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Though with aging comes slowing down. Each of the past 38 years, Hung has run slower than the year before. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
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When she first raced in Boston, she completed the marathon in 3 hours and 21 minutes. Last year, it took 6 hours and 2 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year, she wants \u201cto finish before the time stations close,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When Hung started running the Boston Marathon, just 14% of those who completed the race were women. Now nearly half\u00a0\u2014 43%\u00a0\u2014 are female.<\/p>\n
Back then, \u201cThey didn\u2019t even make women\u2019s running shoes. There were no running bras or running outfits,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to buy men\u2019s running shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n
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When Hung was young, few women ran, and it was not until 1972, 75 years after the first Boston Marathon, that women were allowed to run the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even now, the percentage of women in the 80-and-older age group who complete the Boston Marathon is far from parity. Last year, only two women who were 80 and older finished the race, compared with eight men.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hung, who is 5-foot-4 with a sun-creased face, a wide smile and unlimited exuberance, will be one of six female octogenarians racing this year.<\/p>\n
![\"Patty]()
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Patty Hung runs in the 2022 Boston Marathon. Years ago, Hung\u2019s Uncle Joe, her \u201cAunties\u201d Rose, Ann and Bunny, and her sons and cousins cheered her on. Now, mostly younger family members, including her two sons, are there.<\/p>\n
K&R Studios\/Boston Athletic Association<\/p>\n
As always, family and friends will be there. Years ago, Hung\u2019s Uncle Joe, her \u201cAunties\u201d Rose, Ann and Bunny, and her sons and cousins cheered her on. Now, mostly younger family members, including her two sons, are there.<\/p>\n
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Born Patricia Krawczynski\u00a0\u2014 a last name the family shortened to Kraw\u00a0\u2014 she is the daughter of an undertaker and a nurse. She grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, where she walked to elementary school. The first floor of their house was a mortuary, and the Polish Catholic Church was next door. She earned a master\u2019s in mathematics and followed her future husband, Sammy Hung, to California. He entered medical school, and she became a high school math teacher in Orinda.<\/p>\n
As a kid, she biked, ice-skated and played softball. As an adult, she tried a gym but only liked the hot tub. She did yoga and \u201cfell asleep,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In her mid-30s, she was sitting on a park bench beside Oakland\u2019s Lake Merritt, watching a runner go by. \u201cI can do this,\u201d she thought. She rose from the bench and ran the 3 miles around the lake.<\/p>\n
Since then, Hung has run through it all. Her divorce. Raising her three boys as a single parent. The death of her son Kevin, a veterinarian. Nursing school in her 60s and working the night shift at Children\u2019s Hospital Oakland until her retirement at 77.<\/p>\n
In 2013, she was a mile and a half from the finish line of the Boston Marathon when two bombs went off, killing three people and injuring hundreds more. \u201cIt was a war zone,\u201d Hung said, \u201ca nightmare.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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She was back the next year.<\/p>\n
Usually, her runs are peaceful and cerebral. She doesn\u2019t listen to music or podcasts. She meditates, though she also calls her sister in Florida.<\/p>\n
Broken bones might incapacitate others, but not Hung.<\/p>\n
![\"Patty]()
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Patty Hung smiles after completing the 2025 Boston Marathon.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of the Boston Athletic Association<\/p>\n
In August, near the end of a 9-hour trek, climbing 3,500 feet in Italy\u2019s Dolomites with her boyfriend, Don\u00a0Maxon, Hung slipped and fell backward, breaking her right ankle in two places. She had to be carried down part of the mountain to an ambulance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After surgery, Hung had to learn not to limp. Maxon, who ran with her until he strained a hamstring this year, helped coach her back to health.<\/p>\n
Did she doubt she\u2019d run the Boston Marathon again? \u201cThere was no question,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every year she begins training on New Year\u2019s Day. On Jan. 4 this year, she was racing to take out the garbage and get to church and slipped on her wet front steps. She broke her wrist.<\/p>\n
After an X-ray, Hung asked the doctor, \u201cAre you sure?\u201d He was.\u00a0\u201cHere\u2019s the thing,\u201d she remembers telling him, \u201cI\u2019m going to be running a marathon.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday and Tuesday, she runs 2 to 5 miles. On Wednesday, her runs progress from 6 to 20 miles. (The last 3 miles, she runs as fast as she can.) Thursday is her only day of rest. Friday and Saturday, she is back at 2- to 5-mile runs. On Sunday, she does a speed track workout, starting with one 800-meter sprint, and increasing over the months to 12 of them. Maxon coaches from the track.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hung doesn\u2019t stretch much. She doesn\u2019t do resistance training. Before her runs, she does 10 minutes of modified pushups and pullups. She never feels pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Patty]()
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Patty Hung, 80, doesn\u2019t stretch much before her runs, she just does 10 minutes of modified pushups and pullups.<\/p>\n
Bront\u00eb Wittpenn\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The other day, while running 20 miles, Hung, who has been slowed by her swollen ankle, was pleased to break a 13-minute mile.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA marathon is really about endurance,\u201d said professor Lieberman. That does not necessarily mean people should run as fast as they can for 26.2 miles. Running a marathon, the professor said, \u201cis a little crazy.\u201d Lieberman understands the attraction. He\u2019s run the Boston Marathon 14 times.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a role model to celebrate,\u201d he said, \u201cbut you don\u2019t need to be Patty to get the benefits of exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few days before she was flying to Boston, Hung was asked what advice she has for people. Despite her success, Hung believes she\u2019s not unique. \u201cThere\u2019s something special about everybody,\u201d Hung said, \u201cbut we have to find it for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carol Pogash is a Bay Area journalist who worked at the Hearst-owned San Francisco Examiner. She\u2019s the author of three books and is a longtime contributor to the New York Times. She can be reached at carolpogash@gmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patty Hung, 80, runs with her dog on the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail as she prepares for her 40th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[184,103606,1570,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-274495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bay-area","9":"tag-graying-bay","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}