This 71-year old just ran her first marathon – Runner’s World (UK)

71-year-old, Helen Lloyd Jones from Cardiff recently completed her first marathon – the 2019 TCS New York Marathon, and is encouraging others her age to take up the challenge. “Do it. We only live once”, she said after the event.

Helen took up running her 50’s while working as a teacher. After jogging alongside one of her students during a sports day race, Helen said, “I felt terrible, absolutely terrible. It was a wakeup call and I started to practise jogging.”

“I was living near enough to go down to Swansea Bay every other evening that summer and I went along the old Mumbles Train track that has been converted to a mixed cycling and foot path. I started by jogging from one white marked pedestrian on the floor to the next and then walking to the next. This I repeated and gradually built it up till I could jog the entire distance. It took me several weeks.”

Helen started attending her local parkrun, but decided she needed a bigger challenge to keep her motivated. Once the idea of running 26.2 came into her head, she was decided, and set her sights on running a larger race, using the support of the crowds to get her round.

“New York is a wonderful city and I have always wanted to see Klimt’s Woman in Gold [on display at the Neue Galerie on 5th Avenue], so it just had to be New York.” Helen didn’t tell her husband for the first five months of her training as she knew he’d be worried about the toll the distance might have on her. Saying afterwards, “the difference between the man who waved me goodbye and the smiling man who greeted me when I returned was a reflection of how much he had been worrying. But he is very proud of me.”

At 71, Helen explains how she didn’t do her training “by the book”. After trying to do a long run, a speed run and a hill run each week, she soon found her body was not able to recover fast enough between sessions. Instead, she opted for one long run a week with her local running club Pegasus and friend Sally, so she could feel confident with the distance.

Helen travelled to New York with Sports Tours International, she said, “I was particularly grateful to Peter and Ed who were part of the team over in New York for looking out for me, in particular Ed who contacted me almost immediately after I had crossed the finish line to check I was alright.”

Her highlight? “The mile in Central Park before they make you go outside the park again. I knew by then that I was going to finish and that I was going to be in time to get my bag [before the cut off]. So I just enjoyed running, and started passing runners. I was simply happy. It was great.” According to the official results, Helen crossed the line in 7:36:57.

A proud grandmother, Helen is now taking her grandchildren to parkruns and junior parkruns. She hopes that they will remember running with their grandmother when they grow up. Are there more marathons in her future? “I said I would only do the one, but have a feeling that if I got a place in London or New York…I might change my mind.”

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