Jackson Free Press

Margaret Wodetzki figures she's run in close to 300 races. Winner of the Women's Senior Masters trophy in the 2004 Vicksburg Run Through History—that daunting 10K dash through the Hilly City's National Military Park—Wodetzki didn't even take up running until she was in her early 50s. Now 72, the retired Jackson State chemistry professor (who serves as the volunteer coordinator for Race for the Cure, which raises money to help fight breast cancer) recently finished fifth in the 5k at the National Senior Olympics.

"She turned out to be a natural," says her husband, Dick Johnson, who teaches philosophy at Tougaloo and (now that he's running less often himself due to a knee-cartilege injury) serves as Wodetzki's unofficial trainer and cheerleader. "Almost immediately she started coming in first. It surprised both of us."

"I usually do win," Wodetzki says, though she's quick to add, "Sometimes there aren't that many people in my age group." Her first-place showing in this year's Run Through History (the 25th annual one) marks the third time she's won in her category in this perennially well-attended event. "When I was 52," she says, "I ran it in 54 minutes-and-something and didn't win anything. There were a lot more people my age to compete with back then."

But getting older has its rewards. This time around Wodetzki finished in 1 hour, 8 minutes-plus—not bad when you factor in the inevitable insults to anyone's body of 20 added years—and she still took home the prize.