Larry Olsen won the Cape Cod marathon in 1978,
when it was 21 degrees at the start and water froze in the cups.
In 2007 Larry ran the anchor leg of the winning relay team at Cape Cod,
taking the baton from another former winner, Jimmy Fallon,
at Woods Hole. What a moment that was.
Getting him to the start of his leg was a bit stressful, as the driving was tricky and there wasn't a lot of time. Larry was in the back seat, full of race energy, wondering aloud how much time he'd need to warm up, etc.
He put all that energy to good use.
It was a gran prix race, so competition (local) for the whole marathon
was pretty tough,
but only four open runners finished ahead of 61 year old Larry.
It was great to see him fighting for every second down Main St in Falmouth.
As others have said, it's a crushing loss for his family and for New England running. But I cannot imagine that Larry would choose to go in any other way:
just running .