Christa Vahlensieck


Christa Vahlensieck is a German former long distance runner and pioneer in the marathon for women. During her running career, from 1973-1989, she simultaneously achieved a world record in the 10,000 metres, in the 25k road race and the marathon; she holds 17 German champion titles.

Biography

On 28 October 1973, Vahlensieck became the first German woman to complete the marathon in under three hours, as a youth in a German Forestrun. She set another German record at the Boston Marathon on 15 April 1974. Both times were also European bests.
In the same year, she won the Essen Marathon in 2:42:38. The time was not recognized as a world record because the course was 745 m too short.
On 3 May 1975, she succeeded at setting the world record at Dülmen with a time of 2:40:16. In the same year, she was the first German winner at the Schwarzwald Marathon in 2:45:43, a time that still stands as the course record.
On 10 September 1977, her victory at the Berlin Marathon in 2:34:48 gave her another world record.
At the 1983 World Championship in Helsinki she placed 19th.
From 1973 to 1989, she won 21 marathons, among them the 1977 Berlin Marathon, five times at the Košice Peace Marathon and the 1989 Vienna Marathon. In 1988 Vahlensieck ran in the special event "Friendship Run Wuppertal-Košice", a course over 1765 km, trespassing the Iron curtain: "an awesome experience", as she remembers.

Other Records

She won 11 West German national titles: