Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Steve Larsen

Steve Larsen

Husband, father of five, brother, son, super-nice guy, realtor, professional road cyclist, professional mountain biker, professional triathlete, runner extraordinaire, fittest person I've ever known...gone at age 39.

Last night at FootZone's speed workout, Steve was just beginning his workout. At about the 500 meter point of the first 800, he collapsed.

Originally thought to be a heart attack, brother Mike said an autopsy showed that was ruled out. Mike says Steve's death may have been viral or related to allergies. He told me earlier today that Steve had been having trouble with his breathing for a few weeks, and unable to finish some of his recent workouts.

This very tragic news rocked me and the rest of the central Oregon community this morning. I dealt with it almost all day long at work as various friends of Steve came into the shop just to hang out and talk about him. There aren't too many athletes in central Oregon who haven't been handily whooped by Steve at a race.

A sad day, indeed. My thought and prayers are definitely with Steve's entire family...

6 comments:

JCaba said...

Nice post sean. Extremely difficult to process this whole situation. Confusing and saddening to say the least. Steve will be missed by all.

Anonymous said...

Sad day here in Iowa, I am in shock. -CB

Ronda said...

Sorry sorry to read this. Thinking of his family and friends here in Portland.

Matt Hart said...

it's a tragedy.

Scott Dunlap said...

Steve was such a cool guy. I got to chat with him at Vineman, Pacific Crest, the Haulin' Aspen Marathon, and he always was glowing about his family. My best to them and the Bend community.

SD

Ben Blessing said...

How dare you get so much awesome trail running in without me. Oh why am I complaining, I'm going to run 100 miles next week! Glad to see you having a great time in so many places. R2R2R is on my list of runs to do as well. Good job breaking the barrier last weekend as well.