Marie-Louise Ledru was a French athlete who has been credited as the first woman to race the now-defined

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

distance of 42.195 km. On 29 September 1918 Ledru reportedly completed the

Tour de Paris Marathon The Paris Marathon (french: Marathon de Paris) is an annual marathon hosted by the city of Paris, France. It is the marathon with the second-most finishers in the world, behind the New York City Marathon. The marathon begins along the Champs ...

in a time of 5 hours and 40 minutes and finished in 38th place.''Boston Marathon: The History of the World's Premier Running Event'' by Tom Derderian. (1994). The

International Association of Athletics Federations World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

, the international

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

for the

sport of athletics Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing sports, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and racewalking ...

, however, recognizes

Violet Piercy Violet Stewart Louisa Piercy (24 December 1889 – April 1972) was an English long-distance runner who is recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as having set the first women's world best in the marathon on 3 Octobe ...

from

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as having set the first women's world best in the marathon on 3 October 1926 with a time of 3:40:22.

References

Year of birth missing Year of death missing World record setters in athletics (track and field) French female marathon runners {{France-longdistance-athletics-bio-stub