An Older Boston Marathon Runner Stacks Goals


BOSTON – The day before the Boston Marathon, the two marathon giants met on Boylston Street.

Joan Benoit Samuelson, two-time Boston Marathon winner and the first Olympic women’s marathon champion, introduced herself to Mariko Yugeta, the first woman over 60 to run a marathon in less than three hours.

“I’m so nervous to meet him; “I thought a lot about the questions I wanted to ask him,” Yugeta, 63, said before the meeting on Sunday. “She’s been running at a high level for a long time. What sort of things does he do now to keep running?”

He approached Benoit Samuelson, 64, with one hand covering his mouth and tears welling in his eyes. They shared a long handshake.

Yugeta said she was pregnant when she watched Benoit Samuelson win Olympic gold in 1984. He shared with Benoit Samuelson his experience of watching that triumphant moment, remembering the color of his jersey and how he lifted his arms in victory. Benoit Samuelson replied, “Running is a two-way street. We all inspire each other.”

Indeed, it was taken by Yugeta, who in 2019 took a title that many thought would be taken over by Benoit Samuelson. Yugeta ran the 2019 Shimonoseki Kaikyo Marathon in Japan in 2 hours 59 minutes and 15 seconds, then shattered that mark by running two years later. 2021 Osaka International Women’s Marathon 2:52:13.

Yugeta is the mother of four children. “Like Kipchoge,” said the oldest, 37, referring to the men’s marathon world record holder, Eliud Kipchogeand the youngest is 26 years old. He didn’t start training for faster times until his mid-50s.

“It was something I always wanted to do,” he said of his belief that he could run a marathon in less than three hours.

Yugeta increased her mileage and started interval training and joined an amateur running club in Tokyo. Their goals began to overlap. In an early race, he saw a man in a T-shirt saying he was running his 100th marathon.

“I thought: Are people doing 100 marathons? Wow I want to do that,” he said. “Now I’m thinking in terms of 150 marathons.”

His training partners are much younger than him. Yugeta studies at a high school and does speed training with the track team. (They can run faster than him in an 800-meter rep session, but he can hold himself back when any workout is longer than 3,000 meters.) In the off-season, he runs between 62 and 70 miles a week, and in preparation for a marathon, he runs up 77 miles a week.

He arrived in Boston with a handful of final races under his belt. In March, he ran the Tokyo Marathon in 3:04:16. A week later, she ran the Nagoya Women’s Marathon in 2:58:40. These were considered fitness checks, she said.

Yugeta speaks with the humility of an athlete who respects the unpredictability of distance running and the confidence of someone who has completed 114 marathons. In the days leading up to her debut at the Boston Marathon, she said she went with the flow, an emotion rarely paired with her effort to set world records.

“I ran in many different conditions,” he said. “If you get too locked into a routine, then if you’re in a situation where you can’t follow your routine, anything goes.”

Yugeta didn’t stress about pre-race refueling. She wasn’t sure what to eat for breakfast, but she said she would eat whatever was available in the hotel. As long as it’s enough, she said it’ll be fine.

He had two wishes as he entered the Boston Marathon. “I want people around the world to know that there is a woman in her 60s who, far from Japan, was running an under-three for the marathon,” she said. “And I really want to cross the finish line to see a clock that starts at number two.”

Indeed, it was surprisingly received by fans on Sunday. “Is this you?” they would say by showing a photo of himself to the mask-wearing Yugeta. She looked at them with big eyes and smiled for a photo, she thumbs up.

On Monday, he fell short of his target time and finished in 3:06:27.

He plans to keep up his fast pace though – as long as he’s not racing with a new partner. On Sunday, Benoit Samuelson said he wanted to run the Tokyo Marathon. “When?” Yugeta replied.

Maybe next year. Maybe they can run together, said Benoit Samuelson, who plans to run the Boston Marathon next year to celebrate his 65th birthday.

“Oh, he’ll have to slow his pace for me,” he added.

“It’s not a race, it’s a celebration,” added Benoit Samuelson.

Brett Larner contributed to the reporting.



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