Johnson, who lived in San Jose, Calif., was 86 when she crossed the finish line at the New York City Marathon Sunday in 7:57:41. It was Johnson’s 25th New York Marathon, though she had completed dozens of other races throughout the country. (Read a 2008 story on Johnson.) This one might have been her most courageous, though. Johnson fell around mile 16, suffered cuts to her face, then got up and finished anyway.
According to her daughter, Diana Boydston, Johnson got bandaged up in the medical tent but didn’t bother going to a hospital for further examination.
Monday morning she woke up and followed the ritual that had become a part of her New York marathon routine – she went to stand outside of the Today show studios with her medal to say hello to Al Roker. As usual, Roker found her and shared a few words with Johnson, who collapsed minutes after the interview and was soon pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital.
Johnson, a former physical education teacher who didn’t take up running until 1985, had made it clear to everyone that if she collapsed running she did not want to be resuscitated.
She spent about two hours each morning circling the track and running the bleachers at a local high school in San Jose. She ran half-marathons in the freezing February cold of her native Minnesota and trained at running camps in Lake Tahoe with renowned coaches, including Jeff Galloway.
“She went out happy,” Boydston said Tuesday. “She couldn’t have asked for more than that, except maybe a few more years.”
On Johnson’s kitchen wall and never far from her thoughts was the runner’s mantra she often recited from the Book of Isaiah.
“But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
At Johnson’s request, her family is planning a burial for her in Minnesota.