When you’re, say, 50, it’s easy to feel like you’re dull. Uninteresting. You can feel invisible. So when you find something that puts you in high relief, that gives you an identity—especially if you excel at it and it demonstrates what a complete badass you are—you’re going to hold on to it.
No. More than that. You’re going to put it in a headlock. Especially if you are twice 50.
So let us not judge Fauja Singh, who in 2011 became the first centenarian to complete a marathon. Then, in 2012, he broke his own record by finishing the London Marathon at age 101. (He also finished a half-hour earlier than the year before.)
After that race, Singh showed how a boss doesn’t worry about the Guinness Book of Records, which refused to recognize his triumph because he couldn’t produce a birth certificate: “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.”
He also announced his retirement from running marathons. Which sounded prudent, because he was 101 and a marathon is 26.2 miles.
But now he’s making a comeback. Or, to be precise, he has announced another retirement, after he runs just one more marathon. Singh will compete in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon at the end of February, when he’ll be just five weeks short of his 102nd birthday. Then he’ll stop with the marathons. He won’t stop running, though. He’s already set to run shorter courses in Mumbai, Mauritius, Toronto and Singapore.
We’re right down the middle on this one. We would hate to see him push himself too much. Let’s review: he’s almost 102. But “don’t push yourself” is exactly what you hate to hear from your children and grandchildren when you decide to buy new skis or a mountain bike. And we have to admit, it is thrilling when a guy can perform like this at his age. Thrilling in that NASCAR way, where it gets your blood pumping and makes you cringe at the risk.
Inspiring and terrifying. Fauja Singh: Don’t want to look, can’t turn away.
Photo of Singh (at age 100) and admirer at Luxembourg race in 2011, via Youtube.
