Running Overtime
We Can All Be Master Athletes
Edwina Brocklesby says she didn’t do any exercise until she reached the age of 50. On a lark, she entered a half marathon when she was 52 and fell in love with running.
A year later, she ran her first full marathon in London, England.
Because running is hard on the knees and hip joints, she switched to swimming and cycling at 56. She’s in her mid 80s now.
Several thousand miles away in Harlem, New York, Ida Keeling caught the running bug as well. But she was 68 when she took it up. That was in 1982 and she opted to become a sprinter, rather than run marathons like Edwina.
As of five years ago, she was still running at the age of 104. Remarkable.
Fauja Singh was born in Punjab, India in 1911, the same year my mum was born in London.
Fauja also fell in love with running and he did his first marathon at the age of 89. I think my mum was enjoying Agatha Christie novels on her couch at 89.
He ran marathons in London, New York and Toronto and did his last in Hong Kong – a 10k event. When he was 101. According to the Guardian newspaper story where these individuals are profiled, Fauja was still running at the age of 108. But the story is more than five years old, so it’s difficult to verify if he is still alive or not. But that’s not the point.
What can we glean from these stories? That certain individuals are blessed by the Universe to have good enough health to pull off such amazing feats of athleticism?
I would say no, that is not the case at all.
There is bountiful evidence, enough to fill the largest libraries, that physical fitness prolongs life. But more than that, it not only increases lifespan, it increases health span. If you don’t have your health, what have you got at the end of the day?
The three people featured here are not unusual. In fact, they are merely representative of a growing trend towards astonishing health for more and more individuals around the world who are deep into their 90s..
In this editorial on the National Institutes of Health website in the United States, the authors point to the number of people competing well into the 95 to 99 year age group.
Ten years ago, Jaring Timmerman died at the age of 105. The Canadian had held masters class world records in the 50-metre freestyle and 50-metre backstroke events.
In fact, he set four world records in the age group 100–104 years and stands solely responsible for creating the age group 105–109 years in masters swimming.
But I want to make the point again: these folks are not exceptions even though their achievements are truly exceptional. Their bodies are no different than yours or mine. Except their bodies are way stronger and healthier.
They found something physically active that they enjoyed and they went to town with it.
This is not to argue that every time you walk onto a pickleball court, you should want to take the national title or that every time you climb aboard your bike, you attempt a typical stage from the Tour de France.
There’s no need to go to extremes at all.
Jill Barker writes for the Montreal Gazette newspaper where she’s the paper’s fitness columnist as well as being the Assistant Director of Athletics and Recreation at famed McGill University in Montreal.
In her story from May 2023, she writes, “Views of life after 60 are changing, thanks in part to an increasingly large cohort of active older adults who are pushing the boundaries of what it means to age. Once considered a time of declining health, activity, independence and productivity, baby boomers aren’t as ready to retire to their Barcaloungers as previous generations have done.”
This is surely a good thing! One resource for beginning a later-in-life journey to health and fitness might be a book written by author, Will Anderson several years ago, entitled, “70 And Strong!”, a general guide to health and fitness that covers the gamut from diet to supplements to exercise routines.
Regardless, there are so many resources available to all of us who are older that can point in the right direction of sustained good health that there’s no reason for any of us to be unhealthy.
Unless, of course, that’s the choice you make. But life is all about choices, isn’t it?