A Letter

from Pax Beale

March 17, 2000

Re: Elaine Pedersen

Dear Group,

Services for our "Petie," Elaine Pedersen Koverman, are April 9th, 2000 at 112 Bulkley in Sausalito across from the Alta Mira Hotel at the Presbyterian Church.

I thought you would desire a copy of the news release about Elaine's passing. Different versions were used in the Oakland Tribune, SF Chronicle, SF Examiner, and Marin Independent Journal. It also has gone to Runner's World magazine.

I was with Elaine one and two days before her passing. They say the brain is the last thing to go, and while she could not talk, she gave me delayed responses, based on my request as if she understood me. The responses were to blink or make a sound. She gradually did both to all I said. I was so glad Sophie encouraged me to make the decision to visit her, if only to receive the blinks and audible groans. Sophie's medical background knew it was worse than I had imagined.

My heart was always attached to Elaine and after our separation, I remember her saying how well it all worked out. She said Sophie and I were a perfect match, she happily got Gary, and we both had a friendship for life. She was always positive.

Sophie always said how could I have let her get away. That's the ultimate compliment.

My daughter Lyndi said "Dad you are about to find out what a good deal you had. The number of people out there with excess baggage will make you adore Petie."

Both were right.

Of all the persons I've known who have passed away, none, absolutely none, were closer to me than the "Petie." I have great memories of the many things we did together and how she always supported me. Petie was family. What more can I say?

Significantly, the Dolphin Swimming and Boating Club at the foot of Hyde St. in San Francisco, where "Petie" was a member had their flag at half mast for a week in her honor.

Jeannie, Carolyn, and Karen were all stalwarts helping out in Houston and along with Gary kept day and night vigil in the hospital room for support. I doff my fedora to all of them. There were a few short lived recovery moments, and Petie's communications were always so upbeat, but in reality she did have a chance of a "snowball in hell" from day one.

In truth, I was going to go to Houston to see her earlier, but I was in a state of denial. I rationalized Petie would grab a transplant, bounce back, and just be her old self. In retrospect, from the day she became aware of her cancer, she steadily went downhill, and "bingo" she was gone. I just can't believe she just up and left us.

She was one of a kind.


Best Personal Regards,

Pax Beale

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PRESS RELEASE

Pioneer Runner's Last Race

You had to have been there to get the full impact.

Elaine "Petie" Koverman, then known as Elaine Pedersen was forced to withdraw from the oldest cross country race in the world in the 60s. No women were allowed. The federation regulation limited women's distance running to only half a mile (800 meters). One of the reasons sounds ludicrous today, but the fear was their uterus would descend (fall out). The Dipsea was 6.8 miles of rugged trails from Mill Valley California through Muir Woods National Park, over Mount Tamalpais, to the Pacific Ocean north of San Francisco.

Former world record holder, Olympic Champion, George Rhoden and friend Pax Beale hid Elaine until the gun was fired. She jumped into the race and became the first woman to run the Dipsea for time, beating half the male entrants.

Elaine's uterus did not fall out and women's running was never the same. The women's marathon (26.2 miles) became an Olympic event and America was running on the streets and in the parks night and day, young and old. Nike and Puma became household names, and even stylish on the feet of those who did not run. Elaine Pedersen was at the very core of it all.

Elaine Pedersen was diagnosed as having bone marrow cancer last October, and went to the famous cancer center, M.D. Anderson Hospital, in Houston Texas for a transplant. The operation was unsuccessful. As a second transplant was being arranged, she was diagnosed with acute leukemia, and then acquired what some would call a cancer patient's best friend, pneumonia.

She died Monday, March 6th, 2000 at age 63.

Elaine also was the first bonafide woman runner to compete in the S.F. Examiner's fabled Bay to Breakers race, the biggest single participant athletic event in the world today, with currently over 80,000 runners.

Elaine co-founded with Pax Beale what is recognized as the first "Run for Fun" Club, the Cathedral Hill Medical Center Joggers Club, which subsequently was merged with the Dolphin South End Runners, which exists today.

In the 60's the Cathedral Hill Medical Center Joggers Club, led by Elaine, entered in mass into the Bay to Breakers, and it doubled the size of the entrants to 300 plus, considered a huge race at the time.

Elaine also paid for and was hostess at a dinner each year to the guest Australian runner, who was annually a special Bay to Breaker's entrant. She worked with examiner columnist Walt Daily on the project.

Elaine Pedersen also made history by sneaking into the 26 mile Boston Marathon in the 60's. As a direct result, cohort Pax Beale was expelled from the Boston Marathon forever, so serious was that "crime."

Early 70's saw women finally recognized to run at Boston, providing they met the men's qualifying time. Elaine, now in her 40's, had the slowest qualifying time for the women's division, but as a self-proclaimed "just a jogger," who only ran for her won satisfaction, she ran beyond herself and finished second in the official Boston Marathon.

Elaine Pedersen was co-founder of the Women's Hospital of Oakland and until she retired from medicine was its President.

Elaine returned to United Airlines, where she met future husband pilot Gary Koverman. She always joked about her original tenure at United. She said she was so old she had gotten the job originally flying to Hawaii because flights over water required a licensed registered nurse on board in those earlier days.

She earned notoriety by running with a petition non-stop to support women's programs from the hospital in Oakland, 90 miles to the steps of the capitol in Sacramento. Elaine wasn't fast, but she could run and run and... the longer the better. It is doubtful there is a hill, knoll, or valley in the State she has not run, as she basked in the excitment of exploring every running trial known or unknown.

She is survived by her husband Gary Koverman, and after marraige the moved to, where else, but near the start of the Dipsea Race in Mill Valley, California.

Elaine Pedersen Koverman was not a hardcore feminist activist. She led by a contagious effervescent personality and bottomless energy. Some said she projected as never having a bad day in her life.

Husband Gary Koverman said in the end everything failed, but her marathoner's heart, which just kept on ticking, which postponed the inevitable several days beyond her Medical Doctor's expectations. He said Elaine's wish was to be cremated, and her ashes be strewn over the Dipsea Trail.

And as I said, "You had to have been there and our beloved 'Petie' always will be."

by Pax Beale
a friend