Sunday’s Sydney Marathon marked seven-for-seven for American masters celebrity Jeannie Rice. The 77-year-old crossed the end line in a formidable 3:37:48 in the course of the occasion’s first 12 months as an Abbott World Marathon Main, finishing all seven marathon majors and successful her W75-79 class by a astonishing one hour and 21 minutes.
Remarkably, she additionally outpaced all the lads in her age bracket, with the highest male finisher clocking 4:00:52–giving her a lead of greater than 22 minutes. That’s quicker than 5:10/km (or 8:19/mile tempo) over 42.2K.
Hideko Sato-Fraser of Japan took second within the W75-79 division in 4:59:30, whereas Eva Seidlova of Slovakia ran 5:11:53 for third.
An esteemed masters runner
Rice, an Ohio native, has now gained her age class in any respect seven World Marathon Majors. Simply final April, she shattered her personal W75-79 world file on the London Marathon, working 3:33:27 to win her division by half-hour, along with beating the lads by 11. One 12 months earlier, on the USATF Masters Observe and Subject Nationwide Championships, she had rewritten the file books on the observe as properly, breaking the ladies’s 75-79 world information within the 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m.
She additionally holds the ladies’s 70-74 marathon file of three:27:50, which she set in 2018 at 70. In 2023, Rice even ran 3:33:15 on the Boston Marathon (10 seconds quicker than her present W75-79 world file) however Boston’s point-to-point, net-downhill course makes it ineligible for file functions.
The best W75+ VO2 max in historical past
Simply six days after her world-record run in London, Rice travelled to an an train lab in England to endure a sequence of checks like treadmill work, physique composition evaluation and soar assessments. Earlier this 12 months, the fundings have been printed as a case research within the Journal of Utilized Physiology. Researchers reported that Rice recorded a VO2 max of 47.8–the very best ever measured in a lady aged 75 or older–together with an unexpectedly excessive most coronary heart charge of 180 bpm.
76-year-old lady units spectacular world file at London Marathon
This previous summer time, Rice additionally posted a string of standout performances over a lot shorter distances: in July, she ran 39:56 on the Johnnycake Jog 5-miler (8K), 24:06 from the Friday Night time Lights 5K, and 23:04 at Ohio’s Rock Corridor 5K in mid-August.
Rice spends half the 12 months coaching in her hometown of Mentor, Ohio, earlier than heading to Naples, Fla., every winter.
