Ruth Rothfarb ^People

Ruth Rothfarb has completed three marathons - Ottawa, New York and the Orange Bowl in Miami - to become the oldest woman known to have run that dis-tance. She has lowered her time from 5 hours 39minutes to 5:37 to 5:28 and is training for several middle-distance events this spring. She runed every day, accumulating 70 miles a week. She started running at age 72, inspired by her son Herb, who wil join her in this year's Boston race. Eight years later, in 1981, she entered her first marathon, in Ottawa, Canada, and completed all 26 miles and 385 yards of it. Just to prove the feat was nofluke, she's added nine more since then. Along the way, Ruth has collected an enviable assortment of hardware and honors. She has won the Kendall Women'sClassic and the Los Angeles Senior Olympics and placed fourth in the World Veteran's Games, and once she ran two 10,000-meter faces on the same day-one in the morningand the other in the afternoon. She made her trek to Bangkok at the request of the government in honor of the king's 60th birthday. Ruth was touted as an example tothe Thai people, who rarely live beyond age 65. Unfortunately, race day for the Royal Marathon was hot, and she failed to shave any seconds off her best time of5:28:33. Vanity has never been Ruth's problem, and she has little patience with older women who won't bare their muscles in the name ofexercise. Hardly a proponent of expensive running gear, she first competed in Bermuda shorts and tired tennis shoes.