Why marathons are made for older women
The Financial Times | Friday 16, April 2010
The first four women to cross the finish line of the 2009 New York City Marathon were all enviably fit and fast, as one would expect. But perhaps more surprisingly, all four runners – Derartu Tulu, Lyudmila Petrova, Christelle Daunay and Paula Radcliffe – were in their mid-thirties or early forties. Their achievement followed on the heels of another relative old-timer, Constantina Dita, who was 38 when she took gold at Beijing in the women’s marathon. So why are older women so good at going the distance? Sam Murphy finds out...