Bill Schwarz is 90 years old. On May 31, he ran his first marathon.
Schwarz crossed every step of the 26.2-mile Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego course on Sunday, finishing in a little over nine hours, according to a spokesperson for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Running Series who spoke with Runner’s World. He did not beat the official cutoff window, but he covered the full distance, which was all he had ever wanted from the day.
“My objective is to finish. And whatever time it takes, it’s going to be wonderful.”
Bill Schwarz, speaking to Outside Run before the race
The Mesa, Arizona resident is a retired engineer who once worked on rocket parts for the Apollo space program before careers at Boeing and IBM, as he detailed in his Outside Run interview. He takes no medication. He has never had a joint replaced. The race organizers, in a statement provided to Runner’s World, used his story to anchor their post-event message, calling his finish “an incredible accomplishment that speaks to his resilience, dedication, and lifelong commitment to staying active.”
A return to the sport, decades later
Schwarz first laced up in the 1950s as a high school student looking for a way to satisfy a sports credit so he could spend other semesters in study hall practicing instruments, he told Outside Run. He never raced competitively in those years. He just ran. For runners who feel age is closing the door on the sport, his story sits alongside guides like How To Start Running At 50, which makes the case that a late return is not a late start.
“Living where I did, there was no shortage of long, winding roads, and I would just go out and run,” he said in that same interview.
Running stayed with him through the decades, surfacing whenever he needed to clear his head. He described it to Outside Run as something closer to a quiet ritual than a workout. “For me, running is meditation,” he said. “I don’t listen to music or audiobooks. I just think.”
The sport took on new weight two and a half years ago, when his first wife, Janice, died following gallbladder surgery, Outside Run reported. Schwarz signed up for a 5K to give himself somewhere to go. Half marathons followed. Then the idea of a full one started taking shape, an arc that mirrors the progression mapped out in our complete first-timer’s guide to marathon training.
“It started as a way to deal with my wife’s death and wound up changing my life,” he told the outlet.
How he trained for 26.2
The marathon plan moved from idea to commitment after a 60-mile hike along the Camino de Santiago in Spain and Portugal last year, per Outside Run. Schwarz was 89 when he covered that distance in six days, and he returned home thinking his body could handle more.
Outside Run reported that Schwarz finished five half marathons over the past year and tackled the Grand Canyon’s Rim to Rim to Rim hike with his son. He lost about 40 pounds by cutting sugar, processed carbs, and fried foods. He hired a roster of specialists that included a strength trainer, a running coach, a stretching coach, and a Pilates instructor, training roughly 10 hours each week. The volume and structure he settled on track closely with the adjustments laid out in our guide to masters marathon training after 50.
Christine Hopkins, a stretch trainer at EōS Fitness in Mesa who has worked with Schwarz since September, told Outside Run the gains have been steady. “His flexibility and muscle is so much better. Plus, he has such a strong will and mind, it’s so impressive,” she said.
Tammy Ceroni, the friend who joined him on the Camino hike and later became his wife of four months, has been the constant in his support network, the same Outside Run interview noted. “Tammy is my number one supporter,” Schwarz said. “She’s also a nutritionist and keeps me healthy.” Ceroni described his condition simply. “He’s in better shape than most 70-year-olds,” she said.
One of his coaches was, perhaps unexpectedly, a chatbot. Schwarz told Outside Run he fed data from his Polar watch into ChatGPT and asked it to help plan his fueling. He landed on 16 ounces of fluid every hour, a Nuun tablet for electrolytes, and a gel every hour, a setup that lines up with the carbohydrate targets covered in our guide to energy gels for a marathon. On race day, he ran by heart rate in Zone 2, with a friend of his daughter at his side as pacer and companion.
He’s Not Stopping Here
Schwarz isn’t done. He told Outside Run he still has his sights set on Boston, though the qualifying standard for the 80-and-over division is a steep 4 hours and 50 seconds, and the oldest runner ever to officially finish the Boston Marathon was 84, according to the outlet. The full picture of what it takes to get in is broken down in our guide to Boston Marathon qualifying times. Even if Boston stays out of reach, he plans to keep stacking medals at the half marathon distance, where he has been more competitive.
“Oh, I hope there will be another marathon, and definitely more half marathons, in my future,” he said in the same interview. “Overall, I want to stay healthy and stay in shape, because otherwise your body goes down the tubes. So I’ll be doing this for the rest of my life.”
