Born: 27 March 1923, United States (assumed)
Died: 16 October 2017
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Harriette Thompson ran her first San Diego Marathon when she was 76 and continued doing so every year except 2013—which the then-90-year-old only missed due to a recurrence of the oral cancer she had been fighting since 1986. The following year, she was back at it, completing the course in seven hours, seven minutes and 42 seconds and beating the previous record for women 90+ by two hours and 45 minutes. She had begun running shorter distances in her 50s and was inspired to do her first marathon because someone from her church choir was doing it to raise money for a cancer-related cause. At first, she only intended to walk it.
“I noticed when I got there that everybody was running, so I decided to run,” she later said. “I didn’t get much attention, even though I was coming in first—I was the only one in my age group.”
At 92, she became the oldest woman to run a marathon, a record previously held by Gladys Burrill. Along the way, she raised more than $100,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A former concert pianist who taught at Boston University, Thompson said the mental discipline also helped her running.
“I usually think of Chopin etudes, the ones that are technically difficult, because usually they’re pretty fast, and it stimulates me to go a little faster, and also helps pass the time,” she recounted.
She completed a half-marathon only a few months before her 2017 death at age 94, due to complications from a fall. In 2014, she had told the Charlotte Observer that the only time she felt her age was after running a marathon. “Lots of times, I see young girls coming in and limping, hardly able to move,” she said, “and I think, ‘Well, that’s pretty good that I don’t feel that bad.'”