Comments (0) Best Age-Graded Runner on the Planet - 2010
Ginette Bedard
Running has a standard called "age-grading," in which runners can compare their times accounting for gender and age. Using this metric, the best runner in the city—in fact, the fastest woman on the face of the earth—is 76-year-old Howard Beach resident Ginette Bedard. Bedard is one of only a few people in the world to get more than 100 percent on her age-graded times. She set a world record for her age group in last year's New York City Marathon, with an age-grade time that would surpass England's Paula Radcliffe, the current women's record holder for fastest marathoner on the planet. How does septuagenarian Bedard do it? She runs three hours, every day, on Howard Beach, climbs 86 floors in the Empire State Building Run every winter, and runs the marathon every fall. "Running is so wonderful," the French native tells the Voice with her heavy accent. "You just need good legs, a healthy heart, and a healthy mind."
