At 77, she’s as fit as a 25-year-old - what her body tells us about ageing

Researchers are studying runner Jeannie Rice, who has “outstanding” fitness , to learn how we can stay healthy as we age. Most runners see substantial performance losses after they turn 70. Not Jeannie Rice, who just turned 77 and ran the Boston Marathon this week.

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. At the Boston Marathon, according to unofficial results, her time was 4 hours, 27 minutes and 17 seconds. It was very slow for Rice, but she still placed first in her age group.



Rice is 5 feet 2 inches (1.58m) tall and weighs 43kg. Her physiology is so striking that her maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max) – a measure that reflects her aerobic fitness and endurance capacity – equals that of a 25-year-old woman, according to lab tests in the days after her world record performance (3 hours, 33 minutes and 27 seconds) in last year’s London Marathon.

The tests were part of a case study of Rice published in the Journal of Applied Physiology..