BOSTON — The day before the Boston Marathon, two marathon giants met off Boylston Street.
Joan Benoit Samuelson, a two-time winner of the Boston Marathon and the first Olympic women’s marathon champion, introduced herself to Mariko Yugeta, the first woman over 60 to run a marathon in under three hours.
“I’m super nervous about meeting her; I’ve been thinking a lot about the questions I want to ask her,” Yugeta, 63, said before the meeting Sunday. “She’s run at a high level for a long time. What kind of things does she do to keep running now?”
With one hand over her lips, she approached Benoit Samuelson 64 with tears in her eyes. They shared a prolonged handshake.
Yugeta was pregnant when Benoit Samuelson won the 1984 Olympic gold. She shared her experience of witnessing that moment of victory with Benoit Samuelson, recollecting the color of her jersey as well as how she raised her arms in triumph. Benoit Samuelson responded: “Running is a two-way road. We all inspire each other.”
Yugeta took her in fact, and in 2019 she assumed a title many thought would go to Benoit Samson. Yugeta ran the 2019 Shimonoseki Kaikyo Marathon in Japan in 2 hours 59 minutes 15 seconds, then shattered that mark two years later by running the 2021 Osaka International Women’s Marathon in 2:52:13.
Yugeta is a mother to four children. Her eldest is 37, “like Kipchoge,” she said, referring to the men’s marathon world-record holder, Eliud Kipchoge, and her youngest is 26. She did not begin training for faster times in her mid-50s.
“It was always something I wanted to do,” she said of her belief that she was capable of running a marathon in less than three hours.
Yugeta began running intervals and increased her mileage. She also joined a Tokyo-based amateur running club. Her goals began to grow. She saw a man wearing a T-shirt that stated he was running his 100th race in an early race.
“I thought: People do 100 marathons? Wow I want to do that,” she said. “Now I’m thinking in terms of 150 marathons.”
Her training partners are younger than her. Yugeta is a high school student and does speed training with the track team. They can outrun her in an 800-meter session, but she can keep up with her when she does a longer workout than 3,000 meters. She runs 62 to 70 miles per week in the off-season. When she is training for a marathon she can run up to 77 miles per week.
She arrived in Boston having completed a few races recently. In March, she ran the Tokyo Marathon in 3:04;16. A week later, she ran the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in 2:58:40. She said that these were fitness checks.
Yugeta speaks with the humility and confidence of an athlete who understands the unpredictable nature of distance running. She stated that she was simply going with the course in the days leading up her debut at Boston Marathon. This sentiment is rare to be paired with a push for world records.
“I’ve run in many different circumstances,” she said. “If you get too locked into a routine then if you are in a situation that you can’t follow your routine, you get all out of whack.”
Yugeta didn’t stress about prerace fueling. She wasn’t sure what she would eat for breakfast, but she said she would eat whatever the hotel had. She said that she would eat whatever was available, as long as it was plentiful.
She had two goals when she entered the Boston Marathon. “I really want people around the world to know there is a woman in her 60s, far off in Japan, who is running sub-three for the marathon,” she said. “And I really want to cross the finish line to see a clock starting at number two.”
To her surprise, fans greeted her on Sunday. “Is this you?” they would say, showing Yugeta, who was wearing a mask, a photo of herself. She smiled at them wide-eyed, and gave the thumbs up.
She finished in 3:06.27 on Monday, just short of her goal time.
Still, she plans to keep up her speedy pace — except if she runs a race with a new partner. Benoit Samuelson indicated that she would like to race the Tokyo Marathon. “When?” Yugeta responded.
Maybe next year. They might even run together, Benoit Samuelson said. He plans to run the Boston Marathon next spring to celebrate his 65th birthday.
She added, “Oh, she’ll have to slow her pace for me.”
“Not a race,” Benoit Samuelson added, “but a celebration.”
Brett Larner contributed reporting.
Source: NY Times
