2023 Age Group World Championship Profiles: Leslie Cohen

Name: Leslie Cohen

Nationality: United States of America

Category: F65-69

Fastest Major: 3:28:56 (Boston 2023)

Total AbbottWMM Stars: 6

‍

Leslie Cohen was the inaugural world champion in 2021 and reached the third step on the podium a year later. The lawyer from Santa Monica, California, is mother to three daughters and began running marathons seriously in 2013.

You became a World Champion in 2021 in London. What did that mean to you? 

It was really exciting to be the world champion in the inaugural event. I have to say I was shocked. It was a huge honor just to be selected. And we were selected in 2019 or early 2020 – before COVID – and then everything got delayed a couple of years. So at the time, we didn’t know if (or when) the event was going to happen. I knew there were very few people selected in my age group, and I didn’t know who my competition was. It turned out the competition was very serious. So it was incredibly thrilling to win. 

You made the podium in London again last year with third place. What are your goals for the Chicago championship this year? 

I’m expecting the competition to be really intense in Chicago this year, so I’m mostly focusing on trying to run a course PR. I’ve done the Bank of America Chicago Marathon twice before. My second time was faster than my first. So for 2023, I would love to see a course PR for myself – I’m hoping for something sub-3:30. 

What would you say running brings to your life?

Running opened up a whole other world of people that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. My running friends range in age from their 20s to their 80s and are from all over the world and from every walk of life.

Running is a great equalizer in that way. It’s also a great way to see the world. I have a several friends now that I met in Australia when I traveled there for the Gold Coast Marathon. When I went to Ireland on a family vacation several years ago, I reached out to the Dublin Running Club and set up a run with them. They were so welcoming – they picked me up at my hotel and gave me a ride back. Running connects us even though we come from different places and have different backgrounds and would have never met otherwise. 

‍