At 77, she’s as fit as at 25. What her body tells us about ageing.
Record-breaking marathoner Jeannie Rice is genetically blessed with high oxygen uptake, but the septuagenarian’s other habits set an example we can all emulate.
Most runners see substantial performance losses after they turn 70. Not Jeannie Rice, who just turned 77 and ran the Boston Marathon on Monday.
She has broken world women’s records in the 75-79 age group for every distance and, at times, beaten the fastest men in that age group. According to unofficial results, her Boston time was 4 hours, 27 minutes and 17 seconds. It was very slow for Rice, but she still placed first in her age group.
