Arlene Pieper Stine died on February 11, 2021, remembered as a pioneering trailblazer of women's distance running.
Arlene Pieper Stine passed away on February 11, 2021, at the age of 90. Her death came just over a decade after her groundbreaking 1959 achievement had finally been rediscovered and celebrated by the running community, following years in which her story remained largely unknown outside of Colorado Springs.
Following her passing, tributes poured in from the running world, including from the Pikes Peak Marathon organization, which had, in earlier years, honored her as one of the sport's great pioneers. Memorial coverage highlighted how her quiet, determined 1959 finish of the Pikes Peak Marathon had predated many of the more widely celebrated milestones in women's marathon history, including Kathrine Switzer's famous 1967 Boston Marathon run and the sanctioning of women's marathon running by the Amateur Athletic Union in 1972.
Obituaries and tribute pieces, including from Legacy.com and the Colorado Sun, framed her life as an inspiring reminder that many pioneering achievements by women in sports history went undocumented or unheralded for decades, only to be rediscovered by historians and journalists much later. Her death prompted renewed interest in her legacy, cementing her permanent place in the historical record as the first woman to officially finish a sanctioned marathon in the United States.