Fastest running nonagenarian: 95-Year-Old Ida Keeling sets world record (Video)
New YORK, NY, USA -- 95 year old Ida Keeling from the Bronx, New York,
coming in at 83 pounds and standing 4 feet, 6 inches tall, ran 60 meters in 29.86 seconds at a track meet in northern Manhattan , setting the world record for the Fastest running nonagenarian.
Photo: Ida Keeling ran 60 meters in 29.86 seconds at a track meet, becoming the World's Fastest Running Nonagenarian. Photo: ABC (enlarge photo)
The Guinness world record for the Oldest person to complete a marathon (female) was set by Jenny Wood-Allen (b. 1911) from Dundee, completed the 2002 London Marathon aged 90 years 145 days in 11 hr 34 min.
Guinness World Records also recognized the oldest female racing driver: Jeannie Reiman, who competed in the Canadian Vintage Modified's 10 lap Powder Puff race at Sunset Speedway in Stroud, Ontario, Canada, aged 90 years 106 days.
At 4-foot-6 and 83 lbs Keeling says she has always been the oldest person at her meets.
The 95-year-old, who takes only one prescription drug and recalls names and dates with the speed of someone half her age, said she feels years younger than her true age.
"Like a puppy," Keeling declared. "I feel younger now than when I was in my 30s and 40s!"
Over her long life, Keeling has endured the kind of heartbreak and hardship that could grind anyone down, according to ABC.
Her mother passed away when she was a child, and her husband died suddenly of a heart attack when he was just 42. She lost two sons, Charles and Donald, to drug-related killings in 1979 and 1981.
Her daughter, Shelley Keeling, who is a lawyer and real estate investor and coaches track and field at a nearby high school, convinced her to go on a "mini-run" when her mother was 67. Two years later, Ida Keeling ran a 5K race, and she's been running ever since.
Since then, Keeling has set record after record, becoming one of the world's oldest sprinting legends. According to ABC, she set the record for the world's fastest sprint in the 90-and-over age category last year.
"It felt good, and I felt uplifted. I said, 'Well, gee, this is for me,"' Kelling said.
When asked about the secrets to her good health, Keeling said she eats a light breakfast for dinner and a dinner -- say hamburger, or liver, or fish -- for breakfast.
Keeling said she is not sure how much longer she will run, although she said she hopes to "make it to 108," which would give her four more years than her father's mother, who lived until the age of 104.