Marathon legend still going at 83
THE first female winner of the London Marathon who stormed to victory 40 years ago has revealed she still goes running aged 83.
Joyce Smith made history when she crossed the finish line in March 1981 beating 7,747 entrants with a time of 2hrs 29 mins.
She also won the following year’s race aged
44 years and 195 days, making her the oldest woman to clinch the event.
Ahead of the London Marathon on Sunday, Joyce said she still hits the streets several times a week.
She added: “I haven’t really thought of myself as a pioneer, it’s other people who say that.
“I have got a talent but there are lots of women with children who want to run a marathon to prove to themselves they can do it.
“That’s why I did the first one – just because I wanted to say that I had run a marathon.”
As a teen Joyce joined North London’s Hampstead Harriers where she met her husband Bryan, 82, who became her coach. In 1959 she won her first national cross-country championship and later managed to keep running while heavily pregnant with daughters Lisa and Leah.
Joyce, who worked at the make-up counter at Elizabeth Arden, broke the 3,000m world record in 1971 and won the World Cross Country Championships in 1972.
In the same year, she reached the 1,500m semis at the Munich Olympics.
And the hometown girl broke another record at the London Marathon’s inaugural women’s race by becoming the first British female to beat 2hrs 30mins.
Joyce, who lives in Watford, Herts, said the crowd gave her an “extra cheer” during the race.
She added: “It’s very hard now for someone to do what I did on their first London Marathon. Deep down I am massively pleased that I achieved it.”