Longtime Marathoner Connie Chan is Featured in Nike Ad Campaign

By Leigh DuPuy

Walking through Back Bay MBTA Station recently, you may have seen a familiar face on one of the large banners featuring marathon runners hanging from the T station ceiling or on a poster plastered throughout Boston. Connie Chan, College of Community and Public Service professor and co-director of the Institute for Asian American Studies, was one of four "regular" runners spotlighted in the highly visible Nike advertising campaign for the Boston Marathon 2003. This is the first year that Nike is featuring non-elite runners in their Marathon Monday promotions.

Chan is anything but an average runner, having completed 28 marathons and counting. After witnessing her first Boston Marathon while a graduate student in psychology at Boston University, Chan was inspired to take up running the next day. It has become a passion for her. However, even after many marathons, Chan never thought she would be able to qualify for the Boston Marathon, which requires athletes to run a previous marathon under a competitive time standard. When the Boston Athletic Association offered new qualifying times, Chan was determined to meet those for her age group.

It wasn't until 1991, thirteen years after completing her first marathon that she was able to qualify. She trains hard every year to renew this qualification and has completed twelve consecutive Boston marathons since 1992, finishing this year in just over four hours.

Chan wrote of what the Boston Marathon meant to her and the incredible exhilaration she felt at the start of her first Boston marathon to the list-serve community of the Dead Runners Society, saying "I could hardly believe I was really wearing a number and standing at the start of the Boston Marathon. As we prepared to run, tears welled up in my eyes, and my chest felt tight. I closed my eyes. I have waited 15 years for this moment, a moment I thought would never come."

A friend from the group read the inspirational story and encouraged Chan to submit it to Nike, which was soliciting entries from runners about the meaning of the Boston Marathon. It clearly inspired those in charge of the campaign, who selected Chan as one of two women to represent the regular runners.

Chan participated in a photo shoot with the other runners, including top women runners Joan Benoit Samuelson and Marla Runyan, and recorded her impressions of Boston and her experiences running its marathon. Her photo, ad, and voice were featured on www.nikerunning.com under the Marathon Monday link. Hearing her story of continued determination and her love of the sport, it is clear that Chan is anything but an ordinary runner.

Photo courtesy of Nike.

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