It doesn't matter your age — you can do it.
According to Marathon Handbook, the average time an intermediate female runner between the ages of 40 to 50 will complete a five-kilometer run is about 31 minutes.
For women in the next age bracket (50 to 60), an intermediate runner will need about 35 minutes. This pattern of approximately five minutes being added to the run time as the decades add on continues in the 60 to 70 bracket, the 70 to 80 bracket, and the 80 to 90 bracket.
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There are no times listed for runners over the age of 90.
But there should be because some women are indeed still running races as nonagenarians. And in the case of Betty Lindberg, she may well need a centenarian category soon enough, as this 98-year-old powerhouse has just completed yet another 5K race, and she shows no signs of slowing down.
For Betty Lindberg, Running Is Serious Stuff
In late February 2023, Lindberg ran her way into the admiration of countless people as she completed the Publix Atlanta 5K run in Atlanta, GA.
At the time of this writing, a video of Betty crossing the finish line has been viewed nearly 900,000 times and counting. And it’s counting that makes the video clip so remarkable.
The very second Betty crosses the finish line, she stops and checks her time.
She doesn’t throw up her arms in victory or mug for the cameras or find a glass of water, she checks her watch because she wanted to know right away if she had logged a time she could be happy with. And she had: Betty completed the run in less than an hour, crossing the line at 59 minutes, 6 seconds, according to Runner’s World.
For the record, the video now going viral around the world shows that many, many runners had yet to finish, meaning this 98-year-old runner had beaten them. (And no, none of those trailing Betty Lindberg were older than she.)
An Inspiration to Us All
To be clear, Lindberg did not set any records when she completed that 5K race in Atlanta. Her time of 59:06 was certainly impressive, but it was not the fastest five-kilometer time on record for a female runner in her age bracket.
That record was set last year in 2022 by a 97-year-old woman who ran a 5K race in 55 minutes and 48 seconds.
Chances are good that Lindberg doesn’t begrudge the holder of that fantastic record, though, considering it actually belongs to Lindberg, herself.
In life, you have to keep hitting those milestones — even at 98.
