Christa Vahlensieck (née Kofferschläger; born 27 May 1949) is a German former long distance runner and pioneer in the marathon for women. During her running career, from 1973 to 1989, she simultaneously achieved a world record in the 10,000 metres, in the 25k road race and the marathon; she holds 17 German championship titles.[1]
On 28 October 1973, Vahlensieck became the first German woman to complete the marathon in under three hours (2:59:26), as a youth in a German Forestrun. She set another German record (2:53:00) at the Boston Marathon on 15 April 1974. Both times were also European bests.
In the same year, she won the Essen Marathon in 2:42:38. The time was not recognized as a world record because the course was 745 m too short.
On 3 May 1975, she succeeded at setting the world record at Dülmen with a time of 2:40:16. In the same year, she was the first German winner at the Schwarzwald Marathon in 2:45:43, a time that still stands as the course record.
On 10 September 1977, her victory at the Berlin Marathon in 2:34:48 gave her another world record.
At the 1983 World Championship in Helsinki she placed 19th (2:40:43).
From 1973 to 1989, she won 21 marathons, among them the 1977 Berlin Marathon, five times at the Košice Peace Marathon (1981, 1984, 1986 - 1988) and the 1989 Vienna Marathon. In 1988 Vahlensieck ran in the special event "Friendship Run Wuppertal-Košice", a course over 1765 km, trespassing the Iron Curtain: "an awesome experience", as she remembers.[2]
She won 11 West German national titles:
| Representing | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Berlin, West Germany | 1st | Marathon | 2:34:48 | ||
| 1982 | Osaka, Japan | 3rd | Marathon | 2:34:42 | ||
| 1983 | Helsinki, Finland | 19th | Marathon | 2:40:43 | ||
| New York City, United States | 6th | Marathon | 2:35:59 | |||
| 1986 | Sacramento, United States | 1st | Marathon | 2:39:31 | ||
| New York City, United States | 9th | Marathon | 2:38:12 | |||
| 1989 | Vienna, Austria | 1st | Marathon | 2:34:47 | ||