An athlete who has been busy rewriting the Isle of Man road running record books for her age group in recent months is Western AC’s Joanne Schade.
Since turning 55 last year (yes really!) Joanne has been keeping Terry Bates very busy with ratifying new records; indeed no fewer than four in the women’s 55 age category now belong to her.
Three of them were set in the space of five days (which in itself must be some kind of record!) during No Rest for the Wicked week last August.
Joanne Schade
Joanne ran a time of 1:38:31 for the Half Marathon in Ramsey, and followed that up with 45:00 for the 10k also in Ramsey, and then two days later completed a hat-trick with a time of 36:36 for five miles in Foxdale.
She has since improved her Half Marathon time to 1:33:48 at the Syd Quirk in November.
Joanne has been steadily improving her 5k times, and set a record time of 20:20 in the Northern AC Winter Series opening round in October.
However that is another one that is already out-of-date as she improved to 20:06 in December!
Record books
What is amazing about Joanne’s performances as a distance runner in recent years is that she started her athletics life as a thrower, representing the Isle of Man at the 1987 Island Games in Guernsey in shot and discus.
Joanne now needs to add records for 10 miles, 20 miles and Marathon to complete the full set for the women’s 55 age group on the road – and I’m not betting against her!
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