A 66-year old Ukrainian woman ran the distance equalling 3 marathons in 24 hours during a competition in Poland.
Larisa Labartkova from Lvov managed to ran 144 km (89.5 miles) in a day during the competition for 24-hour non-stop running. The 66-year-old grandmother from Ukraine was 1st in her age category, and 5th among all women, reported KP.ua.
Larisa’s more successful competitors were decades younger.
The youthful granny completed the distance of 131 km in Kiev a week ago, preparing for the international competition in Poland. She only stopped for a couple of breaks to eat during her 144 km ultra-marathon, but didn’t have any sleep during 24 hours.
When asked about her endurance, Labartkova attributed it to her training in rock climbing during her younger years. She is training in a gym for 25 years, and ran her first marathon in Belarus 11 years ago at the age of 55.
The Lvov’s grandmother found out about the competition in the Polish capital Warsaw online, and decided to register. The distance was set up in a 2 km circle, which the athletes ran continuously.
To those who think they are too old to start exercising, think about this brave Ukrainian lady who sets up records of physical endurance at 66.
As the saying goes, “We don’t stop exercising because of getting old, we are getting old because we stop exercising.”
Earlier we reported about a Ukrainian bride who came third in 2015 Kiev’s marathon, while running the distance in a white dress and a veil. The young woman, who is not a professional athlete but a recent fitness convert, was shocked to score the coveted bronze medal in an international competition.
Photo: Lvov OGA
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If I tried that this old grandmother would have to carry me over the finish! And I’m less than half her age! 😛
Start training 🙂
I work in sports and fitness. I have just posted this article to my entire mailing list – inspirational story, AND great achievement no matter what age!
Most people on my mailing list say that they’d like to be able to run 5 o 10 km. And this grandma does 144 km straight!!!! Good going 🙂
I decided to run my first marathon in 2007. My mother, who was 65 years old, was visiting from Russia at the time. Another friend of mine was doing her first half-marathon, and I offered my mom to join her (my mom loves skiing and walks a lot), she instantly agreed. She never ran long distances in her life, although she did cross-country skiing marathons (50 km) all her life.
My 65-year-old mother finished the half-marathon at 2h28 minutes, without any training, and her exact words were, “If I knew it was that easy, I would have ran faster”.