dave & gillene laney

It took 3000 miles and six million steps for a South African grandmother to become the first woman ever to run across America. She made history and fulfilled a dream. That crowning moment, however, did not come easy. By her own admission, she had no personality, no guts and no backbone.
Her rise from “whispering hope with no hope at all” to that triumphant finish proves once more that success is available to all who are willing to pay the price and will accept that “there are no limits other than those we impose on ourselves.”
When she started her athletics career at the late age of 37, it set her free to become “the greatest woman long distance runner there has ever been.” She set new records over distances supposedly impossible for her gender. Other women soon followed her example, inspired by her pluck and passion.
And at 87 she is still running competitively. To her, age is but a state of mind: “You're only old when you stop growing.” Her one overriding goal: to stay fit till her dying day, a day she wants to approach running.

“I see in Mavis Hutchison some of what I see in myself: someone who had a dream and wouldn't let it go. Fulfilling her dream, however, took courage and tenacity to a new frontier. . . Her story is well worth reading. It's inspiring. Anyone struggling to get somewhere will learn from it. . . . ” – Golf icon & Grand Slammer, Gary Player.

“Everyone knew who you were talking about if you simply said 'Mavis', or the 'Galloping Granny'. It was because she did the most extraordinary things . . . A biography is long overdue.” – Comrades Marathon great Bruce Fordyce

“In the history of women’s running some names will be remembered forever . . . But before all of them was an almost forgotten South African, a pathfinder, who led the world in establishing that women can run like any man . . . – Professor Tim Noakes, author of “Lore of Running”