73-year-old Kmoin Wahlang is one of India’s oldest woman marathon runner

A mother of 12, a grandmother to almost 30 kids, Kmoin Wahlang is one of India’s oldest woman marathon runner.

Hailing from the north-eastern state of Meghalaya, Wahlang grabbed the eye-balls of sports fans and fitness enthusiasts when she made her presence felt during the Tata Mumbai Marathon in January 2019.

While many of us continue to blatantly state our age as an excuse when we fail to execute any strenuous physical activity, Wahlang successfully finished a marathon run at the age of 71 years!

She completed the 42.195km run with a timing of 4 hours 33 minutes and 55 seconds. If the age and the timings didn’t impress you, then note that Wahlang finished the marathon at 89th position out of total 520 women runners during that edition of the Tata Mumbai Marathon.

Though she can only converse in her mother tongue, Wahlang didn’t show any discomfort while running the Mumbai Marathon which incidentally was her first marathon outside the city of Shillong. Instead, she showcased extraordinary consistency during the entire course of the race and rarely dropped below the speed of 9km per hour.

Surprisingly, Wahlang’s running career can be traced back to almost two decades. The now 73 year old faced severe stomach issues after the birth of her twelfth child way back in 2001. She started walking extensively to counter this health issue and slowly this walking made way for running.

Wahlang was first discovered by a non-profit organisation called RUN Meghalaya and has since been participating in various marathons in her home state. She had even completed the 45km run in the Mawkyrwat Ultra Marathon before coming down to Mumbai for the Tata Marathon.

posted Monday January 4th
by Abhijit Nair