NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release – March 18, 2015

Nassau Community College Presents

Former Olympian Marla Runyan - No Finish Line: Reaching Your Goals Through Hard Work and Determination

 

April 20 

Garden City, NY – Marla Runyan, a former Olympic track athlete who is legally blind, will present No Finish Line: Reaching Your Goals Through Hard Work and Determination at Nassau Community College on Monday, April 20 at 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. in room 252/253 of the College Center Building. (download hi res photo)

Olympic runner Marla Runyan was born in 1969 in California. At the age of nine, she developed Stargardts Disease, a form of macular degeneration that eventually left her legally blind. Runyan competed in various track and field events in high school, where she set the school's high jump record of five-feet seven-inches. After graduating in 1987, she earned a BS in Education of the Deaf and an MS in Education of Deaf-Blind Children from San Diego State University. While attending college, Runyan also competed in several athletic events, including the seven-event heptathlon, the high jump and the 400-meter race. In 1996, she relocated to Eugene, Oregon, to focus on her running career.

Runyan began to make her mark as a world-class runner in 1999 at the Pan American Games, winning gold in the 1500-meter event. The following year, she earned a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team by finishing third in the 1500-meter event at the trials, thus becoming the first legally blind person and Paralympian to compete in the Olympic Games. Runyan finished eighth in the 1500-meter event in Sydney, Australia, at the time the highest finish ever in that event by an American woman. She went on to win three consecutive U.S. championships at 5000-meters and qualify for her second Olympic team in 2004. Runyan also finished the New York City Marathon with the second-fastest debut time by a woman. She concluded her running career by winning the 2006 Twin Cities Marathon 13 months after he daughter, Anna Lee, was born.

In 2001, Runyan became the first ambassador for the Perkins School for the Blind. Perkins is often noted for its most famous student, Hellen Keller. That year, Runyan also co-wrote her autobiography, No Finish Line: My Life As I See It. She currently works as an assistive-technology teacher and spokesperson for the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Massachusetts

For more information about No Finish Line: Reaching Your Goals Through Hard Work and Determination, which is free, open to the public and accessible to the disabled, call 516.572.7148.

Media ContactAlicia Steger 516.572.9634alicia.steger@ncc.eduncc.edu/newsreleases

About Nassau Community College Nassau Community College, part of the State University of New York, is an institution where nearly 22,000 full- and part-time students and approximately 10,000 continuing and professional students start and continue their successful journey through higher education. More than 70 fields of study are offered on a 225-acre campus located in the center of Long Island. As the largest single-campus two-year college in New York State, Nassau Community College maintains a national reputation for excellence. For more information, visit www.ncc.edu.

Ref: 1806.3/18/15/160