On Dec. 4th, Sinead Diver ran the Valencia marathon in 2:21:34— the fastest marathon time ever by an Irish woman.
Remarkably, 45-year-old Diver only started running in 2010, when she was 33. The mother of two also works full-time.
Diver was representing Australia in the event, so Catherina McKiernan still holds the Irish record (2:22:23) she set in 1998–but Diver's time was also the fastest ever run by an Australian woman, so she has her national record.
The Mayo native has lived in Australia since 2002 for work as an IT consultant. She started representing her new home internationally in 2015 after Athletics Ireland refused to recognize her qualifying time for the World Championships, though she has stated that she still views herself as an "Irish woman running for Australia."
Her record-breaking time was also a two-and-a-half-minute improvement on her previous personal best (set in the 2019 London Marathon) and the fastest marathon ever run by a woman over 45.
Ethiopian Amane Beriso won the women's race in 2:14:58—the third-fastest time ever and just 54 seconds shy of the world record.
