Paying taxes and birthdays are among the many few annual certainties in life. To that checklist, you may add Italian masters runner Antonio Rao lacing up for the Rome Marathon. On Sunday, the 92-year-old accomplished his thirtieth consecutive Rome Marathon, ending in a time of 6:44:16.
This marks the third time Rao has run the marathon in his 90s. He accomplished final yr’s occasion in 6:54:00 and set an Italian males’s 90+ age-group report in 2023 with a powerful time of 6:14:44. To nobody’s shock, he’s received his M90+ age class the final three years.
In an interview with Runner’s World Italia, Rao admitted doubting whether or not he might end this yr’s race. “I haven’t been feeling properly these days, and I didn’t suppose I might end it,” stated Rao. “As a substitute, I completed with a time 10 minutes quicker than final yr.”
Regardless of being 92, Rao has confirmed he nonetheless has some pace in his legs. Within the weeks main as much as the marathon, he additionally accomplished a half-marathon in two hours and 54 minutes.
Complimentissimi al giovane Antonio Rao di anni 92, per avere chiuso la Roma Ostia in 2h54’40” pic.twitter.com/BrleyKK7ti
— pier luigi pinna (@pierpi13) March 4, 2025
Born in 1933 in Calabria, Rao grew up on the run, reportedly leaving house as a teen to make his solution to Rome. Since then, you might say his life has been one lengthy, metaphoric marathon.
Rao has participated within the Acea Run Rome Marathon yearly since its inception in 1983 (there have been a number of years the race was not held within the 90s and the 2000s), with this yr’s occasion marking the race’s thirtieth anniversary. “Operating and strolling is life,” says Rao, who encourages anybody not immersed within the exercise but to offer it a attempt.
The boys’s and ladies’s titles at this yr’s Rome Marathon had been received by a pair of Kenyan runners. Robert Ngeno took the lads’s victory, crossing the road in 2:07:35, whereas Betty Chepkwony received the ladies’s race in 2:26:16, ending 19 minutes later. For full outcomes, view right here.