Jenny Hitchings Continues to Set the Bar for a New Class of Masters Athletes
In honor of Women's History Month this March, we're celebrating female athletes who have earned their place in running history and highlighting inspiring women in our community.
For a long time, rabbitELITE athlete Jenny Hitchings has been quietly setting women’s master’s records every time she decides to race. In 2023 alone, Hitchings ran a lifetime PR of 2:45:27 at the London Marathon to set the world 55-59 marathon record; six months later, her 2:49:43 at the Chicago Marathon set the world 60-64 marathon record (she also broke the 15km, 20km, 25km, and 30km American records for each age group both times).
But Hitchings knows these records won’t stand for long. Women are getting faster and staying faster. At the Chicago Marathon, Des Linden set a new American masters record, running 2:27:35 to break the existing record by 12 seconds. Sara Hall shattered that by over a minute in February, clocking 2:26:06 at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon. A whole new class of athletes is about to enter the age groups Hitchings has spent several decades defining—and she’s thrilled to see it.
“There really weren’t that many of us reaching into our fifties and sixties, but we’re seeing younger runners start to catch up,” says Hitchings. “It’s not just Deena Kastor and Joan Benoit Samuelson anymore, it’s Des and Sara and Roberta Groner [who PRed while setting a new American record in the 45-49 age group in the half marathon in 2023]. It’ll be really interesting to see what they can do as they continue to age.”
They have a strong example to follow in Hitchings, as well as Sue McDonald, 60, who set six World Master’s Athleteics outdoor records and two indoor records in 2023, and Jeannie Rice, 75, who broke the 75-79 women’s masters world record in the Chicago Marathon with a time of 3:34:32 (and set American records in the 10K and half marathon en route).
The secret to that kind of longevity, says Hitchings, is consistency. And consistency comes easier as your circumstances change and priorities shift. “We haven’t necessarily slowed down in terms of running, but maybe we’ve sped up in the sense that our focus changes,” says Hitchings “Once you hit the forties, life calms down for a lot of people. They’re not raising toddlers or struggling at the beginning of their career; their time and financial constraints change, and that enables them to stay fast or become faster.”
But staying in the game does require drive and dedication—especially as the fields get more crowded. For Hitchings, who’s running the Berlin Marathon this fall, stoking that desire to win can get tiring. “Am I going to try and break a record at every race? That’s always in the back of my head: Do I still want to try and prove that I can do it? At the same time, what is there to prove? You start to take a step back and think, I’m just chasing my own shadow.”
While Hitchings biggest competition may be herself, those records come from the passion and satisfaction that comes with doing what she loves. And if that ups the ante for the next class of masters runners, she’s OK with that: “The ultimate goal would be to keep breaking my own records and make it more difficult for the next person to break it.”
About Ashley Mateo
Respected fitness journalist and editor, certified coach, and Six Star Finisher, Ashley believes running “should be FUN—even when you're working hard to go after your goals.” (We second that philosophy.)
