100 Year-Old Runner

Completes Marathon

Healingtalks’ Complete Coverage of the Story

Nathan Batalion, Global Health Activist, Healtingtalks Editor

(Healingtalks) Fauja Singh, a 100-year-old runner who lives in Britain earned a spot in the Guiness World Book of Records at the Toronto Marathon. Running along Toronto’s picturesque waterfront, Fauja Singh became the first man on the planet to finish a 42K, 26.2 mile run at age 100. Family, friends and supporters greeted Singh when he finished the race.

Video of Fauja Singh coming across the finish line:

Putting Fauja to the Test at 100

People might doubt Fauja age, but he travels with a passport and with the telegram from The Queen which marked his 100th birthday. “He doesn’t think of himself as old and dresses to the ‘T’ in Boss and Armani,” said trainer Harmander Singh

People ask him why he still runs, and he answers that he’d heard in San Francisco woman wanted to have a baby at 75, “and if a woman can have a baby at 75, then a man can have a dream to run a marathon at 100.” He cited the legend of the persistence and devotion of Sikh martyr Baba Deep Singh, whose head was almost severed in a battle, yet still found the strength to put the head on his shoulders and scare off attackers before reaching his goal and finally succumbing. “That is the heritage that we are made of,” Fauja said.

Fauja had blood tests and a bone density test when runner was 99. Doctors, kept blind to the identity of their subjects, felt they were dealing with a 40-year-old in the blood tests. On bone density, Singh’s left leg was found to be comparable to that of a 35-year-old; his right leg had that of a 25-year-old.

More than six hours into the race, however, and at a distance of about 35K  or 22 miles it appeared as if Singh would be forced to stop. But he continued on, eventually finishing at a time of about eight hours and 25 minutes, more than six hours after Kenya’s Kenneth Mungara won the event. He finished in 3,850th place, ahead of five other competitors.

Singh who only speaks Punjabi stated in his native tongue, “Beating his original prediction, he’s absolutely overjoyed…having achieved his lifelong wish,” according to Harmander Singh.

Earlier, just before we came around the (final) corner, Singh said, ‘Achieving this will be like getting married again.’ ”

Fauja Singh’s Life Story

Singh is a pensioner in England who was a farmer in Punjab, India. He took up running in 10- when he moved to the UK and after his son and wife died. Originally he wanted to overcome depression after his tragic loss. He began to competitively run in 1989. Currently Singh practices by running 16k daily or about 10 miles a day. The centenarian was born on a farm in India in on April 1, 1911. The run marked the eighth marathon for Singh and he stands five foot eight inches tall and weighed in about 115 pounds at the marathon.

Fauja’s Demolishing of Running Records

The week before Singh demolished the records for 100-year-old men in eight sprinting distances at Scarborough’s Birchmount Stadium track.[i] This included running distances as short as 100 meters and as long as 5,000 meters.  He already owns a world record for fastest marathon run in the 90-year-old plus category after finishing in five hours, 40 minutes and one second in 2003 at the age of 92, also at the Toronto Marathon. He also set a record for runners over 90 in the half-marathon in 2004 (2 hours 29 minutes 59 seconds).

Another Marathon Planned

Earlier in September, Singh also signed up for the 2012 Edinburgh marathon and as part of a four man relay team with an average age of 86. The 5-foot-8 Singh said he hopes to participate in the torch relay for the 2012 London Olympics. He carried the torch during the relay for the 2004 Athens Games.

Fauja Singh’s Secrets

Among his “secrets” for staying fit, Fauja Singh is a vegetarian who eats ginger curry and toast daily and drinks ample cups of tea to prepare for his daily training runs.

“I am not a learned person in any shape or form. To me, the secret is being happy, doing charity work, staying healthy and being positive.   ”Be grateful for everything you have, stay away from people who are negative, stay smiling and keep running.”

Alan Brookes, race director for the Toronto marathon, said Fauja Singh is an inspiration to all athletes, young and old.

Through his running, Fauja Singh aims to raise money for local charities including, the Guru Gobind Singh Children’s Foundation, which has a mandate to help children meet basic needs.

Fauja added, ”I won’t stop running until I die.” Focused on finishing and not setting records, Fauja also stated that “getting records is God’s will. Part of it is I have no expectations, only a wish to do it and God made it possible.”

Turbaned Tornado

Fauja (whose name means “soldier”) has an authorized biography entitled The Turbaned Tornado, an apt nickname.

“He’s a remarkable human being,” added Brookes the race director, to the accolades.

“He’s having a great impact around the world on our sport but also much broader than that … to show what you can do with dedication, determination and a good dose of courage.”

Keywords: oldest marathon runner, oldest runner, 100 year old runner, 100 year old marathon runner, Fauja Singh sets world record,

Related Articles:

• World’s Oldest Marathon Runner Is a Simple Vegetarian
• At Age 100 Running a Marathon
• 4 Steps to a Perfect Running Pace
• Forget the Treadmill Get a Dog!
• Supreme Heart Health

Forget the Treadmill

Get a Dog

Since we here at Healingtalks.com very passionately and creatively advocate a “life-centered vision of nature” (in the spiritual tradition of so many tribal cultures that preceded our Industrial Age and preserved the Earth), there now is a great charm to our having a nimble, four-legged, heart-bonding, running, walking dog companions….rather than dead-weight metallic treadmills and to keep us otherwise so spiritlessly moving.

For emotional health, running/walking with your dog can potentially get those heart-strings moving as well…. along with legs and arms.

Nathan Batalion CTN

Exercise Mistake

That’s Proven to

Damage Your Heart

From the NYT with comments by Dr. Mercola

Disturbing Heart Health Finding Among Older Athletes

Not long ago, researchers studied the heart health of a group of very fit older athletes — men who had been part of a national or Olympic team in distance running or rowing, and runners who had completed at least a hundred marathons. The results were unsettling — half of these lifelong athletes showed evidence of heart muscle scarring.

The affected men were invariably the ones who had gone through the longest, hardest training. And now a new study, this time in laboratory rats, provides solid evidence of a direct link between certain kinds of prolonged exercise and heart damage — scarring and structural changes, similar to those seen in the human endurance athletes.

Summary Conclusion of Heart Health Study

The research effectively shows that years of strenuous cardiovascular exercise can damage your heart.

According to the New York Times:

“Unfortunately, it remains impossible, at the moment, to predict just what that threshold is for any given person, and which athletes might be most vulnerable to heart problems as a result of excessive exercise”.
Sources:

New York Times March 9, 2011

The Journal of Applied Physiology February 17, 2011 [Epub Ahead of Print]
Circulation 2011;123:13-22

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
COMMENTS: by Dr. Mercola

Before I discuss this study I believe it is important to review my personal history with exercise so you can understand where I am coming from.

I started running in 1968 and ran for over 40 years before I stopped. During medical school I was a member of the University of Chicago Track Club and ran a 2:50 marathon. I was competitive on a local level and won a few races, so I have some experience with intense aerobic training.

I am excited about these studies as they really are groundbreaking for their scientific documentation of what many of us have been warning you about for some time now on exercise. The vast majority of those who exercise are choosing to do some form or aerobic or cardio activity. This research now supports the notion that this choice [in some circumstances involving a large amount]is  not your best one over the long run.

By focusing on extreme examples we can tease out some of the truth when it comes to exercise. These studies help explain why well-trained professional athletes can suddenly die from heart failure.

Example of Albrto Salazr

One of the best American marathon runners ever, Alberto Salazer, nearly died from a heart attack at the age of 49.

I remember when Alberto won the New York City Marathon in 1981 and apparently broke the world record at the time with a 2:08:13.  Unfortunately the course was later found to be short by 147 yards and the record was taken away. However he was still one of the fastest distance runners in the world and you simply don’t get much more aerobically fit than he was.

This is a powerful lesson to anyone who engages in large amounts of cardio exercise, because as it turns out, conventional cardio may actually be counterproductive… So, although most people who read this are not exercising nearly enough, it’s still important to understand that it is indeed possible to over-exercise—especially if your primary focus is on traditional cardio.

Research emerging over the past several years has now given us a whole new understanding of what your body requires in terms of exercise, and many of our past notions have been turned upside-down.

Extreme Life-long Cardio Exercise May Damage Your Heart

In the first study mentioned above, published in the Journal of Applied Physiology in February, researchers recruited a group of extremely fit older men. All of them were members of the 100 Marathon club, meaning athletes who had completed a minimum of 100 marathons. Their ages ranged from 26 to 67, and all of them had trained vigorously throughout adulthood.

The control group consisted of 20 healthy men over 50, but none of them were endurance athletes.

The New York Times reported that:

“The different groups underwent a new type of magnetic resonance imaging of their hearts that identifies very early signs of fibrosis or scarring, within the heart muscle. Fibrosis, if it becomes severe, can lead to stiffening or thickening of portions of the heart, which can contribute to irregular heart function and, eventually, heart failure.

The results, published online… in The Journal of Applied Physiology, were rather disquieting.

None of the younger athletes or the older non-athletes had fibrosis in their hearts. But half of the older lifelong athletes showed some heart muscle scarring. The affected men were, in each case, those who’d trained the longest and hardest. Spending more years exercising strenuously or completing more marathon or ultramarathon races was, in this study, associated with a greater likelihood of heart damage.”

Link Between Elite Cardio Training and Heart Scarring

Still, there were questions about whether the extreme training itself had caused the heart damage. Additional answers were found in another study, this one done on rats, which, according to the New York Times “provides the first solid evidence of a direct link between certain kinds of prolonged exercise and subtle heart damage.”

Recently published in the journal Circulation, the study was designed to mimic the strenuous daily exercise load of serious marathoners over the course of 10 years. All the rats had normal, healthy hearts at the outset of the study.

At the end, most of them had developed “diffuse scarring and some structural changes, similar to the changes seen in the human endurance athletes.”

The point is, too much of something that is normally good for you can have the reverse effect. This is a profound concept; so much so that one researcher even wrote a book about it, called The Reverse Effect. It is a fascinating book that is absolutely counterintuitive, yet makes more sense today in light of more recent discoveries within the field.

So, what does all of this mean for you?

Again, unless you’re engaged in high-level or elite endurance training, this information may be of little value—you certainly shouldn’t use it to further avoid exercising at all! Exercise is absolutely necessary for high-level wellness, but reducing your risk of heart disease is usually not the main reason you exercise.

Reasons To Exercise

• Exercise makes you feel better, gives you a high
  
• Exerise helps keep your weight at an optimal level
• Exercise is one of the best treatments for insomnia
• Exercise reduces insulin resistance
• Exercise is a  wonderful aid in the treatment of depressionSo the reasons to exercise are many. If you start slow, and most importantly, listen to your body, you shouldn’t run into the problem of exerting yourself excessively. If you’re a serious athlete, however, you may want to revisit and reconsider how you train.

4 Steps to

Your Perfect Pace

By Jeff Galloway
Originally published in Runner’s World

When you run within your limits, every workout can be a pleasure. But start even a few seconds per mile too fast, and misery awaits: excess fatigue, loss of motivation, or even injury. That’s why it’s so important to know what pace is right for you. Happily, by doing a simple “magic mile” time trial, you can find the best speed for your runs, then set realistic goals and keep running—enjoyably—forever.

Run One Mile Hard

Go to a track and jog an easy lap or two for a warmup. Walk for three to four minutes. Then time yourself running four laps, which is about one mile. Don’t run all out; just push a little faster than you usually do. Record your time. By running on a track—which is flat and provides the most accurate measurement of distance—you’ll get a solid indication of your top speed. You can use it as a benchmark to determine what pace is appropriate for your current fitness level on daily runs. Do the time trial every two weeks or so; try to beat your previous time, and track your progress.

Slow Down Every Day

On your daily runs, aim to run two to three minutes slower per mile than your magic mile time. So if you do your magic mile in 10 minutes, aim to keep your pace around 12 to 13 minutes per mile on daily runs. At the perfect pace, you should feel comfortable and relaxed—like you can finish a sentence without having to catch your breath. If you’re huffing and puffing, ease off. Don’t worry about going too slow.

Set Race Goals

Signed up for a race? Use the magic mile to set realistic goals for different distances. Add 33 seconds to your mile time to determine a pace for a 5K. Multiply your mile time by 1.15 for a 10K, 1.2 for a half-marathon, and 1.3 to predict your marathon potential.

Get Used To It

At a race, you’ll get the best results if you try to maintain a steady pace from start to finish. Here’s how to practice: Once a week, try to run your goal race pace for a half to three-quarters of a mile. Each quarter mile, check your pace and adjust if you need to. Each week, run a little farther at your goal pace until you’re running one-third to one-half of the race distance.

Time Trial

If you can run one mile in 10 minutes, here’s your pace for other distances.

Distance: 5K
Pace per mile: 10:33

Distance: 10K
Pace per mile: 11:30

Distance: Half-Marathon
Pace per mile: 12:00

Distance: Marathon
Pace per mile: 13:00 

Comment

Great advice on how to set a race pace, a goal to work for in your training.

Cardiovascular exercise is important because it improves circulation and thus works to help all other aspects of natural healing – assisting nutrition, speeding detoxification, and giving you some feel good moments for inner support.

Nathan Batalion CTN