Fauja Singh has (again) broken the record for the oldest person to finish a marathon. The BBC reports that the 101-year-old Londoner (and proponent of ginger curry) posted a time of 7 hours and 49 minutes. That’s about a half-hour faster than his time at the 2011 Toronto Marathon, where he set the previous record for oldest marathoner.
It’s difficult to imagine that anything would add to the interest or appeal of such an accomplishment, but two bits of further information are worthy of mention:
First, Singh has announced that this will be his last race. He wants to concentrate on shorter distances and faster times.
Second, the Guinness Book of Records won’t recognize the feat, because all the age-related records need to be validated with a birth certificate. Singh doesn’t have one because he was born into a time (1911) and place (the Punjab) where such documents were deemed to be superfluous by the colonial overlords who made such decisions (the British). His trainer—yes, he has a trainer—notes that 40 per cent of children born in 2008 didn’t have a birth certificate, so asking a guy who is did-we-mention-101 to produce such a document is problematic. And preposterous. (Singh does have a British-issued passport, at which the GBR scoffs.)
For his part, Singh is a honey badger. He is (a) a demonstrable badass and (b) indifferent to any Guinness-related notoriety: “I did not even know what the Guinness Book of Records was until someone told me. It doesn’t matter to me as I just enjoy the running and everyone I know has been so pleased or inspired by it, and that is all that matters. I can’t read, anyway.”
You can find plenty of Youtube clips showing Singh in action and being interviewed (not in English, alas). We like this one, showing his pre-run warm-up. This is what limbering up looks like on a super-fit 101-year-old:
Photo of Singh (at age 100) and admirer at Luxembourg race in 2011, via Youtube.
