“I found a reason,” says Eddie Gordon, of her 19 races.
At 80, Eddie Gordon, a retired Richmond public school teacher, is twice the age of the average marathoner. But age didn’t stop her from completing the Richmond Marathon—19 times.
Gordon had run 8Ks before but, in her 60s, another idea took hold: Why not sign up for the marathon? “I get so much satisfaction out of a race,” Gordon says. She trained by sticking to routine: jogging every morning, rain, shine, or snow. She finished the 26.2 mile race in six hours without telling a soul—not even her husband, John—until she got home. “Just cross that finish line. You never stop until you reach the top,” she likes to tell her five children and five grandchildren.
Gordon dedicated each subsequent marathon “to her loved ones and those unable to get out,” and during the final 6 miles of each race she always thought of her husband, who died the year after her first one. “I found a reason, and that kept me focused,” she says.
