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Honolulu Marathon Hall of Fame will add Shorter to its elite club


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POSTED: Monday, November 17, 2008
                       
This story has been corrected. See below.

Elite runners often view themselves as elite people, better than the rest of us.

Not Frank Shorter.

And that's one of the reasons why he'll be enshrined in the Honolulu Marathon Hall of Fame next month.

Shorter, who won the Olympic marathon in 1972, entered the Honolulu race 19 times—never winning, but always grinning.

“;Frank's been coming ever since the '70s, when he was one of the top runners in the world,”; Honolulu Marathon president Jim Barahal said. “;He's been a great advocate of this event.”;

Shorter's Olympic victory inspired me and plenty of others to take up distance running. I got to meet him a couple of years ago and found him to be as genuinely friendly as I'd heard. We're often let down when we meet our childhood heroes later in life, but that wasn't the case this time.

Shorter's credentials and personality allow him to bridge the world class pros and the masses who run for the challenge and health benefits. It also makes him a perfect fit for Honolulu and deserving of its Hall of Fame.

“;He's so accessible, and it's a big thrill for a lot of people to see him and chat with him,”; Barahal said. “;You won't see that kind of thing at Boston and New York. It would be a fluke.”;

Shorter will be inducted Dec. 11, at the Hawaii Convention Center, as part of the Honolulu Marathon Expo.

The marathon itself is Dec. 14.

You still have time to enter—but don't if you haven't been training already for at least a couple of months (and that's if you're young and healthy).

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Josh Akognon: So open, so often, dropping 41.

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CORRECTION

        » Frank Shorter, who will be enshrined in the Honolulu Marathon Hall of Fame next month, won the Olympic marathon in 1972. A promo on Page A1 and a column on Page B1 yesterday said he won in 1976.