Allison Pamela Roe (née Deed; born 30 May 1956) is a New Zealand politician and former long-distance athlete.

Athletics career

Roe was born in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

in 1956. In 1981, she won both the

Boston Marathon The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon race hosted by eight cities and towns in greater Boston in eastern Massachusetts, United States. It is traditionally held on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897, the event was ins ...

and

New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon, currently branded as the TCS New York City Marathon for sponsorship reasons, is an annual marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 fini ...

, becoming the second of only two women to accomplish the feat in the same year. In Boston, she ran 2:26:46 to improve the course record by almost eight minutes, set the previous year by Jacqueline Gareau. In New York, she set a world best women's marathon time with 2:25:29, to break

Grete Waitz Grete Waitz (, 1 October 195319 April 2011) was a Norwegian marathon runner and former world record holder. In 1979, at the New York City Marathon, she became the first woman in history to run the marathon in under two and a half hours. Waitz ...

's time of 2:25:42 from the 1980 New York Marathon. However, after re-measurement, the 1981 course was found to be 150 metres short, though Waitz's 1980 record is also disputed. Also in 1981, she set a 20 km world record in Miyazaki,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. In the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours, Roe was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, for services to athletics. In 2010, she was inducted into the

New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame The New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame is an organisation commemorating New Zealand's greatest sporting triumphs. It was inaugurated as part of the New Zealand sesquicentenary celebrations in 1990. Some 160 members have been inducted into the hall ...

Political career

In the 2013 Auckland elections, Roe was elected to the Waitematā District Health Board and the

Devonport-Takapuna Local Board The Devonport-Takapuna Local Board covers from Castor Bay and Sunnynook south to the end of the Devonport Peninsula; it is separated from the Kaipātiki board area by the Northern Motorway. This local board sits in the Auckland Council offic ...

. In the

2016 elections Africa Benin Republic *2016 Beninese presidential election 6 March 2016 Cape Verde * 2016 Cape Verdean presidential election 2 October 2016 Chad * 2016 Chadian presidential election 10 April 2016 Djibouti * 2016 Djiboutian presidential ...

, Roe joined the Rodney First ticket and stood for re-election for the Health Board and election to the Rodney Local Board. She was successful in both contests with the second most popular and most popular votes respectively.

Achievements

*All results regarding marathon, unless stated otherwise

References

External links

Official website
* * * 1956 births Living people New Zealand female long-distance runners Athletes from Auckland Boston Marathon female winners New York City Marathon female winners New Zealand Members of the Order of the British Empire Local politicians in New Zealand Waitemata District Health Board members People educated at Westlake Girls High School 21st-century New Zealand women 20th-century New Zealand sportswomen {{NewZealand-athletics-bio-stub