92-Year-Old North Carolina Woman Finishes San Diego Marathon

Harriette Thompson, a 92-year-old woman from North Carolina, made sports history by being the oldest woman to run a competitive 26 miles and 385 yards. She finished the San Diego Rock n’ Roll marathon on Sunday in 7 hours, 24 minutes and 36 seconds.

Besides being a marathoner, Thompson has survived two cancers, reports Time. She had treatment for oral cancer in 2013 and is undergoing radiation treatment for squamous cell carcinoma on her legs that Thompson has open wounds on her legs when she ran on Sunday.

She started to run when she was 76, and since then, the old lady joins marathons yearly. Over her 16 years of running, Thompson has raised more than $100,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

She met during the San Diego marathon Meb Keflezighi, winner of the New York and Boston marathons. Since many people, bystanders and runners, wanted to have a photo with her, Keflezighi advised these fans not to stop Thompson but just take a selfie. Thompson agrees, saying that stopping and taking pictures all the time would cause her not to reach the finish line.

Thompson broke the record set by Gladys Burrill who ran the Honolulu Marathon in 2010 when she was 92 years and 19 days old. Thompson was 92 years and 65 days when she completed the San Diego marathon. In 2014, she also broke Burrill's record time of 9:53 with her time of 7:7:42, CNN reports.

On Monday, Thompson told CNN, “My mother asked her mother when she was 89 how it felt to be 89, and my grandmother said, ‘Oh, I fell just like I did when I was 16, but I just can’t move as fast,’ and that’s the way I feel.”

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