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(Sally Meyerhoff, just after winning the P.F. Chang's Arizona Marathon)

On March 7th, elite runner, trail runner, and triathlete Sally Meyerhoff died in a cycling accident in Mariposa, AZ. She was a very accomplished athlete, setting the 10-mile American Record two years ago, recently winning the PF Chang's Arizona Marathon in 2:37 (qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials again in her 2nd marathon) just a month after winning the XTERRA Trail Run World Championships in course record time, and fitting in a Kona-qualifying 4:43 Half Ironman too. One gets the impression this Duke All-American 5k/3k runner was just finding her groove.

I had a chance to meet Sally at the XTERRA Worlds last year, and immediately loved her spunky and positive vibe. She had a thousand questions for me about Ironman Hawaii (which she was training for after qualifying in 2010), and wanted to know every place to party, eat, and have fun. She raced hard, and enjoyed every minute (be sure to watch the XTERRA video where she face plants off the trail, gets right up and wins). You can catch some of her positive attitude on her last blog entry, eerily entered the day before her death.

(Sally en  route to winning the XTERRA Trail Run World Championships)

Sally was "hit by a pickup truck after failing to yield at an intersection in Maricopa, Ariz. and died instantly". For all you cyclists out there, please be careful. We don't want to add any more names to the 700+ who die annually in cycling accidents.

Sally, I hit 10 x 1-mile repeats today in your honor, and will now toast your short but fabulous life. You will be missed!