Scientists study 77-year-old marathon runner to understand how to age better.

Jeannie Rice, a 77-year-old woman, was born in South Korea and immigrated to the United States, where she has been running for more than two decades. Her passion began when she decided to join her community's amateur marathon running group to lose weight , and she trained alongside them to participate in her first race.

According to what the athlete told BBC Mundo, completing the course took her around 3 hours and 45 minutes , a time that immediately motivated her to continue preparing for new races.

After several months of training, the woman entered the Columbus Marathon, where she managed to reduce her time from the first attempt , allowing her to qualify for a new tournament to be held in Boston.

Over time, Rice's triumphs continued to accumulate, to the point that she began running in different places around the world , where she has also managed to set world records in various categories as an elderly marathoner.

Amby Burfoot, a renowned expert in this type of race and winner of the 1968 competition in Boston, decided to contact Bas Van Hooren, professor of Nutrition and Movement Sciences at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, arguing that the athlete completed the courses faster than anyone aged 75.

As the academic told BBC Mundo, Jeannie's case has prompted new research to understand how to age better, especially in women, because, to date, studies have only been conducted on men.

In that regard, the marathon runner was contacted by scientists, who indicated they were interested in determining the best training strategies for older adults based on her experience in sports tournaments.

To the researchers' surprise, Rice's performance showed that there is a way to age more healthily , so they recorded several times the woman as she moved on a treadmill.

Within the parameters analyzed, the researchers had the opportunity to measure the marathoner's aerobic capacity and the oxygen absorption process she undergoes during training to determine whether these factors influence speed.

The first phase of the investigation showed that Rice's physical condition was more in line with that of a 25-year-old woman, as her heart rate was higher than expected for a person of her age.

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