23-Sep-1978 – West German Athletics Championships – 2:38:32.8 – Patrick Ile de France
Date of birth: 27-May-1949
Nationality: West German (at the time)
Women-Only World Record duration: 11 months, 30 days
The athlete:
As the reigning marathon world record holder, it was not surprising that Vahlensieck did well at the 1978 German Athletics Championships. She was up against some very strong competition, with Liane Winter in the pack as well. As we know, Winter had set what would have been the marathon world record at the 1975 Boston Marathon however that course is too steep for record eligibility.
Vahlensieck won by an incredible margin of over eleven minutes, Winter far behind in second. Unfortunately there is little other information available online about the race or even photos. For Vahlensieck, it was the second fastest marathon of the year, noting that the race was almost certainly run for women only like in previous years.
This made the time the women’s only marathon world record. I note that it was technically the third fastest marathon of 1978, the fastest being the time set by Grete Waitz at the 1978 New York City Marathon. This however is not without some controversy.
As is discussed separately in my article on the measurement issues of the New York City Marathon between 1978-1981, the world records set at the 1981 race were invalidated due to the course being found short on re-measurement. By that metric, the marks set at the 1978-1980 races should also be invalidated. I’ve reached out to World Athletics for clarification on the situation.
The shoes:
Although we do not have photos of the race, we do have one photo of Vahlensieck competing at the 1978 New York City Marathon, which indicates that she was wearing the obscure Patrick Ile de France. Patrick had been founded in Belgium in 1894, and while their produces found considerable success in other sports, they were less known for running.
As for th Ile de France, it featured an additional wedge of foam under the heel, it also sported other features designed to help elite distance runners. While not necessarily an important performance feature, the shoes nonetheless sported a distinctive black and white colourway. I have seen photos of Chantal Laglacé wearing this model during her career as well, but like her Vahlensieck would change to Nike shoes for the remainder of her career after her brief time running in Patrick.
References:
Marathon Woman by Kathrine Switzer
A Long Time Coming by Jacqueline Hansen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christa_Vahlensieck
https://www.runnersworld.de/news-fotos/die-elf-berliner-marathon-weltrekorde/
https://www.leichtathletik.de/news/news/detail/was-macht-eigentlich-christa-vahlensieck
https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/deutsche-cross-lauf-meisterin-in-der-langstrecke-%C3%BCber-5-200-news-photo/1213378806
https://more.arrs.run/runner/5607
https://www.thedeffest.com/vintage-ads/patrick-1977-vintage-running-shoe-ad-for-the-ile-de-france
https://runarweb.com/nycm/RunnersWorld.pdf