Bergen did not begin competing until she was 54. Her husband had decided to enter a masters meet, and she wondered if there was something she could try. She recalled, “I asked him what I could do, and he said running; everyone can run.”

This was an intriguing notion. She had memories of being fast as a girl. But she grew up in Brooklyn long before Title IX opened playing fields and gyms to women. The speed in her legs went untested and ignored.

“I would so love to know what I could have done as a kid,” she said after setting her record. “But back then, there weren’t any women doing the men’s stuff.”

Pain Management

Back in New York, the members of Team Martin anxiously flexed and poked and squeezed their star’s troublesome left leg. The world masters championships begin Tuesday. Would Martin heal in time?

The Running Realtor feared she had a torn meniscus, a rip in the cartilage that provides structure to the knee. But the consensus was that Martin was simply out of alignment. That 50-kilometer race March 4 probably was too much of a strain. Trained hands now needed to soothe her muscles and manipulate everything back into its proper place.

Within the next two weeks, Martin experimented with some slow running: first two miles, then five. She did quarter-mile intervals. She tried different shoes. She altered her stride. She ran with the family dog. Each day, the leg seemed to feel better. Eventually, she was pain free, and yet the knee still felt slightly unstable.

“I’m optimistic,” she said before boarding a plane for Finland. “If it turns out I can’t run, it’ll be disappointing, but I have to keep it in perspective. It’s not a heart attack. It’s not a diagnosis of anything terminal.”