Susannah Beck

Susannah Beck (born 1 May 1968) is a retired American distance runner who specialized in marathons and ultra trail running. She placed fourth at the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials marathon and eighth in 2004. Beck shifted to long-distance trail racing in her later career.

Early life Beck grew up in Yarmouth, Maine and attended the Waynflete School in Portland, Maine for high school. At Waynflete, she was coached by Andy Palmer and became a national-class cross country runner. Beck won the 1985 Maine Class B State Cross Country Championship and placed as high as fifth at the U.S.A National Championship. Beck enrolled at Yale University with the intent to run competitively, but a combination of injuries and stress from school led to her quitting the sport in 1989.

In 1999, Beck clocked a time of 2:38:50 at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN, which qualified her for the 2000 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon. At the Olympic Trials in South Carolina, Beck placed fourth of 170 women, narrowly missing an Olympic berth. Later in 2000, she placed third at the USA 25 km Championship and sixth at the USA Half Marathon Championship. She also won the 2004 Mid Winter Classic.

After 2004, Beck shifted her focus to ultra-marathons and trail races. She won the 2008 USA National Championship at 50 miles and finished second at the North Face 50-Miler in San Francisco. USATF named Beck the female Ultra Runner of the Year for 2008.

Other notable trail results include her victory at the Xterra Trail Half Marathon Championship in 2008 and her runner-up finish in the same event in 2009.

Beck was inducted into the Maine Running Hall of Fame in 2014.