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In a world that values fast, she is perpetually slow.
In a world that demands first, she has given new value to the word last and redefines what it means to be a "winner" because 2007 marks her 20th year of completing the New York City Marathon, all in last place.
National Ambassador Zoe Koplowitz is the award winning author of The Winning Spirit-Life Lessons Learned In Last Place, a noted motivational speaker, and she lives with the daily challenges of both multiple sclerosis and diabetes. Her thirty-three hour nine minute run in 2000 set a world record for the longest marathon in the history of women's running. Zoe's time for her 2007 anniversary run was twenty-eight hours and forty-five minutes.
As Zoe crossed the Marathon finish line in Central Park late Monday morning, more than twenty-six hours after Martin Lel and Paula Radcliffe, the male and female Marathon winners. She was greeted by countless fans from the Society and the city at large as well as a battery of national and local media. Stories about Zoe's inspiring achievements ran in nearly 100 print and broadcast media across the country.
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Zoe crosses the finish line at the 2007 NYC Marathon |
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Zoe has been featured on the Today Show, Lifetime Network, CNN, ESPN, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Joan Rivers, and many other national TV and radio programs. She has presented motivational speeches from the shores of Oahu to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville , Tennessee . She also holds the distinction of being featured in a "Milk Mustache" ad.
Her volunteer work has been recognized by several major organizations including the National MS Society, Chase Manhattan Bank, The Achilles Track Club and The Sara Lee Corporation. In 2001, L'eggs Pantyhose honored Zoe as a "Woman Who Shapes the World."The U.S. Olympic Committee selected Zoe as a torch bearer to pass on the Olympic Torch as it made its way from Atlanta, Georgia to Salt Lake City , Utah and the 2002 Winter Games. It was an extremely poignant event, since Zoe had survived 9/11 three months prior to passing the torch.
Zoe's marathons have become a metaphor for self-acceptance and being a "participant" not an "observer" in your own life. Her transformational journey of the spirit has captured the imagination of hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, superseding the boundaries of race, class and economics. Zoe helps make "yes" the word to live by.
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