Grid Magazine

At 86, Chestnut Hill resident Sandra Folzer regularly smashes running world records, but her pursuit of physical excellence is secondary to her environmental goal: to remove single-use plastics from racing.

In 2024, Folzer, a breast cancer survivor, shaved an astonishing 30 minutes off the 12K record in the women’s masters 85-89 age category. The next year, she set new world records in the Rothman 8K (50:39), where she finished 702nd out of 2,114 women and set a record for the indoor mile. This January, she broke that record, and then did it again in March, when she also set an 800-meter record. Folzer just keeps getting faster.

It started in 1976, when a friend told her that if she could run the Schuylkill River loop twice, she could run a marathon. She tried it and then ran the Philadelphia Marathon, finishing fifth. Three years later, she ran a 50-mile ultramarathon in Maryland and has run various distances ever since, incorporating training alongside her career as a licensed psychologist and raising her three daughters, Amma, Laura (a running partner) and Victoria, all of whom live nearby.

When she isn’t blazing a trail with her feet, she is advocating for social change.

➡️ Read the full story at https://gridphilly.com/blog-home/2026/06/01/meet-the-86-year-old-runner-who-combines-her-passions-for-fitness-and-sustainability/

✍️ Dawn Kane
📸 Tracie Van Auken