Laverne Johnson was walking just ten blocks to a Greek restaurant in Manhattan last year when she became short of breath and unusually tired. The 80-year-old runner, who has completed 19 New York City Marathons, went to urgent care, where doctors examined her and called an ambulance; a more comprehensive analysis at Mount Sinai West Medical Center determined she was in severe heart failure. On Sunday, she plans to run her 20th marathon from start to finish, no walking breaks required.
Johnson's 2025 medical episode came on during what should have been an easy stroll of about half a mile, according to Sports Yahoo. She was taken to Mount Sinai West Medical Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side, where a more comprehensive analysis determined she was in severe heart failure. Cardiac electrophysiologist Dan Pugliese said something was clearly wrong when Johnson could not walk a couple of blocks without struggling, and he later determined she had developed an arrhythmia that worsened with her vigorous training.
Doctors told Johnson that if she had waited any longer to get help, she might not have survived. Pugliese performed an emergency procedure to steady her heart rate and prescribed medication, while advising her to take it easy going forward. Despite the warning, Johnson ran and completed her 19th New York City Marathon just weeks later, at age 79 — though she said it was a run-walk because her doctor instructed her to pace herself that way.
A Second Scare, Caught Sooner
Earlier this year, doctors detected another arrhythmia in Johnson, but this time they caught it much earlier than the previous episode. Doctors performed another cardioversion procedure to shock her heart back into a normal rhythm, and they monitored her closely afterward. Pugliese told her that if her heart stayed in normal rhythm, she could do the activities she felt capable of.
That clearance has Johnson approaching Sunday differently than last year. “This year, I don't have any instructions. I'm running the whole thing,” she said, according to the same report. She's aiming for the best time she can manage in her age division, a marked shift from the cautious run-walk approach doctors required after her first cardiac episode.
From Michigan State to the Marathon Majors
Johnson's marathon journey began long before her Manhattan years. Born and raised in Monette, Missouri, she started running in 1990 as an adult student at Michigan State University, working part-time and raising two daughters on her own at the time. She later moved to New York City, where she said running let her exercise by herself at any time. “I could run anytime, day or night,” she said.
Johnson, who runs a corporate training business as an entrepreneur, set a goal years ago to finish 20 marathons by the time she turned 80. Sunday's race fulfills that ambition, marking her 20th marathon. Her commitment echoes a broader shift in distance running: per AARP, the average age of participants in running events has climbed sharply in recent years, with the share of runners 55 and older rising while the proportion of runners aged 25 to 34 has barely budged.
Running It as a Family
Johnson won't be running alone this year. Her daughter, Lori Milhaven, a 60-year-old two-time breast cancer survivor, is joining her as part of a mother-daughter team, and said she's thrilled beyond words for the experience. Milhaven has said that simply keeping up with her mother in life has always been a challenge, a sentiment that extends well beyond the racecourse.
Johnson has described Friday dinners with her daughters as time to be together and relax, a small ritual amid a life defined by ambition and endurance. Research on master runners backs up what Johnson has lived: a study examining New York City Marathon performance found that participation among older runners increased between 1980 and 2009, with a greater rise among women than men, according to a study published on PMC. Johnson's 20th finish, whenever it comes Sunday, will add one more data point to that trend — and one more chapter to a comeback that began with a ten-block walk she almost didn't finish.
