100-Year-Old Man Finishes Toronto Marathon

Source: NPR

Talk about a really amazing race:

"Fauja Singh, 100, finished Toronto's waterfront marathon Sunday evening, securing his place in Guinness World Records as the oldest person — and the first centenarian — to ever accomplish a run of that distance," CBC News reports.

Singh, a British citizen born in India, crossed the line in just over 8 hours, 11 minutes — and, officially at least, wasn't the last finisher. Four people, who it appears were in a group accompanying Singh, were 1 to 10 seconds behind him according to the electronic chips they carried to record their times.

From Toronto, Dan Karpenchuk reports for NPR that"

rest at the link...........


Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/10/17/141414363/video-100-year-old-man-finishes-toronto-marathon

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Kick F-en Ass!!

"He only took up running twenty years ago at the age of 80." - how's that for inspiration. And a Leaf's fan!!! Fauja Singh rocks.

The record-holder "hit the wall" at 22 miles but soldiered on for another two hours and finished in 3,850th place, ahead of five other competitors.

Mr Singh, who took up running 11 years ago after his wife and son died, trains every day by running 10 miles. Born in India in 1911, Mr Singh was a farmer in the Punjab but moved to Britain in the 1960s.

He holds the world record for the over-90 category after running the 2003 Toronto marathon in five hours and 40 minutes. His latest feat earns him another spot in Guinness World Records.

On Thursday he broke another eight records for 100-year-old men by completing all eight distances ranging from 100m to 5,000m.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15330421

My last marathon took me almost 7 hours. Granted, my right ITB was strained. Still, a hundred year old just kicked my 30 year old ass.

Wow.

i'm just over half his age and can barely make it around the block.

Still, pretty darned good time for anyone over 70, let alone 100.

Unless you're under 40 and in damn good shape. You might not ever recover from it.

You shouldn't be too quick to do a marathon. You should be properly trained which often is a 15+ week training program unless you are already a high mileage runner.

As far as being under 40, that's all BS.

You're right about the "age thing".

before I started training for it.

Admittedly I barely beat the time this guy had when he was 93 but I knew I wasn't fast and couldn't really compete going it. I was lucky in that my legs, feet, lungs, heart, etc. were in reasonably good shape when I decided to do this. Beyond that it's really a matter of deciding to spend a few months and many hours preparing for it. While any kind of injury could happen, most just have a few days of soreness.

Unless you have a preexisting physical/medical problem, I think this is the kind of "impossible" accomplishment that most people can actually do - at their own speed. In some ways it's actually easier after you retire because the training runs take so long. I didn't have the time (or the inclination) when I was still working.

Here's how.

http://www.amazon.com/Non-Runners-Marathon-Trainer-David-Whitsett/dp/1570281823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318874842&sr=8-1

If they killed him they did it awfully slowly and made it look like an accident, he died at 93 when he slipped on the way into the pool for his morning workout and hit his head.

I want to print a copy of that photo of him to inspire me every morning....

Does anyone remember a very elderly woman who regularly climbed/hiked Mt. St. Helens? I had an article on her several years ago, but lost it and a fairly quick google search didn't come up with much....

These stories are just so motivating! (and boy do I need THAT!) ;)

That is truly awesome :-).

Kudos!

Great job.

♥

Amazing!

PB

:wow:

:cry:

Stop crying and start trying:bounce:

:woohoo:

!

by those "youngsters" desperate to not be finishing after this amazing fellow.

My Grandmother was like that. She cooked for herself, mowed a large lawn with a push mower and
kept house until she was 87. Whenever she cooked, she started with a fry-pan, inserted lard and fried away.
She used so much salt on her food that I thought it was inedible. She always fried her eggs in bacon grease.

She lived to be 103 years and died when she fell and broke her elbow and while in the hospital, she contracted
hepatitis-c. Although blind, she was as sharp as a tack. On her 99th birthday, she leaned over to my wife
and I, and said "everybody says they don't want to live to be 100, but I can assure you that we who are 99 do!"

She was born in 1883, died in 1986. While young she moved from Texas to New Mexico in a covered wagon. She seen her first
automobile when 26 years old. Seen her first airplane at 36 years of age. Saw Halley's comet twice. I once asked her
what her most vivid memory was. She told us that when she was young, that she contracted a gum disease and they
removed all her teeth by strapping her into a barber's chair and without anesthesia, pulled them all in one sitting. I
loved the hear about her observations and about the history that she had seen.