Gutsy Runner of the Year

Although she came up short in both attempts, Shalane Flanagan dared to set lofty goals for herself--to win the Boston Marathon and to break the U.S. women's marathon record. She achieved neither, but hardly failed: In a Boston heavy with emotion, the hometown hero led from the gun and, for the next 20 miles, set a scorching pace that would tee up Rita Jeptoo's course record. (Jeptoo would later fail a drug test in September.) Flanagan finished seventh, but her time of 2:22:02 was a three-minute, 36-second PR and the fastest Boston ever by an American woman.Flanagan then turned to the flat-and-fast Berlin Marathon and Deena Kastor's U.S. record, a feat that would require another three-minute PR. She went out at a ferocious pace, good enough to set the American 25K record along the way, but fell short of the ultimate mark. She still managed to PR in 2:21:14 and vault past her mentor Joan Benoit Samuelson to become the second-fastest U.S. woman ever.