At 77 years old, Jeannie Rice added yet another historic milestone to her already unmatched marathon resume. Over the weekend, she ran 3:37:48 to win the female 75โ79 division at the 2025 Sydney Marathon, officially completing a sweep of all seven Abbott World Marathon Majors.
That makes her the first runner, of any age or gender, to win her age group at Boston, New York, Chicago, London, Berlin, Tokyo, and now Sydney. Even more astonishing: sheโs done this across two age brackets, first as a 70โ74 competitor and now in the 75โ79 category.
Sydney is often cited as the toughest of the seven Majors, thanks to its hilly course and warmer conditions.
In that context, Riceโs 3:37 finish is roughly equivalent to her 75โ79 world record of 3:33:27, set at the 2024 London Marathon. And as sheโs done at six of the seven Majors, Rice also finished ahead of the first male in her age group.
This wasnโt supposed to be her season.
A training accident in late 2024 caused her to miss the Berlin Marathon, rare for an athlete whoโs been nearly injury-proof throughout her 40-plus-year career. She bounced back in March with a 3:38:57 at Tokyo, then toughed out Boston despite a hamstring strain, finishing in 4:27:17 and still taking the win.
She turned 77 just before Boston. A few weeks later, she was back to normal training.
Consistency like Riceโs is practically unheard of in marathoning.
Her personal site, JeannieRiceRuns.com, includes a graph of her performances over the last 25 years, thanks to MarathonView.net, and itโs almost comically flat.
Most runners slow by minutes per year with age; Rice hasnโt slowed at all.
Thereโs real science behind it, too.
A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology earlier this year examined Rice’s cardiovascular data after her London world record.
The researchers concluded she had the highest VฬO2max ever recorded in a female over 75, putting her in the 90th percentile for women aged 20โ29. Her aerobic fitness, in short, is more like that of a collegiate runner than someone pushing 80.
The media took notice. In the months following the paperโs release, Rice was profiled by the Washington Post, Runnerโs World, and the Times of London. All tried to answer the same question: how is this possible?
Rice herself keeps it simple: she just runs. Sheโs logged more than 120 marathons and sticks to a regular training schedule, with disciplined habits and a clear love for the sport.
For those curious how their own marathon times stack up over the years, MarathonView.net now features a full history of Riceโs results. Spoiler alert: most of us wonโt be able to say weโve run the same marathon time, year after year, for a quarter of a century.
As of now, thereโs no sign sheโs slowing down. And really…why would she?
