Marathon legend Grete Waitz (won the NYC marathon record 9x)dead at 57

[cali]

New York City didn't know her name. She was just a number—an unremarkable 1173—hand-written with a pen and pinned to her tank top.

Grete Waitz didn't mind. She wasn't anxious about running her first marathon. The night before, Waitz went out to dinner in the city with her husband, Jack, and ordered a shrimp cocktail and filet mignon. There was a bottle of red wine and ice cream. "I got my carbs in a baked potato," Waitz recalled.

It was October, 1978. Waitz was a 25-year-old school teacher and track star from Norway, a last-minute entry in a race still growing its reputation. For Waitz, attempting 26.2 miles was a lark, an excuse to come here. She had never run more than half the distance.

"To tell the truth, I didn't care about the marathon," Waitz said in 2007, speaking at an event hosted by Google. "I was so excited about being in New York."

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