At 93, Antonio Rao Just Finished His 31st Rome Marathon. He Has Places to Be.

Sunday in Rome. Tens of thousands of runners poured through the streets past the Colosseum, legs burning, watches beeping. Near the back of the pack, the loudest cheers belonged to a 93-year-old man from Calabria who has been doing this longer than most of the other finishers have been alive.

Antonio Rao crossed the finish line of the Acea Run Rome The Marathon in 7 hours, 9 minutes, and 30 seconds. His 31st Rome Marathon. Done.

“It was tough, but here I am again, at the finish line of this extraordinary race,” he said afterward. “I have to thank the group of pacers who cheered me on and accompanied me every step of the way. I’m so happy.”

He says something like that every year. Then he comes back.

A Streak Nobody Saw Coming

Rao has been running the Rome Marathon since the 1990s without a gap. Thirty-one consecutive finishes. His times over the last few years — 6:14:44, then 6:54:23, then 6:44:16, now 7:09:30 — tell the story of a man getting older and refusing to care much about it.

The 2023 run stands out most. At age 90, Rao set the M90 world record, finishing in 6 hours and 14 minutes and breaking the previous record by a full 30 minutes. Before that race, he admitted he hadn’t been feeling well and wasn’t sure he’d make it. He beat his previous year’s time by ten minutes.

Before the 2025 race, he told reporters: “I haven’t been feeling well lately and I didn’t think I could finish it — and instead I finished with a time ten minutes less than last year.”

He’s not the only runner in his 90s to have captured the running world’s attention. A 93-year-old finished the Paris Marathon, and a 101-year-old runner who didn’t start until age 62 has shown that age rarely has to be the deciding factor. But what separates Rao is the streak. Thirty-one years in the same race, in the same city, without a break.

The Man Behind the Streak

Rao grew up in Polistena, a small town in Calabria in southern Italy. As a teenager, he reportedly ran away from home — literally ran — making his way north to Rome, where he has lived ever since. Whether that story is perfectly accurate or slightly embellished over the decades, it suits him.

He trains 20 to 30 kilometers a week. Nothing exotic, nothing extreme. Just consistent. “Running, walking is life,” he has said. “I invite everyone to do it.”

At a time when the running world is flooded with GPS watches, carbon-plated shoes, and elaborate periodization plans, Rao’s approach is almost disarmingly simple. Show up. Keep going. Repeat for 31 years. It’s the kind of running streak that most people only dream about.

What 7:09 at 93 Actually Means

For anyone tracking the numbers: 7:09:30 over 26.2 miles works out to about 16 minutes and 23 seconds per mile. Sustained. For over seven hours. At 93.

Most runners never complete 31 marathons in a lifetime. Rao has done it in one city, on one course, in a row. For context on just how rare this kind of longevity is, even the world’s fastest 80-year-olds are considered outliers in sports science.

The 2026 edition of the Rome Marathon was a record-breaker in its own right — 36 elite runners from around the world, Kenya dominating the overall podium. But the photo that spread fastest on social media wasn’t from the front. It was from the back, where an old man finished with a grin and immediately started thanking the people around him.

He’s been doing that since before the internet existed.

Rao is proof that the marathon isn’t just a young person’s race. And if you ever need a reminder of why age-group athletes deserve just as much celebration as the elites at the front — this is it.