Simply months after blazing to a brand new world age-group normal within the 1,500m, 90-year-old Dot Sowerby has damaged the U.S. half-marathon age-group document, underscoring her message that age isn’t an impediment to breaking down boundaries.
The grandmother and longtime runner from Greensboro, N.C., accomplished the 2023 Life Time Chicago Half Marathon in 3:33:47, breaking the previous 3:46:56 document set by Harriette Thompson six years in the past on the Rock N’ Roll San Diego Half Marathon at age 94. (That effort by Thompson months earlier than her dying in 2017 nonetheless makes her the oldest girl on document to have accomplished a half-marathon, a document beforehand set by Canada’s Gladys Burrill in 2012 at age 93.)
Sowerby, who took up operating in her late forties, instructed ABC Information Chicago after her record-breaking half-marathon on Sept. 24 that she hopes her newest feat evokes others to chase their goals, no matter their age.
“I believe older individuals can do something, and I identical to to maintain lively, and also you’re by no means too previous to get on the market and run,” Sowerby stated.
Sowerby has been reinforcing this message by means of his actions in addition to his phrases this yr, each in highway races and on the observe. In July, she thrilled a hometown crowd on the USATF Masters Out of doors Championships in Greensboro by operating the 1,500m in 11:30.62, taking greater than a minute off the document held by North Vancouver’s Lenore Montgomery, who lined the space in 12:34.67 at a observe meet in Surrey, B.C., in Sept. 2020.
🚨World File Alert!🚨
This previous weekend on the Greyhounds Monitor Meet, 90-12 months-Outdated Lenore Montgomery set a brand new World File for the 1500m operating a tremendous 12:34.67! Congrats Lenore! đź‘Ź
*Pending ratification pic.twitter.com/nknGEdzjgp
— BC Athletics (@BC_Athletics) September 16, 2020
The championships noticed Sowerby rack up a formidable assortment of medals, together with gold within the 400m (2:35.33), 800m (5:52.93), lengthy bounce (1.05m) and shot put (4.51m), and silver within the 100m.
Her success at this yr’s USATF championships got here only one week after she collected six gold medals on the 2023 Nationwide Senior Video games in Pittsburgh.
“I’ve a philosophy that you might be by no means too previous to do one thing like operating or no matter you need to do,” Sowerby instructed Greensboro’s Information & File heading into the USATF Masters Out of doors Championships. “After I got here alongside, they’d not let ladies in highschool and faculty run as a result of they thought they have been too fragile or one thing. So, I did my first race once I was 50 years previous.”
Based on the Chicago Half Marathon and 5K web site, Sowerby trains virtually day by day, various her exercises from operating to swimming to train lessons. She usually begins coaching at 6 a.m. “Certainly one of my motivations is to encourage others to maintain exercising, regardless of your age or circumstance—simply get on the market and do one thing,” she stated.
