Originally Published:20090801.

Barbara Ellicott had every reason to give up. After a vicious pit bull attack in 1994, the woman who had completed both the Boston and New York marathons was told she might never run again. "It was like a death sentence," she says. A decade later, she was told she might not be able to even walk more than a mile due to complications of Lyme disease. So how did this retired New Jersey speech pathologist complete full marathons in 2007 and again in 2009, at the age of 68? "My daughters inspired me to keep trying," she says. She credits them and her commitment to a vegan diet with "bringing me back to life." Today she inspires others as a speaker at vegetarian and medical conferences.