91-year-old woman breaks two records running San Diego marathon

“I’m Harriette Thompson, and I’m 91 years old, and I’m running the marathon at San Diego.”

That’s right! Ninety-one-year-old Harriette Thompson ran her way into the record books on Sunday after she completed the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon for the 15^th time.

Completing the race in seven hours, seven minutes and 42 seconds, Hariette became the oldest woman to compete in the race, and also set a US record for the fastest time for a woman in her age group.

The second oldest marathon runner in US history, Harriette started running back in 1999, when a friend of hers was running to raise money to fight cancer.

“I started running because I had friends who were very ill from leukaemia, and a friend of mine was gathering money for the race. She was going to run for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, and I decided, well, I could walk that, so I signed up, and I came out here in 1999 and ran my first marathon.”

A cancer survivor herself, Harriette had just undergone nine radiation treatments for cancer in her legs, and at one point during the race, didn’t think she could make it to the finish line. But, despite aching legs and sapping sun during the course of her latest run, it seems that the race is far from over for Harriette, who hopes to take on next year’s competition.

“When I get over that finish line, that’s the best part!”