Wiens earns ninth race win at age 81 years ago
Think that turning 80 means it's time to sit back, relax, and take it easy?
Think again.
Hillsboro resident Marie Wiens goes against all the senior citizen stereotypes. She's 81 years old, runs nearly every day, and just won her ninth championship at the Emma Creek Classic 5K run, held annually in Hesston at the end of April.
That's nine first-place finishes in a row.
And Wiens shows no sign of stopping.
Wiens has been competing in the Emma Creek Classic for ten years now. Her first year in the event was 1994, at age 72, and she took third place that year in the 70 to 75 age division. Her time was 36 minutes, 39 seconds.
But that was because she was "cocky and careless," Wiens says now.
A year later, in 1995, Wiens was back at the race — and she shaved nearly two and a half seconds off her previous time for 34 minutes and nine seconds. She took first place in her age bracket and has continued that trend since.
She does the five kilometers with a combination of sprinting and fast walking. The route begins and ends at Hesston High School.
"It's quite a jog around town," Wiens said.
Wiens got interested in running thanks to her daughters, Marsha and "Mimi." When the family moved to Hillsboro in 1965 after years of service around the globe, those two daughters started running — and so did Wiens.
She now tries to run five to seven times a week, she said.
"I just feel better, more alert," Wiens said. "Americans sit too much."
In the summertime, Wiens likes to run in the cool of the morning, and in the winter, she braves the roads when the weather is decent. Her typical route takes her from her North Washington apartment, out to the Carriage Hills housing development, and back.
She likes to see others' enthusiasm for the activity.
"I'm glad that running is important," Wiens said. "It's probably one of the best exercises."
In addition to running in Emma Creek, a women's only race that attracts 500 runners a year, Wiens has also run in the "Boulder boulder," a race in the Colorado suburb. She'd like to participate in a Hillsboro race as well.
This year, Wiens tagged a time of 36.14 at the race. She'd like to shave that down to 35.59 at least for next year.
Wiens acknowledges that the body starts to give you trouble as you get older — like her knees. To keep things stable she wears ace bandage wraps just below the kneecap.
"I'm almost 82 years old, and it's beginning to take its toll," she said.
But Marie Wiens has no intention of slowing down.
Other area residents competing in the event included Emily Aldis of Hillsboro. She took first place in the 18 to 24 age bracket with a time of 21:35. In the 40 to 44 bracket, Peabody's Becky Yoder took third with 22:10.
The youngest person to place at the race was 8-year-old Erin Bishop of Hesston, and the oldest person placing was 85-year-old Ruth Schmidt of Hesston. The even drew runners from across the state, Missouri, and Canada.
