters World Championships in the 5,000, all I could think of was that
I would love to be on the podium and hear the national anthem. I feel
I‰Ûªve been adopted by the U.S. and given a second chance to race again.
It‰Ûªs a chance of a lifetime and I‰Ûªve been very luck to race and
continue to put out the best performances that I can.‰Û

The Masters Athlete of the Year award was established in 2004 to
recognize the outstanding performances by 40-and-over athletes. A list of previous winners can be found here.

USA Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track
& field, long-distance running and race walking in the United
States. USATF encompasses the world’s oldest organized sports, the
World’s #1 Track & Field Team, the most-watched events at the
Olympics, the #1 high school and junior high school participatory
sport, and more than 30 million adult runners in the United States: www.usatf.org.