Christine Kennedy of Los Gatos, won the women's 55-59 age group in the 114th running of the Boston Marathon Monday. Kennedy's time was 2:57:19. Kennedy's performance was so dominant that she won her age group by 13 minutes, would have won the 50-54 age group beneath hers, would have finished second in the 45-49 age group two levels beneath hers, and was the 10th woman masters (40 and over) finisher. Kennedy finished ahead of all but three of the men in her age group, out of hundreds that ran.
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Christine Kennedy climbs a hill at the 2009 Presidio Cross Country Challenge. (photo by Lynn Walker)
Kennedy's other recent marathons
This was Kennedy's second Boston Marathon. In 2009 she ran 2:56:32 to win the women's 50-54 age group. Kennedy is not new to winning marathons. A casual search reveals that Kennedy has age-group victories at the Twin Cities Marathon in 2008 (3:03:41), the Chicago Marathon in 2007 (3:02:04), the Big Sur International Marathon in 2006 (3:05:13), and 2005 (3:06:35).
Marathons Kennedy has won
Kennedy hasn't always been simply an age-group standout. Kennedy has won among all women in at least 4 marathons, including the 1989 Berlin Marathon (2:35:05), the Dublin Marathon in 1990 (2:41:27), and 1991 (2:35:56), the latter making her the Irish National Champion.
Top age-graded performer
Kennedy has been a top competitor in the PAUSATF, placing among the top age-graded performers in the region over the past five years. In 2006 Kennedy was the seventh best age-graded performer, in 2007 she was fifth. In 2008 Kennedy was the top age-graded performer in the PAUSATF. In 2009 she was fourth, and this year she is currently second, with two of the top three age-graded performances of any runner in the PAUSATF, any age or gender.
Kennedy as a team runner
Kennedy owns a running shoe shop in Los Gatos, where she is happy to provide visitors with running advice. She had run for years as a member of the local West Valley Joggers and Striders before joining the Marin County based Tamalpa runners this year. Kennedy enjoys the team aspect of competition, and training with others, as well as encouraging younger runners to excel. With her former club Kennedy found few women sharing these interests, precipitating her move to Tamalpa where there are large numbers of competitive women runners with whom she can connect.
2010 as a comeback year for Kennedy
With as good as Kennedy has performed, she has known her share of injuries. She was hampered by injuries in the years leading up to the recent success that began in 2005. In 2009 Kennedy had all but clinched the PAUSATF Cross Country Women's Senior and Master division standings prior to running in the Dublin Marathon, where injury struck again. This forced a premature end to her racing season. In the early stages of the 2010 racing season Kennedy has demonstrated that she was able to return from injury to race in top form again. With a new team and early season racing success under her belt, Kennedy appears to be on the way to another year of stellar performances.
National and International level challenges
Now that Kennedy runs in the 55-59 age group she faces the challenge of potentially meeting Kathryn Martin. Martin has dominated the age group at the National and International championships for the past few years. Martin is seldom challenged as she wins titles from 800 meters to 50k. With Kennedy's appearance in the age group, Martin may finally face a worthy opponent, and the age group may gain a new National, even International Champion for many of the long distance running events.
Comments
Christine Kennedy moved to a club where she could "connect," "training with others, as well as encouraging younger runners to excel." I'm wondering how often she can "connect" since she lives & works and hour and a half from the Marin club she recently joined? This seems a bit disingenuous.
I suppose it depends on your definition of "connecting" with others. I, too, live more than an hour from my club, yet connect at races, via emails, and the club website. I know of others living far from their club. The Asics Aggies, for instance, are spread across the state of California and Nevada. I don't believe connecting, racing and encouraging each other depends on proximity. Training, yes, but the rest, no.
Thanks for the input, "Clarifying." I too know of others living far from their clubs. I don't question that one can connect with a club vie e-mail, facebook, myspace or what-have-you. The article mentions "training with others" as one of the reasons precipitating Kennedy's move. That just didn't seem reasonable or genuine given the distance involved.
Not only did she have a jaw dropping fast run at Boston, she looked jaw dropping gorgeous on stage at the awards ceremonies.
Christine Kennedy broke the long standing National 12K Age group
record yesterday at Bloomsday 12k with a 48:20 , only 2 weeks after running and winning Boston Marathon. She connects and motivates with me.
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