Episode 28 - Jenny Hitchings | Life PR at 59, World Record at 60, Still Not Done at 62

In this episode of Run Long After 60, I sit down with Jenny Hitchings — a 62-year-old elite masters runner and coach from Sacramento, California, who didn't discover she was competitive until her late 30s.

What followed is one of the most remarkable arcs in masters running history.

She didn't stumble into records — she hunted them. Systematically. Breaking times that had stood untouched for over 20 years, many held by Olympic champions and Hall of Famers. Eight American records in her 50s. A world record at New York City. Then a lifetime PR of 2:45:27 at the 2023 London Marathon — two months before turning 60. Six months after that, she aged into the 60-64 category and immediately set that world record too at Chicago.

And she is still nervous before every race.

That tension — between historic achievement and deeply personal vulnerability — is what drives this conversation.

We talk about:

• Being the only runner in her family, and a late bloomer by any measure
• How getting a coach at 40 changed everything
• What it felt like to miss the Olympic Trials by 10 seconds in 2012
• A phase of trail running she loved, podiumed in, and then quietly left behind
• Why race anxiety hits five days out — not race morning — every single time
• The self-induced pressure of chasing records you yourself set
• Tokyo 2024, half a cup of water in a marathon, and a hard lesson in fueling
• Coaching 16 remote athletes and a youth running club on Thursday afternoons
• Achilles surgery on January 2nd — and what recovery actually looks like 12 weeks in
• Why she wants to bow out gracefully, organically, and entirely on her own terms

Jenny's story is about what happens when elite performance meets the very human experience of aging — and what it costs to stay competitive when your body starts negotiating.

She holds the records. She feels the pressure. She still gets nervous.

And she's not done yet.

Run Long After 60 is a video-first podcast focused on running after 60, ultrarunning, longevity, and staying active later in life. If you'd like to watch the full conversation, you can find the video version on the Run Long After 60 YouTube channel.

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📍 Hosted by Mark Vega