94 year old marathon runner

A great story from today’s Bangkok Post!

GRANDPA’S OFF TO RUN A MARATHON
There’s no stopping this 94-year-old

Most 94-year-olds walk very slowly, some with the aid of a walking stick.  Some strong and healthy 94-year-old people manage to jog slowly for a few minutes a day.
But that is not the case with Peng Perngsa. The sprightly 94-year-old Mr Peng is looking forward to today’s Chom Bung Marathon, an event organised by the Chom Bung Rajabhat University. He will take part in the mini-marathon, which means running 10 kilometres. At his age, there is no doubt that he is the oldest runner in Thailand and probably one of the oldest runners in the world.
Today’s mini-marathon is not his first. In fact, he never misses the annual event in Chom Bung district, which started 22 years ago. He has become a symbol of the Chom Bung Marathon, one of the major running events in Thailand.
There are four Grand Slam marathons in Thailand - the Bangkok Marathon, Khon Kaen Marathon, Pattaya Marathon and Chom Bung Marathon.
“Grandfather” Peng, as he is known, started running about 24 years ago when he retired from rice farming at 70 years old. During the past 24 years he has won many prizes, despite being a late starter in the sport.
With a lean and wind-whipped build like a cheetah, Grandfather Peng even runs with the rolling, steady gait of a man half his age.
He said that when he was forced to retire from farming by his children, he was still physically active so he wanted to find something to do.
He recalled seeing a group of young people running past his house in Ratchaburi. The group inspired him and he was confident he was still strong enough to run. He said he felt it was a challenge and wondered whether he could start running at 70.
After making the decision to take up running, Grandfather Peng stepped into his first pair of running shoes, which belonged to his grandson, left his home and started his first long run.
“When my daughter saw me running, she shouted at me, asking where I got the shoes. When I told her, she said I should not run in other people’s shoes. Then she went and bought a new pair for me,” he said.
Since that first outing he gradually became more serious about running. He started studying how to run better and faster.
Over the years he kept learning how to fine-tune his training programme. One day he learned that Chom Bung Rajabhat University was organising a marathon, and it interested him.
By that time, he had been running for more than one year and was very interested in taking part in the marathon.
“Why not?” he asked himself.
On race day, when the first of the now famous Chom Bung Marathons was held, he was ready. “I got up early, put on my shoes and went to join the field of runners,” he recalled.
It was his first competition, and he did not hesitate to join in the full marathon run, covering a distance of 42.195 kilometres.
At the time he was 72.
Now he has completed in a total of four full marathons and cannot remember how many half-marathons (21.1 kilometres) and mini-marathons (10 kilometres) he has run, or how many trophies and medals he has won.
His best time for the full marathon was four hours, 20 minutes. Only a few amateur runners, even the younger ones, can finish marathons in less than four and a half hours.
Over the years his relentless enthusiasm for running marathons has coaxed his family members into supporting him as he enters marathons across the country.
Grandfather Peng was born in Photharam district in Ratchaburi and later moved to neighbouring Chom Bung. He and his wife, “Grandmother” Chak, 82, have one son and four daughters. All work as teachers after graduating from universities.
Being a farmer has helped keep him healthy, he said, but running made him fit and his serious training for marathons has made his children think more about his nutrition and calorie intake.
“I eat Thai traditional food which contain not too many fats, and I don’t smoke and drink alcohol, or even coffee,” Grandfather Peng said, adding that his children are also pretty careful about what he eats.
But his brown eyes twinkle when he admits he sometimes eats fatty foods. On race day mornings, when his children are not around to take care of him, he secretly eats fatty foods, such as khao kha moo - steamed rice with pork fat legs - before the race.
It’s hard to eat anything when you have to run as far as 10 kilometres, Grandfather Peng says, but the energy acquired from food is what helps him get to the finish line.
The beautiful views along the marathon routes is another key to his success, he said. “I enjoy looking at the view and before you know it, it’s over.”
“Dad used to go out farming and deal with traders of agricultural products and he had to walk through the fields, up and down farmland all day all of the time, and that gave him huge amounts of exercise, helping him stay healthy this long,” said Kanyarat Perngsa, 47, his daughter.
“Now he’s addicted to running, and can’t stop.”
However, now he only takes on mini-marathons. When he was in his 80s, he competed in almost every running event around the country, and completed four full marathons, she said.
As he gets older, he is getting slower. At his age, it is too risky for him to participate in a full, or even a half-marathon.
Although he feels he is too old to run full or half-marathons, he has no plans to retire just yet.
Story and photo by SOMBAT RAKSAKUL