Though Jeannie Rice is passed the typical age of retirement, the grandmother, realtor and competitive runner has no signs of slowing down her lifestyle.
The 70-year-old set a world record for women of her age at the 2018 Chicago Marathon.
Rice’s finishing time was 3:27:50 which broke Helga Miketta of Germany’s 2013 record of 3:35:29 for the 70-plus women’s world record.
Rice, who works in the Cleveland area, started running after she visited her homeland of Korea in 1983.
“You go to visit cousins and aunts, and they think we are starving in America,” she told Runner’s World. “It’s a feast every time we go. We had to eat to be polite. I came home, I’m 5-foot-2, and I’m a little chubby. I wanted to lose those few pounds.”
She started running to get a little bit more exercise.
From there she decided to enter some races.
Rice found that she could win the local races and became fully committed to running within the year.
Since then she had run 116 marathons. Some which have taken place around in the world in places like the Great Wall of China, New Zealand, Prague, London, Madrid, Dublin, and Iceland.
To train for the Chicago Marathon, Rice performed seven runs of at least 20 miles or more, usually around 22 to 23 miles. Her weekly mileage was at about 65.
She gets going at about 5:30 a.m. each morning to start her run with friends in the area.
Many of them men and younger than her.
“That helps, running with stronger runners,” she said.
“I used to play racquetball, tennis,” she said. “You have to have a partner for that kind of stuff. Running, you compete against any age, gender, it’s fun. You can beat the young kids.”
Rice has become an inspiration to young people, especially her granddaughters.
“They are so proud of me, as I am of them,” she said. “They tell all their friends, ‘Oh, my grandma, for her 5Ks are nothing. She runs marathons.’”
Rice is quite active she also golfs, with a best score of 96, and is a downhill skier.
“I used to play racquetball, tennis,” she said. “You have to have a partner for that kind of stuff. Running, you compete against any age, gender, it’s fun. You can beat the young kids.”
And when Rice has a goal, she does not stop until she reaches it.
She plans on going to Berlin next year to make up for losing her division in London.
“I don’t want to just participate; I want to win,” she says.
Rice says that she plans to run for as long as she can.
She doesn’t feel like she’s 70-years-old “at all.”
“It’s too bad the number is there. I’d rather be 50. I’m sure the time will come. I’m probably not going to be able to run like this when I’m 80,” she said.
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