I now use as my annual physical exam. Who needs an annual physical if you can run a marathon? And wonderfully, it’s getting easier. No, I’m not going to die at mile 20.

My annual marathon has taken me to Marathon [Greece], Australia, London, Dublin, Beijing, and to Boston 15 times—ny wife and I are the only married couple over the age of 70 to have completed Boston—and New York three times.

The New York City Marathon occupies a special spot in my archives of marathoning. Another running colleague was Dr. Paul Spangler of San Luis Obispo, California. Paul was in my father’s medical school class at Harvard and therefore very senior to me. So with the connection with my dad, we naturally bonded. Like Doc Sheehan, Paul gave up his medical practice to preach fitness. He entered every senior running competition he could find. I claim that he has more gold medals than Nero. On one occasion, at a Stanford fitness-week celebration where he was always the star attraction, I asked him what his finishing time for the 10K road race in the morning was going to be. “Walter, I’m not sure of that,” he replied, “but whatever it is, it will be a world record.”

lL aspire to such consequence, such acclaim that not many of us could reach for.

Paul continued his aging/fitness mission well into his 90s. I steered him around several minor medical inconveniences. He ran the New York City Marathon in 1989 and again in 1991 at ages 90 and 92 (with a time of 9:23). He and I started to nourish the possibility that he might become the first centenarian ever to finish a marathon. Dimitrion Yordanidis, 98, of Athens, holds the record for being the oldest human being to finish a marathon; he finished the Athens Marathon in nine hours.

I saw Paul in Palo Alto two weeks before he died at age 95 while he was out running his seven-mile course, which he ran three times a week. Our admiring group had lost our trailblazer.

Lacing up Paul’s spirit

A pair of Paul’s shoes was being sold at a running event, and I bought them, removed the laces, threaded them into my own running shoes, and ran the 2000 New York City Marathon in his honor in 5:19. He would have been 100 if he had made it; he didn’t make it there, but his shoelaces did. I encountered many friends at that marathon, and we compared Spangler stories, still hoping to someday see the first 100-year-old marathoner.

My pulse quickened in 2008 when I read on the Internet that a 101-year-old man, Buster Martin, was going to run the London Marathon. [alerted my friends at Runner’s World to the magnitude of this event. Buster completed the marathon in 8 hours and 46 minutes. But the Guinness Book of World Records quickly sleuthed

Creed for the Ancient Marathoner

1. Honor the run. Train enough, but not too much. Don’t rely on yesterday’s experience for today’s challenge. Be true to the task. Know that you are the torchbearer for those younger. You show them not just what you can do but what they will be able to do. You show them their future.

2. Don’t be surprised. Train in the heat and in the cold. Know how to drink and eat. Know where each step is taking you.

3. Don’t take any extra weight along with you; be spare.

4. Be rested, be fresh, and arrive at the start ready for a full go. Know that each part of you is ready to go the full course.

5. Age is not an excuse. It is an advantage. Each of us has been up our personal hill more often than the younger runners. We are older, we have experienced more, we have more to give—and we understand more.

6. Don’t make excuses. Don’t rely on someone else. You are in charge. You alone can crest the rise, fight the fatigue, master the moment.

7. Although you are in charge of yourself, you are not alone. Your number increases. You run in the footsteps you have made—but also in the paths of Emil, Frank, Johnny, Grete, Clarence, George, and others. You tie your shoes with their laces. You are one with the heroes and heroines.

8. Don’t compete with your yesterday. No one can defeat you. Be the best that you can be this day. By being your best today, you will prepare for being your best tomorrow.

9. Listen to the wisdom of your body. It is older. It has been tested. It knows how. Pay respect and learn from its teachings.

10. Have fun, don’t take the run too seriously, be confident.

out that he was an imposter, a mere 94-year-old, and therefore never enshrined as the first centenarian marathoner. That honor still awaits.

Also in my personal pantheon of older long-distance standouts is Helen Klein, whose career reaches near-miracle status. Helen, now 86, ran the 2008 Kaiser Permanente Napa Valley Marathon in 5:36. When 79, she ran 4:38, at 80 she ran