She went from believing that running a marathon was impossible at 62 years old to completing the Big Six marathons of the world at 69.
Marie Chapman has traveled the world to run the Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, and Tokyo marathons.
“It was a wonderful experience,” Chapman said, who just turned 70.
“The Big Six is a big deal for marathoners and it’s really quite sought after. I don’t know why because the medal is quite ugly – it’s really heavy, you don’t want to wear it, but it is quite sought after.”
The medal is sponsored by Abbott and is called the Six Star medal.
Chapman’s belief that it was impossible to run a marathon was altered when a friend completed one.
“And then I thought ‘well, maybe’ and then I tried a couple and got injured and then the next time I tried it, it worked out.”
After a couple of failed attempts because of over use, things seemed to smooth out for Chapman.
“The second time I completed a marathon I got a Boston qualifying time so that was pretty encouraging,” Chapman said.
“And it just carried on from there.”
Since those fledgling attempts Chapman has run the Boston marathon twice, and also the Philadelphia marathon.
Her favourite was her most recent and that was Tokyo she just ran on March 3.
Marathon qualifying times are age graded and categorized in five-year age brackets.
“I just went into a new age category on March 7 so I ran Tokyo in the 65-69 women’s age group and now I am in the 70-74,” Chapman said.
“Tokyo was the most memorable because it was so far away and so big. It was fabulous going to Tokyo. I so enjoyed the whole trip. It was so nice being immersed in the culture, the food was so good and the whole trip went wonderfully - even the weather was perfect at eight degrees with sunshine. It was just a perfect day.”
Chapman will be running the Boston Marathon on April 15.
She has also qualified for the Abbott World Age Group Marathon Championships 2024 which are embedded in the Sydney, Australia Marathon in September.
Chapman is planning to attend this major event.
