Sally Meyerhoff Dies: Marathon Runner Dead At 27

Champion marathon runner Sally Meyerhoff died suddenly Tuesday at 27 years old in a bicycle accident.

According to The Arizona Republic, Meyerhoff's bike collided with a pickup truck in Maricopa, Ariz.

The accident occurred at an intersection near the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway around 1:30 p.m. local time.

AOL News reports the Arizona native was a star runner in high school, All-American in college, and qualified for the Olympic trials after her very first marathon. She qualified in her second Olympic trials in 2010 after running the New York City Marathon.

Meyerhoff won the P.F. Chang's Rock'n'Roll Arizona Marathon in January with a time of 2:37:36. She was the first female to win the race, according to competitor.com.

Watch Meyerhoff speak after winning the Skirt Chaser 5k in Tempe:

Comments

[shmooth]

08:38 AM on 04/02/2011

this was no accident -- the driver was surfing on his iphone when he killed this girl. the idea that a bike would ride into the path of an oncoming truck is absurd. broad daylight. sun high in the sky. absolutely nothing blocking anybody's view for miles around. and somehow this guy manages to run over and kill a biker.

there _is_ an explanation for it -- it's called distracted driving, and should be called murder.

[Anonani]

07:00 AM on 03/12/2011

I cannot imagine the pain of this loss to her family, friends, fans, and to the unfortunate motorist who hit her. It is just a tragedy all around. No one is unscathed.

[ZZPOT]

09:33 PM on 03/10/2011

If you follow the Arizona Republic Link, she was headed South & the pick up was headed East. That would put the pick up truck on Casa Grande Highway, which has the right of way. She evidently blew the Stop sign. Very sad indeed.

[akrazyrunner]

08:20 PM on 03/10/2011

This is indeed very sad. I check Google street view.
It looks to be a very isolated intersection, but it also does appear she had a stop sign
http://tinyurl.com/4gn8usv

[Checkpoint Charlie]

03:09 PM on 03/10/2011

My heart goes out to her RIP and her family and friends

[Ljilja]

03:03 PM on 03/10/2011

So tragic. Deepest condolences to her family.

[Bushido08]

02:22 PM on 03/10/2011

How sad...our thoughts and prayers are with her family.

[pinkeyelemonade]

02:20 PM on 03/10/2011

So terribly sad. Peace to her family and friends.

[balloonboyrama]

02:00 PM on 03/10/2011

I AM Canadian. Halifax to Miami in 39 days on my bicycle. Got the pics to prove it on my Facebook page, just look up Mykyle Scapinello. ABC's of life are: AVOID BAD COMPANY and ALWAYS BE CAREFUL. God willed that you were created and he can also will you to be destroyed.

[ttyy]

01:45 PM on 03/10/2011

I see bicyclists breaking the law all the time. I never understand why they take things so lightly. As a walker, they think it is ok to zoom infront of me, fail to yield, fly through pedestrian crossings without looking, ignore stop signs...and then complain that everyone else isn't watching for them.

[KevG]

02:47 PM on 03/10/2011

Tons of people on the road - drivers, pedestrians, cyclists - break the law every day. It's not isolated to one group.

The more important point is that everyone still has the protection of the law, equally, even if they annoy you. That person who bikes right through the crosswalk without looking at you? They deserve the protection of the law just as much as you do. That doesn't mean they're not also an unpleasant ass, but they still deserve protection. Everyone out there, regardless of mode of transportation, should be aware of and respectful to everyone else. Plain and simple.

[metafizx]

02:52 PM on 03/10/2011

Oh, that MUST the reason, give it a rest, have a little decency - you don't know what happened. the girl was 27, a fantastic athlete...at the prime of her life. cyclists get hit and killed all the time, it's not because they didn't stop for a sign...

[PhineasGage730]

01:58 PM on 03/11/2011

Actually, in this case it was her fault.

[KevG]

01:27 PM on 03/10/2011

A small quibble, but doesn't using the word "dies" in a headline usually refer to natural/unassisted deaths? Heart attacks, ends of long illnesses, death from an injury sustained much earlier, etc.? Even if you want to avoid use of the word "killed" to shift blame away from the driver - who is not blamed in any reports so far - wouldn't "dies in auto accident" or some such be more informative? I clicked on the story thinking I'd read about an unexpected natural death.

[shmooth]

08:43 AM on 04/02/2011

the passive voice is a very common technique used to avoid assigning blame. nobody actually does anything to anyone else -- things just happen to people and things.

so, we didn't invade Vietnam, it was just all of a sudden at war, and then we had a half million troops there.

the driver didn't run over and kill Meyerhoff -- Meyerhoff just somehow died.

drivers don't kill people -- cars do.

and it's an innocent-sounding accident -- not a collision.

all common language used to blame the dead for having the audacity to get killed.

[Brenda Starr]

01:16 PM on 03/10/2011

This is so sad. My sympathies to her family.

This is also why I ride a horse and not a cross-country bicycle. When something's going fast, I want it to have brains and a sense of survival.

[PhineasGage730]

01:59 PM on 03/11/2011

Umm, don't people get k!lled and crippled by horses? ...and that's minus the pick up truck.

[Sapper17]

01:13 PM on 03/10/2011

RIP. Very sad. Seize the Day. You never know ...

[babyjesussaysso]

12:44 PM on 03/10/2011

I am very nervous riding my bike on the streets, I have seen multiple people get hit on bikes and it is so awful. You have to be hyper vigilant at all times - similar to riding a motorcycle.

[FunctionOfTheCrisp]

12:37 PM on 03/10/2011

So did she hit the truck or did the truck hit her?

[oktober]

01:31 PM on 03/10/2011

Yeah, I was going to make a simliar comment? I don't recall someone dieing from riding their bicycle into a car/truck. They must have fallen very oddly or were going really fast; which I'm sure is not the case.

[ttyy]

01:42 PM on 03/10/2011

Are you kidding me?

[pinkeyelemonade]

02:22 PM on 03/10/2011

More importantly, who gives a crap?

[julierthanyou]

04:10 PM on 03/10/2011

quite a crass reply for such a devastating topic.