Source on the "1973 marathon" bit? According to her Wikipedia page, she was a middle distance runner, and she seemed to have competed in only one race without proper gear (in 1972).
For me? Yes. But this is the fediverse. We all choose our instances based on the rules therein. If I wanted a space that was federated with them I would move to such an instance.
Yeah, says she was a middle-distance runner here too. Believe OP, or whoever OP got it from, got a bit confused as to the details of a marathon, which are specifically long-distance.
If you've already looked it up, please share the link (next time) so we don't have to also look it up. I'm not going to look this one up, because I don't really care about it, but I would have clicked the link.