Dance, Aqua and Athletics with Mikayla K

Ruth Ritcher started running marathons at 72.

On Sunday morning in Berlin, at 88, she became the oldest woman ever to finish the race, crossing under the Brandenburg Gate in 7:46:29. That is 11 minutes and 03 seconds per kilometre for 42.195 kilometres.

She came to distance running late and after two serious illnesses. Fifteen years on, she is still crossing the line of one of the biggest marathons in the world.

Her 2025 Berlin, run at 87, was faster. She finished in 7:22:29. This year's time was slower by 24 minutes, and she still finished. That is the story most 88-year-olds do not get to tell.

Tigst Assefa won the elite women's race in a course record 2:11:04 and was taken to hospital before she could climb the podium. Ritcher was still on the course when the podium ceremony ended, still on the course when the winners left for the press conference, still on the course when the sun climbed higher over Tempelhof.

The clock at the finish line does not tell the same story for everyone.

For Ritcher, seven hours and 46 minutes is the answer to a question she started asking at 72.

📷 Sebastian Wells/SCC Events

It’s gross.

I have been asked dozens of times to discuss the Beijing Hyrox situation….

So the story, an elite athlete had a bowel-control incident mid-race and kept going. She ended up winning the race despite the hardship. The internet has gone wild with outrage, jokes, and even some support.

As a doctor who also is an athlete here are some of my thoughts.

GI distress in endurance events is incredibly common and has even happened to me (although I have made it to the port-a-potty). The cause of this can be from a multitude of reasons…. it’s can be from a blood flow problem. When you’re redirecting circulation hard toward working muscles, gut motility gets disrupted. To add to it dehydration, caffeine intake, changes in dietary habits before a race, or the specific stress of repeated high-intensity efforts can all lead to GI issues. Elite athletes are not immune to this. If anything, the volume of training some of them carry can make gut issues more likely, not less.

Outside of the causes what most people want me to touch on is should she have continued to race. Put simply, no. From a medical standpoint, continuing through an acute GI event carries real risk, exposure risk for other competitors and surfaces. for extreme athletes, it can be extremely hard to think about this during an event. That is exactly why events need clear medical stop criteria that don’t put the athlete in the position of having to make that call herself under competitive pressure.

Competitive sport needs protocols that take the decision out of an exhausted athlete’s hands in the moment. That protects everyone, including this athlete. From the outside, looking in, it is easy to say that I would’ve stopped for the protections of the other athletes, but can I say that for 100% confidence not being the person that was in the moment? No. But I hope I would have been able to! Hopefully Hyrox learns from this event.