91-Year-Old Woman Breaks Marathon Record!

7 years ago
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Published on Jun 2, 2014

91 YEAR OLD MARATHON RUNNER
Age knows no bounds for 91-year-old Harriette Thompson, who while taking seven hours to finish the race, manages to cross finish line defiantly saying "the last mile was sheer joy," all while raising money to help find cures for leukemia.
Thompson said she started running back in 1999, when a friend of hers was running to raise money to fight an often deadly cancer.
I started running because I had friends who were very ill from leukemia, and a friend of mine was gathering money for the race that she was going to run for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and I decided 'I can walk that!' So I signed up, and I came out here 1999, and ran my first marathon," Thompson said.
She currently is raising money for leukemia herself on the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website at http://bit.ly/RunLikeHarriette.
At one point during the race, the elderly marathoner said she didn't think she could make it to the finish line, but offered choice words after completing the 26.2 mile (42.19 kilometers) marathon.
Oh it was fun! Especially the first half. And then around mile 17, it got harder and harder, and at one point I thought 'I'm not sure I can make this.' But then when I got to mile 20, it was fun counting down from 20 to 26, and the last mile was sheer joy."
It's the 15th time Thompson ran the San Diego marathon, the native of Charlotte, North Carolina said.