Chilean miner to give NYC another go

Edison Peña, the Chilean miner who ran last year’s New York City Marathon after being trapped in a mine for 69 days, is planning to take on the race again.

According to the New York Times, Peña was a hit with the crowd at last year’s marathon just three and a half weeks after being freed from the mine. He received an invitation to run the race after he told the press he ran three to six miles a day when he was trapped 2,000 feet underground.

Peña finished last year’s race in 5:40:51, which was faster than his six hour goal. The 35-year-old, however, had pain in his knees that caused him to drop out.

Peña told the Times that he hadn’t yet dealt with the trauma of being trapped underground when he ran last year’s marathon. After the race, he says he turned to drinking and drugs, and even checked into a psychiatric clinic.

“I’m here despite the fact that I’ve fallen down to show that I’ve risen up,” Peña said through an interpreter at a news conference Thursday afternoon. “I don’t really want to go into depth about the challenges that I faced, but suffice to say, I have gotten help and declared a truce with the problems I’ve had.”

“Yes, it’s hard to be in my shoes,” Peña added. “But I decided to run again because I like challenges. Also, I decided to run again because I wanted to encourage others, and I wanted to show them and show myself, yes, we can.”