Sarah Roberts: “My life has completely changed”

AW’s British masters female athlete of the year talks about discovering a love of running that has led to medal-winning and record-breaking sprees.

Less than a decade ago, Sarah Roberts had an entirely different vision of what life at 75 would entail. The grandmother of five had always been an irregular gym goer during her days working as a solicitor and raising two children, before then increasing to daily exercise sessions in retirement – anything from boxing to zumba, and yoga to legs, bums and tums. But organised sport was not something she had ever considered, least of all running, which she had never done beyond chasing her friends around the playground at primary school.

So, for Roberts to now be crowned AW’s British Female Masters Athlete of the Year is a quite extraordinary change of course.

“Running had never occurred to me,” she says. “I’d never thought of doing it. I thought I would just plod along in the same sort of way as I had been doing, but my life has completely changed because everything now is about running.”

Her recently accumulated collection of medals and records is staggering. Over the past 12 months, Roberts has set W75 outdoor world records at 800m, 1500m, one mile, 3000m, 5000m and 10,000m, indoor world records over 800m, 1500m, 3000m, and road world bests at 5km and 10km. A haul of four world indoor titles preceded an unrivalled bounty of eight European gold medals and four silvers. Not bad for someone who had never raced internationally until last year.

It was an unexpected parkrun while on holiday in Cape Town eight years ago that so altered the course of Roberts’ life. Encouraged by a local friend to take part, she ambled round the 5km course at the foot of Table Mountain, before returning a week later and running small segments. Upon flying home to Hertfordshire, she soon became a parkrun regular, steadily lowering her best time to less than 23 minutes over the next couple of years.

Buoyed by her improvement, she joined her local athletics club, Dacorum, a few weeks after her 70th birthday and signed up for an 800m race at the end of the 2019 summer. Lining up against teenagers, it was the first time she had ever set foot on a track.

Delayed by the Covid pandemic, it was not until 2022 that she was able to race regularly again. By 2023, she was a double British champion in the 70-74 age group. The following year she won three world titles at her first international competition.

With masters athletics divided into age groups of five-year chunks, Roberts knew just how significant this year could be after turning 75 last October and entering a new category for women aged between 75 and 79. As the youngest in her cohort, she was determined to strike at the opportune time.

“I have worked quite hard at it this year because I was trying to get all the records that I could,” she explains. “I actually haven’t done that much training because I’ve been racing so much, but it’s been fantastic – a lovely year.

“I got all the world records that I’m probably capable of and I think my records are quite good. I kept breaking my 5000m world record by very small amounts but I wasn’t happy with it, so I spent a long time trying to improve it until finally I got down to the speeds that I do in parkrun and set a record of 21:25.8.

“I think most of my records are rather good now. I doubt whether I can beat them – obviously I will keep trying, but I don’t expect that I will be able to.”

The biggest yield of Roberts’ year came at October’s European Masters Championships in Madeira, where she finished as the most decorated athlete from any nation, winning gold in the 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, 10km individual, 10km team, cross country team and 4x100m. She also claimed silver over 400m, cross country individual, 4x400m and 4x400m mixed, as well as finishing fourth over 200m.

It sounds utterly exhausting. “It was quite intense,” she concedes. “I really covered all the distances I was capable of. On the day of the 200m, I had to do the heat and final of that before running 10km on the road that evening.

“The day I did the cross country [the first cross country race of her life], we had to get a bus at 6.45am, which took us up to an altitude of 4000 feet for the race. I didn’t realise I would be so affected by the altitude. But later that day I did the 1,500m down at sea level as well.”

Such exploits have, admits Roberts, ensured she is now well known in the world of masters athletics – something she says is “very flattering”. Of winning this AW award, she adds: “I think it’s fabulous and I feel very honoured. I know the competition is very stiff, so I’m thrilled.”

After a hectic year of record-chasing, the immediate future looks a little more sedate. Her success is mostly built on daily gym visits and she undertakes only two regular weekly running training sessions, in addition to the trusty Saturday morning parkrun. She has no intention of changing her programme.

“I enjoy competing so I’m not going to stop,” says Roberts, looking ahead to the European Indoor Masters Championships in Torun, Poland, next March. “But I won’t be looking quite so much at different distances to get a record as I have been this year.

“I think I’ll try to do some cross country for my club because I have steered clear of those in the past as I was always a bit worried about getting injured. Because I wanted to try for records, I certainly didn’t want to get injured, but the pressure is off a bit now.”

Gobbling up every world record and title available is a surefire way of doing that.