Caroline Walker

Caroline Walker (born October 15, 1953 ) is a former American long-distance runner .

In 1970 she started at the Trail's End Marathon and reached the finish line after 3:02:53 hours. It wasn't until days later that the then 16-year-old found out that she had set a world record (women were not officially allowed to run marathons at the time ).

It was to remain her only marathon, as she soon focused on cross-country running as a student at the University of Oregon , where she was trained by Steve Prefontaine . She was used twice in the national team: in 1972 she was ninth at the last Cross of Nations and won silver with the US team, and at the 1973 World Cross Country Championships in Waregem she came 30th and won bronze with the team.

After her amalgam fillings were inserted, she suffered from insomnia and fainting spells that did not stop until she had the fillings removed in 1990. Still, she won the Oregon Triathlon Championships in 1984, 1986 and 1987 . In 1988, a failed chiropractic treatment resulted in a herniated disc that forced her to retire from her sporting career.

After being a patient and student of Dietrich Klinghardt in the 1990s, she now practices alternative medical procedures such as neural therapy and color puncture in Santa Fe .

Web links

• Entry on Oregon Stars
• Many miles behind her , Portrait of Ryan Watt in the Portland Tribune, September 10, 2004 (updated October 30, 2009)