Keep LA Running!! TRACK LEGEND MARY DECKER SLANEY NAMED SPOKESPERSON FOR 15TH ANNUAL KEEP LA RUNNING CHARITY 5K RUN/WALK, 10 K RUN

Mary Decker Slaney, America’s greatest middle distance ever, will be the honorary spokesperson and starter of the 15th annual Keep LA Running Charity 5K Run / Walk, 10K Run, Kids Dash, Coastal Bike Ride, and

Mayor’s Mile, Sunday, July 13, at Dockweiler Beach in Playa del Rey.   Mary will also run the 5K at the event.

The only athlete ever to hold every American record from 800 meters to 10,000 meters, Mary Decker Slaney continues to own the U.S. women’s records in the 1500 (3:57.12, set in 1983), mile (4:16.71 in 1985) and 3000 (8:25.83 in 1985.).

Mary’s greatest international achievement came at the 1983 inaugural World Championships in Helsinki, where she won the 1500 and 3000 meters — a feat that would become known as the “Decker Double” and that helped earn her the title of Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year for 1983. A year earlier, she set world records in the mile (4:18.08), 2000m (5:32.7), 3000m indoors (8:47.3), 5000m (15:08.26) and 10,000m (31:35.3, in her first race at that distance), and won the AAU Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the country.

“Little Mary Decker” surprised the world in her 1973 international debut, when she won the 800 meters at a US-Soviet Union meet in Minsk as a pigtailed, 89-pound (40 kg) fourteen-year-old girl.  She became one of the most famous track and field competitors of her era, dominated by runners from Eastern European communist countries.  Over her career, Decker Slaney set 36 national records and 17 official and unofficial world records at various distances.

Clearly one of the greatest female runners in track history, Mary also was one of the unluckiest. She suffered many injuries, had to go through more than 20 surgeries, and never won an Olympic medal. She was favored to win the gold in the 3000 meters at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but collided with a young, inexperienced barefoot runner from South Africa, Zola Budd, who cut her off. Mary fell on the infield, injured her hip and could not resume the race, won by Romania’s Maricica Puica. (Mary was carried off the track by Richard Slaney, a British discus thrower who later became her husband. They live in Eugene and have one daughter, Ashley Lynn, 22.)

Mary came back with a vengeance in 1985. She started the season with        a world best at the Sunkist Invitational indoor meet, then went 14-0 against Budd, Puica & Co. on the European circuit.

For track fans there will never be another one like her – a runner with Jim Ryun’s talent and Steve Prefontaine’s heart.

Decker Slaney joins other track luminaries who have served as spokespersons for Keep LA Running – Carl Lewis, Billy Mills, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Steve Scott, Johnny Gray, Louie Zamperini.

Keep LA. Running, which has grown into one of the most popular distance running events in Southern California, has raised over $800,000 for its beneficiary charities. Keep LA Running is a very special event, benefiting children with cancer, premature born babies and other worthy causes. The event was initiated in 1994 by then SEIU Local 660 L.A. County/Special Districts Employees Emergency Disaster Relief Fund to provide a safety net for L.A. County employees. The Emergency Relief Fund is a 501 (c) (3) not for profit organization (EIN 95-4842244). As the event has grown in profile, popularity and funds generated, it has added new charities - the Pediatric Oncology Service, Women’s and Children’s Hospital of LAC + USC Medical Center; the Harbor UCLA Medical Center Neonatal Ward, and the American Cancer Society.

Keep L.A. Running races are open to everyone, from the serious runner to the first-time participant.  Runners, walkers and bike riders can register online at www.keeplarunning.com   Competitors  can also register by mail to: Keep L.A. Running, c/o Prime Time, PO Box 1009, Twin Peaks, CA 92391 by July 7. For registration information call race director Mike Ward at Village Runner, (310) 546-1888 or the race hotline at (626) 463-0483.

Major sponsors of Keep L.A. Running include co-title sponsors, PacifiCare, Colonial Supplemental Insurance, Kaiser Permanente and American Income Life.  Other top supporters include Trustmark, The Law Offices of Fensten & Gelber, Union Bank of California, Trustmark, Delta Dental, Benefit Vision, United Way, Aflac, Gordon, Edelstein, Krepack, Grant, Felton of Goldstein, Allstate, and Lewis, Marenstein, Wicke and Sherwin. Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable are media partners of Keep L.A. Running. 

Contact: Don Franken (310) 535-9230; (310) 962-3297; trackla@pacbell.net