Should you’ve run any of the Abbott World Marathon Majors over the previous 5 years, chances are high you’ve crossed paths with the 60-year-old masters marathoner Yan (Mary) Ma of Coquitlam, B.C. She is a two-time Six-Star finisher, having run every of the marathon majors twice. In 2025, she will likely be chasing her third Six-Star finisher medal, trying to run all six marathon majors in a single 12 months.
Ma got here to our consideration over the autumn when she completed close to the highest of her age class at each the 2024 Chicago Marathon and New York Metropolis Marathon, lower than 4 weeks aside. These two top-10 finishes within the ladies’s 60-64 age class at majors capped off an unimaginable fall season for Ma, throughout which she ran 4 marathons on three continents in seven weeks.
Like us, you would possibly marvel how she has time to journey the world and run marathons. Ma works part-time as an accountant for a agency that offers her the flexibleness to rearrange her work schedule round journey and races.
When Ma immigrated to Canada from China in 2009, she wasn’t certain how she would slot in. Her information of English was sparse, however she finally discovered her calling in a mountain climbing group in her new dwelling of Coquitlam. This led her to fall in love with distance operating.
“I’ve all the time favored to run lengthy distance,” Ma says. “I began operating in college, then I had an extended hiatus. I began operating once more in 2018, when my buddy launched me to somebody at Vancouver’s LaPower Membership.”
She says rediscovering operating later in life has been transformative, preserving her feeling younger and permitting her to construct a powerful community of associates.
Ma’s membership boasts greater than 800 members from throughout the Larger Vancouver space, and most people she runs with are round her age (and are additionally from China). Ma says the membership has runners collaborating in every main marathon, which has enticed her to undertake this unimaginable problem.
“I began my Six-Star journey by operating Boston and New York Metropolis within the fall of 2021,” Ma says. “I assumed I used to be achieved there, then my good buddy satisfied me to run Berlin along with her. Since I used to be midway there, I needed my Six-Star medal. Now, we’re at a second Six-Star.”
Ma doesn’t plan on slowing down. She is registered for the 2025 Tokyo Marathon, Boston Marathon and London Marathon within the spring. She’s additionally pursuing the brand new 9-Star medal, which can embody the three new marathon main candidates: Sydney, Cape City and Shanghai. “I already accomplished Sydney this September, and plan to run the opposite two new races in 2026 and 2027,” she says.
As she begins to tackle new races, Ma says New York Metropolis is the marathon main that retains her coming again. “It’s my favorite by far. It’s straightforward to get to from Vancouver, and one I stay up for yearly.”
