British woman becomes oldest to complete all six world major marathons

On Sunday at the 2022 Chicago Marathon, Gina Little flew in from London to celebrate running her 602nd marathon in style, becoming the oldest runner to finish all six Abbott World Marathon Majors and earning the six-star finisher medal at age 77.

Little capped off her 600th marathon in Berlin and followed it up with her 601st the following weekend in London before travelling to Chicago.

There is a special medal for runners who finish all six of the marathon majors (Boston, Chicago, London, New York, Berlin and Tokyo). It took her 12 years: she ran London first, in 1983; New York in 1987; Berlin in 1988; Boston in 1996 and Tokyo in 2010.

Little has run the Berlin Marathon 31 times and the London Marathon 38 times (the most ever by a British woman). She finished the 2022 Chicago Marathon in 4:37:15, which earned her a third-place finish in her 75 to 79 age category. Her goal was to finish in under five hours, since she ran both London and Berlin in the two weeks prior.

She planned to run Chicago twice before, but her medal was pushed due to the pandemic. “My plan has always been to receive my medal in Chicago,” Little told us. “The U.S. was the setting of my second major before the six majors started.”

According to London’s Evening Standard, Little was first inspired to run the London Marathon after watching the second race in 1982 pass her street, and said she got “the bug” after her first marathon.

She holds a personal best of 3:26, from the London Marathon in 1993, which she ran at age 48.

Running marathons has taken Little to 46 countries and 22 islands, including places like Hawaii and New Zealand. Little is not done with marathons yet. She will be going to the Spanish island of Lanzarote to run the Lanzarote International Marathon on Dec. 3.