Backstage With Untold Track and Field History
******
She Ran, And Ran, And Ran To Survive, Setting Records That Stood The Test Of Time
By Marc Bloom for DyeStat
Part 2 | Part 1
After school, the young girl of 12 would throw down her books, put on a pair of sneakers, and jog over to the nearby trailhead of the Jemez Mountains — the breathtaking wilderness backdrop above and to the west of her community of Los Alamos, New Mexico — and start running.
Two hours. Three hours. Her runs started at 7,300 feet altitude and went up beyond 10,000 feet to the peak of the Pajarito Plateau, at a ski area. Los Alamos was situated within the Jemez, on the canyons and mesas of the Pajarito. Its remote trails tested the most durable of runners.
The girl’s name was Lynn Bjorklund.
“I would try to get back before dark,” she recalled in our recent conversations. But, with the restrained recognition of anyone who puts running first, she added, “that did not always work.”
Bjorklund would not leave her sanctuary, the place where she felt true and alive, where she would not be judged by the superficial designs of her peers. She would run the wooded terrain on a path to enlightenment, to learn who she was as a young female runner, and how to survive in the pristine environment she cherished.
A local newspaper story called her “aesthetically oriented,” based on comments from an age-group coach. The article also called her “very low key” and a “slender blonde.” For her part, Lynn said, “It’s wonderful just to go a long way by yourself.”
Running with no ambition other than finding solace in the canyons and atop the mesas, taking in the Sangre de Cristo Range 35 miles across the Rio Grande Valley in the distance, the girl would build a foundation for precocious racing success at home and abroad.
However, when the time came for ribbons and trophies a few years hence, she felt upended emotionally by the accolades.
After capturing her first AAU national championship, the junior cross country title in 1973, Bjorklund, then 16, was embarrassed by the publicity, as when she was featured in the coveted Sports Illustrated Faces in the Crowd.
“To me,” she said, “it seemed like an accident when I ran a race. I didn’t mean to do that. I had low self-esteem and felt like I didn’t deserve any attention.”
Lynn was traumatized by incessant bullying a school. She wanted her running to be pure of heart, to nurture her soul, not fill her with…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at RunnerSpace News…