The world record mile time for a woman aged 85-89 is nine minutes, 45 seconds, 55 tenths of a second. And it belongs to Westport resident Norma Minkowitz, 87.
Norma competed in this past summer’s Nutmeg Games and smashed the previous world record mile time (10:55.25) for her age group. “By the first lap I could tell I was on world record pace,” she says. “But I asked the announcer not to say that I was going for the world record— I didn’t want to feel stressed while competing if I couldn’t do it.” Norma on the track alongside athletes aged 11-65, and she knew she would be the last one running. “And then they announced ‘Norma Minkowitz in the yellow hat, in the 85 to 89 age group is going on world record time,’ and everyone in the audience started screaming. It was cool, because I said to my coach that it felt like I was all alone out there. But he said ‘no, you weren’t. The crowds were with you.’ Everyone was standing up and yelling my name.”
Norma began running in her 40s. “I’ve always been athletic, but I never participated in any kind of competition until I started running in 1985,” says Norma. She got involved, initially, with the Westport Road Runners, directed by Westport’s Laddie Lawrence. “I was running [around town], and someone said 'there’s a Road Runners club that meets every Saturday.'” She joined and was hooked. As she progressed, she started signing up for local races, “I always seemed to come in first or second in my age group,” she says. “I just like competing.”
For many years, she did long-distance running, competing in three New York City Marathons. “But I did a few track races and I was so much faster than everyone in my age group that I was running against, that I thought I could do even better.” She started not just competing in these shorter distances, but winning. In the 2019 Senior Olympics, she came in first in every race she participated in. She holds the national record in the 800-meter race for her age group, set at the 2023 USATF Masters Indoor Championships, and set a World record in her age group for the 400-meter event at the same event and a 400 national record at the 2023 National Senior Games. “I like running fast, and getting gratification sooner if you do well.” In recent years, she started working with a running coach, Steve Kurczewski, and doing weight training at Performance Optimal Training with trainer Chris Nolan And even though last year she had surgery on her meniscus and her knee “has never been the same,” the training paid off. “My trainer was giving me an exercise and I asked ‘what’s this for?’ And he said, that’s for your quads, because the more muscle I build around the surgical knee, the more support I have. My legs are really strong.” Clearly!
Norma typically exercises six days a week, mixing two days of strength training with running, elliptical workouts and race walking. “I can’t not train, because my coach is watching me!” she says laughing. “But I’m motivated to work out, because if I don’t, I’m not going to do well competing.” The drive in Norma may be related to the fact that she’s a world-renowned fine artist — her gallery is browngrotta arts in Wilton— and “running always combined well with my artwork,” she explains. (She primarily works with fiber and mixed media, mostly incorporating crochet in her artwork, and is in the permanent collection of 35 museums worldwide.) “There’s a connection between running and art, the way I do it— my work is in fiber, and the process is to do this crochet stitch over and over. It’s very repetitive, as is running.” And as is true for both: the more you do it, the better the results.
Setting world records might not be the motivation for every 87-year-old runner, but for Norma, it’s working. “I hate to say this because it might sound shallow, but you asked what motivates me and I guess, I like winning!” she says with a laugh. “I like working to achieve something.”
To learn more about Norma’s artwork, visit browngrotta.com
“I like running fast, and getting gratification sooner if you do well.”