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I consider myself a pretty fair athlete.

I can play a little golf and not embarrass myself. I could always play baseball, or, as Bruce Springsteen once famously sang, "I could throw that speedball by you." I can throw and catch a football. I'll take you on in H-O-R-S-E, if you've got a hoop in your backyard.

But if you forced me to run a 100-yard dash, I'd insist you have a cup of water waiting halfway down the track, and then have someone catch me if/when I came across the finish line.

That's why I'm in awe of marathon runners.

That's why I'm in awe of Linda King Steele.

Twenty days ago, Steele, born and raised in Trenton, ran in the New York City marathon, 26.2 miles of hard pavement, shin splints and blistered feet.

More than 38,300 runners started. Most of them — 99 percent — finished, and I salute them all, even the ones who didn't finish.

But I save my highest praise for Steele.

Because Linda King Steele is 60 years old.

Go ahead and say it with me: "Wow."

I've got a 60-year-old friend who backs his car out of the garage to go to the mailbox at the end of his driveway.

Steele, who graduated from Trenton High in 1966 and Miami University in 1971, turned 60 on Oct. 31.

Two days later in Gotham City, she became Super Woman.

"This was a big one for me and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate it," she said on the phone from her home near Atlanta.

A veteran of numerous half marathons, Steele applied to run in the NYC Marathon for three years.

After three tries, applicants automatically are accepted, Steele said. She began training with other Atlanta runners and told all her friends about her intentions.

"It hung over my head," she said. "When you tell the world you're going to do it, you can't not do it."

Well, actually you can. You can make up a dozen excuses. Not Linda King Steele, though. Not if you're made of steel.

Failure never was an option. At least that's what she kept telling herself as she passed each mile-marker.

"I knew I had to make it," she said. "If you have it in the back of your mind you're not going to make it, you won't."

She completed the race in five hours, 32 minutes, 15 seconds, nearly three hours after women's winner Paula Radcliffe.

Radcliffe is 34. Steele has children older.

"Runners are crazy," Steele said. "We get up at 4:30 in the morning just to beat the heat."

Uh, it's dark at 4:30, isn't it? And cold? And the bed's soft and warm, right?

"If you're not a runner," she said, "you don't get it."

No, I think we all get it. Linda King Steele is special.

She started running following the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. She was 48. She trained with a friend by walking, then trotting, then running the entire race.

"I was hooked," she said. "I've always been very athletic and I found something that keeps my body active, something I enjoy and I love so much."

Radcliffe took home $130,000.

Steele went home with something money can't buy: Pride. Self fulfillment. And a smile from ear to shining ear.