74-year-old to take on New York marathon




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74-year-old to take on New York marathon
By Martin Walker
October 22, 2003

At an age when most people are slowing down and thinking of putting their feet up, no such thoughts have entered the mind of Mittagong's Norma Wallett. Norma, 74 years young, leaves for America next week to compete in one of the world's most famous annual sporting events - the New York Marathon.

Sunday's event will be the fourth time Norma has run a marathon but is her first one overseas and it is something she is jumping out of her skin to complete it.

"I wanted to do a marathon outside Australia just for the experience and because I know New York and I love the city, that was the one that I wanted to do," she said.

As well as competing in the 42-kilometre run, Norma will also take part in the international friendship walk involving all overseas competitors. Norma will carry the Australian flag during this ceremony and her biggest concern is whether the flag will be too heavy or not.

The New York run is considered one of the toughest marathons in the world and Norma's simple wish is to finish the race.

"I don't care about the time, as long as I finish I'll be happy. As long as I get across that finish line and get that medal," she said. "I want to enjoy this one and savour all the different parts of it, because it goes through all the five boroughs of New York and they turn out in enormous numbers with about two million people lining the course and I just want to be able to enjoy that."

Norma's husband Jim will go along as a support partner on the trip, organising her water bottles and energy foods for the long run. "You need support when you're doing these sort of runs. I would hate to have to do all it all on my own," Norma said.

Jim is Norma's proudest supporter and is always there at the finish line with the camera and a smile to greet Norma after a long run. "I'm just in awe actually. It's extraordinary because I couldn't run five metres," Jim said.

Norma took up running in her mid-50s after retiring as a school teacher, jogging along the clifftops at Bondi and Bronte. This ignited her passion for the sport and six years ago she ran her first half marathon, before taking part in her first marathon three years ago. In preparation for her latest challenge Norma has been training six times a week for the past couple of months, running for one to two hours each day.

"It's hard work, but I love the training. I love getting out there and doing the training, it's not a chore to get up and go out every day, I just love it."

Norma suffered a setback to her preparation plans last month when she trod on a branch when running which went through her leg and had to be taken out during an operation. This meant Norma lost a valuable three weeks of training but this did nothing to deter her from her goal of taking on the New York marathon.

"Sometimes it's the challenge of seeing what you can accomplish and the marathon I suppose in mainstream running is the ultimate and I just want to be able to push myself to do something that's hard and see if I can do it," she said.

As for the future, Norma has no plans to slow down anytime soon with the retiree always on the lookout for new challenges. "No chance at all. I do not forsee and I don't even think about stopping," she said. "I mean there's no point, what for? While I can keep on doing it, why stop?"