Jim Schleisman, 81, completes his 105th marathon

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com
Eighty-one year old Jeffersonian Jim Schleisman finished third out of the eleven 80 and older runners in the recent 2015 Boston Marathon on April 20. This was the 105th marathon that Schleisman has completed since getting into long distance running at the age of 50, and the fourth such event that he has finished while running on an artificial knee that he received in June of 2012.
The 119th Boston Marathon attracted many runners from all over the world. There were 161 Iowans competing this year, including two from Carroll and one from Boone. The finishers numbered 27,165, and that represented 98 percent of those who started the race. Considering that the temperatures in Boston that day were in the low 40’s, and there was light rain during most of the race, that was a very a high percentage of finishers.
Ten men and one woman comprised the group of octogenarians that completed the race. Ten were from the United States and one came all the way from Tokyo, Japan. Prior to the race, Jim had listed two goals that he wanted to accomplish in the race. He wanted to place first in his age group, and he wanted to complete the 26.2 mile distance in under 4 hours and 30 minutes. Schleisman did not win his age group, but he did accomplish his other goal, as his time was 4:26:49. When asked how he felt the day after the race, he said, “I was a little sore, but not too bad.” Schleisman trains by running about 35 miles a week and credits his wife for keeping him healthy by cooking well-balanced meals for him.