Chilean Miner Edison Running New York Marathon

By Jason Freeman on Nov 07, 2010 in Sports

Chilean Miner Edison Running New York Marathon - Image by Getty Images via [@]daylife

Chilean miner running New York City Marathon: I was going to beat destiny

Barely a month after their successful rescue from the Chile mines, Edison Pena has managed to outrun destiny, running 26.2 miles like it was nothing at all.

The Chilean miner was known for jogging through the tunnels while they were trapped underground. This time though, he is not satisifed with just running around for no reason at all, but he plans to run and finish the New York City Marathon.

But with his bad knee, he said it will probably take him 6 hours to finish the race.

What I thought about as I ran in the mine was that I was going to beat destiny, Pena said through a translator at a packed news conference Thursday, hours after flying into New York. I was going to turn the tables on destiny. I was saying to that mine, I can outrun you. I m going to run until you re just tired and bored of me.

And I did it.

No less than marathon world-record holder Haile Gebrselassie greeted Pena as he got off the plane. It's incredible, was how Pena described their meeting.

Over 100 members of the media were charmed by Pena, who looked dapper in a dark suit as he narrated his story and sang to Elvis Presley's Return to Sender . Pena said it was Presley's music which helped him go through his daily runs of 6 to 7 miles underground.

I d like the gentlemen and ladies of the press to kindly promise that you re not going to rip me apart in your stories if I can t stand the pain in my knee, Pena said, his humor undoubtedly intact after 69 days trapped nearly a half-mile underground. So, you know, show me some mercy, guys.

New York Road Runners President Mary Wittenberg said We know running as a light. We know running as a salvation. We know running as an anchor, and we felt a little bit better when we learned that one of the miners had that force of running with him while in the darkness. So, immediately, we said, We want to celebrate this man.

To be honest, it didn t even strike us that he might want to run, Wittenberg said. But when we heard last week that Edison wanted to come and he wanted to run, in so many ways it wasn t a surprise.