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Joan Benoit Samuelson played the role of domestique for Lance Armstrong in Sunday's New York City Marathon. Samuelson, the winner of the inaugural 26.2-mile race held for women at the 1984 Olympics, ran the final 16 miles with the retired cyclist.
She provided drinks, food and advice for the seven-time Tour de France champion, who achieved his goal of finishing in less than three hours by 24 seconds.
Samuelson, 49, wants to return to the role of competitor and in April 2008 compete at the U.S. Olympic trials marathon for women in Boston. Not that she expects to make the team for the Beijing Games.
"The thought of going sub-2:50 at 50 keeps me going," says Samuelson, who lives in Freeport, Maine, and held the U.S. women's record of 2:21:21 from 1985 to 2003.
Samuelson burst on the national scene in 1979 when as a student at Bowdoin College she won the Boston Marathon. The trials in Boston would provide a fitting close to her competitive career.
"That would complete the circle," said Samuelson, who also won Boston in '83 and Chicago in '85. "Then I'm going to have to go out and find a real job."
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