Harriette Thompson of Charlotte, North Carolina, completed the Sunday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego in 7 hours, 24 minutes, 36 seconds.

She was mobbed by well-wishers as she crossed the finish line.

This was her 16th Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and, by far, the hardest.

“It’s always harder but this year has been a bad year for me,” she said, adding that her husband died in January following a lingering illness and that she had battled a staph infection in one of her legs.

Thompson finished the marathon with her son Brenny, 56, also of Charlotte. During the race, she wore a purple T-shirt bearing the logo of Team In Training, a fundraising and sports training program for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Her white tights concealed wounds left over from radiation treatment for squamous cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.

The oldest woman to previously complete a marathon was Gladys Burrill, who was 92 years and 19 days old when she completed the 2010 Honolulu Marathon. Thompson is 92 years, 65 days old, according to the race organizers.

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