Rescued Chilean Miner Prepared for NYC Marathon

Republished from ABC News/ESPN Sports: Edison Pena has prepared for Sunday's New York City Marathon like no other competitor: running each morning and afternoon in steel-tipped electrician's boots that he cut down to ankle-high shoes. Pena ran back and forth along a 1,000-yard (1-kilometer) path through the darkness and stifling heat and humidity inside the collapsed gold and copper mine where he and 32 other men were trapped for 69 days before last month's dramatic rescue. Pena ran to clear his head, to push away his anxiety.

And he ran, fellow miners said, because he wanted to be ready to represent them in a marathon, where he might be able to spread a message about what he hopes will be the legacies of their ordeal: safer workplaces, closer families and more trust in God. "If I had to run barefoot, I would have done it," Pena told Associated Press Television News after his rescue. "Life has given us a new challenge — to care more deeply, to be more present with the people we love." Pena, 34, has been among the more outspoken of the rescued miners, a man willing to show his emotions, even tears, as he talks of his intense desire that Chile's mineral riches don't come at the expense of working people ordered into mines known to be unsafe.

"I would like things to change," he said. "It was for something that I ran inside the mine. I think that things can be done. I think we suffered too much, that this too has to be worth something." Marathon organizers who learned of Pena's subterranean exercise routine had invited him to come to New York to watch the race. They were shocked when he asked to run instead. "Edison Pena will be one of the stars of this year's marathon as he will be among the 43,000 or more runners at the starting line on Sunday," said New York Road Runners spokesman Richard Finn in an e-mail to The Associated Press. Fellow miners weren't surprised that Pena wanted to run in the marathon.

To read the complete article by Eva Vergara, please click on the title link: "Rescued Chilean Miner Prepared for NYC Marathon".