Guyana-born runner, 73, finishes New York marathon for a third time after more than 12 hours

NEW YORK, United States. Zarina Hussain Ellis, a 73-year-old marathoner born in what was then British Guiana, was among the last 12 runners to finish the 50th TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday 1 November.

She was greeted with cheers and ringing cowbells as she walked calmly to the finish line in Central Park, where she was presented with her medal. She had been on the course for more than 12 hours after leaving the start on Staten Island at 11.30am.

It was her third time completing the race, which takes runners through all five boroughs over 26.2 miles. More than 60,000 runners took part this year. Ellis said it was an honour to take part again.

At 116th Street and 5th Avenue in Harlem, at mile 22, she stopped for a bottle of water and accepted an offer from a New York Road Runners volunteer to accompany her for the final 4.2 miles.

From Guyana to Melbourne

Ellis, a former telephone operator, left her parents' home in the small village of Versailles in Guyana in 1971, seeking independence after a very strict upbringing. She said she moved to Great Britain for a better life.

In England she was inspired to become a caregiver and later qualified as a registered nurse, working in geriatrics among other areas. A medical agency later placed her in Saudi Arabia, an experience she described as unfavourable. She said she faced racial discrimination there, including not receiving the pay promised in her contract.

Her next posting was in Melbourne, Australia, in 2004. She took up residency there in 2006 and ran this year's race representing the city.

A last hurrah

Her running began in Great Britain, where she also played squash and table tennis and excelled in an all-female cricket team.

Securing a place in this year's race was not easy, she said, because all of the race numbers for individual runners from Melbourne had already been assigned. She wrote to her old club in Great Britain, explaining that this would be her last hurrah at 73 and that she wanted to run in honour of her sister, a cancer survivor.

Ellis said she took up marathons because they were a great way to see the world from the ground up. Her favourite was the second Peace Marathon in Moscow in 1982, and before that she had run in Paris, Berlin and Stockholm.

She last visited Guyana in 2008, when her mother died.