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Kelowna  

NY next for running granny

Liz Borrett figures she still has a few marathons left in her.

At 75, Borrett just finished the Boston Marathon on Monday and expects to compete in two more before finally hanging up her cleats.

Her time in Boston, 4:22:35, although 22 minutes slower than a year ago, was good enough to easily win her age group.

"I went in with a totally different focus. I was going to complete the race, I was going to enjoy being there and not pushing myself harder than I had to," says Borrett.

"I really didn't have to do a super time to do well for my age so I went in without a sense of apprehension. And I met up with some people I had never run with before and ran with them through most of the race."

Borrett ran her first Boston Marathon last year and was fortunate enough to have completed the race before two bomb blasts turned celebration to panic.

Despite the events of last year, Borrett says she had no apprehension about running this year.

"The safest place to be in the United States was Boston this year. The security was unlimited, but not at all invasive," says Borrett.

"The security were very supportive and very friendly. They didn't indicate they were there to keep an eye on you and keep you under control. They became part of the run in a nice way."

She says the atmosphere this year was much more electric compared with 2013.

"There was a unity you could feel amongst the runners and a lot more interaction between runners and the spectators. The unity was quite strong I felt."

Borrett, who says she has been active all her life, has only been running since she was 63 when she was talked into doing a fundraising marathon in Hawaii.

"Raising the $5,000 ended up being far more difficult than to run the race," she recalls.

"After that I decided I'm going to do a run for myself which was the Vancouver Marathon."

Borrett says she has run just seven full marathons since that first one, but has done many, many half marathons.

She will run in the New York Marathon in November and Boston again next year before probably calling it quits.



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