Edison Peña has never run farther than 10 miles at once. However, nobody doubts he'll run 26.2 miles this SundayKnown as "Miner No. 12" or "The Runner," Peña gained fame for racing through the dark passageways of the Copiapó, Chile copper-gold mine where, for 69 days, he and 32 others were buried beneath a half-mile of earth.
"I ran to forget I was trapped," Peña, 34, told the New York Daily News earlier this week. "I ran in the dark. It was tremendous for me."
On Monday, Peña accepted an invitation to participate in the New York City Marathon. Organizers expected he'd play a ceremonial role in the grueling, 5-borough race. Perhaps he'd sit in the lead car or hold the finish line.
But, The Runner wanted to run.
"I intend to run the entire 26-mile marathon," Peña, who previously finished a triathlon in Chile, told People in Spanish. "I'm running more than an hour a day, on the beach. I don't know how many kilometers that is..."
Peña ran 3 to 6 miles everyday while trapped in the mine. He reportedly wore nothing but underwear, boots and a helmet as he raced through the sweltering network of tunnels with a flashlight in his hand.
On Sunday morning he'll toe the starting line alongside 43,000 runners in Staten Island.
"I know it will be very hard," Peña tells the Daily News. "I have no fear."
Why should he?
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