Photo: Leonhard Lenz via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Vegan runner Joe Camilleri has completed all six Abbott World Marathon Majors at the age of 76, crossing the finish line of the Berlin Marathon today in 4 hours, 51 minutes and 25 seconds.
Berlin was the last piece of the Six Star medal, which goes to runners who finish Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York. Only a small fraction of marathon runners ever collect all six, and very few do it in their seventies.
It nearly didn't happen. Ten days before the race he couldn't complete a 4k run and needed a Synvisc gel injection, just months after knee surgery. "Only sheer determination got me to the finish line," he told Great Vegan Athletes.
I am 76, and the oldest Maltese/Canadian to ever get the 6 Star.
Born in Malta and now living in Victoria, British Columbia, Camilleri is known in running circles as Joe Crazy Legs. He went vegetarian in 2013 and switched to a fully vegan diet in 2017, just before his first marathon. He says his "health benefited significantly" from eating plant-based, and he told World Marathon Majors: "I truly believe that this has helped me recover much faster and stay injury free for the last four years."
He ran his first marathon in his late sixties. Nine years later he has run the six biggest marathons on the planet.
Endurance and plant-based eating keep going together. Ultrarunner Catra Corbett set a 310-mile fastest known time at 53, Robbie Balenger ran 3,175 miles across America, and Harvey Lewis set a Badwater age-group record this summer.
Seventy-six and six stars. Powered by plants.