Chilean miner to run marathon again, Chilean Miner to run marathon again, After Tough Year, a Chilean Miner Returns to Run. The darling of last year’s New York City Marathon, Edison Peña, was back in the spotlight Thursday in Central Park, but this time he did not display a radiant presence, made no bold statements and declined to impersonate Elvis Presley. 

Last year, Peña captivated spectators while completing the marathon just three and a half weeks after being freed from a mine in Chile. He and 32 others were trapped for 69 days. He achieved acclaim as the camera-loving miner, visiting the Empire State Building and appearing on the “Late Show With David Letterman.” He also crooned Elvis songs.

In the year since, Peña and many of the other miners have faced struggles after the worldwide attention faded following their dramatic rescue. On Sunday, Peña will compete in the marathon again, but there was a contrast between the Peña who toured New York last year and the Peña who spoke to reporters Thursday.

Peña, 35, did not come to grips with the traumatic nature of his time underground until after last year’s marathon. He turned to drinking and drugs and checked into a psychiatric clinic, which he described as the low point since being freed from the mine.

“I’m here despite the fact that I’ve fallen down to show that I’ve risen up,” Peña said through an interpreter at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “I don’t really want to go into depth about the challenges that I faced, but suffice to say, I have gotten help and declared a truce with the problems I’ve had.”

He later added: “I realized that I felt like I was divided in two. That there was a normal me and a me that was a gorilla, and I needed to control that gorilla.”

Peña received an invitation to attend last year’s race after the world learned that he jogged three to six miles a day while trapped some 2,000 feet underground. But he told marathon officials that he did not want to be a guest. He wanted to run.

Peña finished in 5 hours 40 minutes 51 seconds, bettering his six-hour goal. Peña struggled to the end, battling through pain in his knees that almost caused him to withdraw. He stopped at a medical tent between Miles 19 and 20 to get ice packs.

Whether he was walking or running did not seem to matter. Peña’s appearance in the marathon upstaged some professionals, his celebrity taking on a life of its own.

Even though two escorts accompanied Peña, racers crowded to get near him, and some even snapped photographs of him while jogging along. Peña was a crowd favorite, and Chileans waved the country’s flag and held signs that urged him on: “Run, Edison, Run.”

Mary Wittenberg, the director of the New York City Marathon, said that Peña “embodied what this event is all about” in his performance last year.

Afterward, Peña declared his intentions to run in this year’s event. But after reading about the miners’ struggles, race officials reached out to make sure that Peña would be able and willing to compete.

“Yes, it’s hard to be in my shoes,” Peña said. “But I decided to run again because I like challenges. Also, I decided to run again because I wanted to encourage others, and I wanted to show them and show myself, yes, we can.”

Peña said he found running therapeutic. Although he has a sore left knee, he enjoys the feeling of a runner’s high, which he says dissipates his problems. He runs about 40 to 45 minutes a day, four days a week.

But Peña knows he cannot outrun all of his problems. He said that he was not receiving money from the mining company or the Chilean government, and that he did not have any book or movie deals in the works. Peña also said he had not kept in touch with the other miners.

Wearing a brown leather jacket and jeans, Peña did not display much emotion at the news conference, where he sat between Wittenberg and an interpreter. He declined requests by two reporters to sing an Elvis song and exited quickly after the question-and-answer session. chilean miner completes tokyo marathon, chilean miners 69 days, elvis presley, edison pena ran 6 miles a day, chilean miner nyc marathon

There was a moment, though, that showed a hint of the flair that so endeared Peña to spectators last year. When asked about his hope for Sunday’s race, Peña initially said that he simply wanted to finish. Then he paused, his lips curling into a smile.

“Well, actually, let me amend that,” he said. “I wouldn’t mind winning, either.” 

Source:nytimes