After winning the Boston Marathon twice, setting a world and multiple American records, and winning the inaugural women's Olympic marathon in 1984 - and setting an Olympic record that stood for 16 years - Joan Benoit Samuelson deserves a rest.

Instead, the 52-year-old from Freeport, Maine, is still out on the road, not just jogging to stay in shape but competing in races - sometimes twice in one weekend. Except for her gray hair, she looks much like she did in the photo taken in 1984 when she crossed the finish line of the Olympic marathon.

On June 13, 2009, Samuelson was in Rutland, Vermont, to compete in the 33^rd annual Crowley Brothers' Memorial 10k, a race that originated in the late 1920s after a bit of trash talking between Frank Crowley, a high-school senior from Rutland who held Vermont high school records in the mile and 2-miles, and 7-time Boston Marathon winner Clarence DeMar, who was in his late 30s at the time (DeMar last won the Boston Marathon in 1930 when he was 41).

Legend has it that they challenged each other to a duel: a 10,000-meter race. Youth ended up trumping experience, and the race became an annual event. It eventually petered out, to be revived in 1976 by Crowley's brother Joe.

Incidentally, Frank's speed carried him to the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles. His best finish was 8^th in the 1500 meters.

But back to Samuelson ... The running legend arrived with marathon legend Bill Rodgers in Rutland very late - a little over eight hours before the start of the 2009 Crowley Race. Rodgers first ran the Crowley in 2008 and was impressed, so he talked Samuelson into returning with him.

Both marathon legends had competed the day before in the Bellin Run,  a 10k in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Samuelson finished fifth overall there in 36:13, just under three minutes behind winner Magdalena Lewy Boulet, the 23-year-old distance runner from California who was the runner-up in the 2008 Olympic Marathon Trials last April. Samuelson competed in that event also - saying at the time that it was her last competitive marathon.

In Rutland, Samuelson won the 2009 Crowley 10k - and finished third overall - in 38:17. She was happy to break 40 minutes after her effort in Green Bay.

"I know I should do more speed work to try to get my times down," she said after the Crowley. "But I'm afraid that I'll get injured, and I'd rather be running than sitting out."

She's far from sitting out. Her summer race schedule includes a half-marathon in June, the L.L. Bean 4^th of July 10k  in her hometown of Freeport, and the Bix 7, another legendary race in Davenport, Iowa. And that just takes her through July.

In August, she organizes the Beach to Beacon 10k, a race she founded in 1999 in Maine. In September, she's off to Toronto for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Half-Marathon, and 5k.

As for competing in another marathon, she seems to be having second thoughts.

"I said after the [Olympic] Trials last April that that would be my last competitive marathon effort," she explained. "But I never said what constitutes competitive."

She currently has no marathons on her radar screen, but "that's not to say I won't put one on."

So what might lure her back to 26-mile, 385-yard distance?

"When our kids are old enough to run marathons, when they graduate from college and set their sights on the marathon," she said. "They're not that far away."

Abby just finished her junior year at Bates College [http://www.bates.edu] in Maine, and Anders will be a sophomore at Bowdoin College [http://www.bowdoin.edu], Samuelson's alma mater. Both Samuelson kids competed for their colleges' cross-country teams last fall. In the winter Abby was co-captain of the Bates' Nordic ski team. Anders participated in track this spring.

Samuelson ran her first marathon while still in college (to qualify for the Boston Marathon), then won the Boston Marathon [http://www.bostonmarathon.org] as a college senior, smashing the women's record by almost eight minutes. Running marathons with her college-age kids might bring her full circle.

Then will she take time to rest?

Don't count on it.