100 Years Old Record Breaker Marathoner

The new darling of the marathon scene is an Indian man named Fauja Singh, who can run 42 km in eight and a half hours. With that time he finished 3,850th in the recent Toronto marathon, which would be rather unremarkable -- if it weren't for the fact Singh is a century old.

"He says he’s delighted with his achievement and all his fans,” says Harmander Singh, speaking for Fauja Singh, who has yet to utter a word. Now, however, the aged runner opens his eyes. The scrawny Kenyans who won the Frankfurt Marathon point at him, whispering and giggling. His build is similar to theirs: short, slight, with thighs thinner than a well-fed person’s upper arm. However, because Fauja Singh is old, his muscles are weak, and he needs six hours longer than they do to cover the 42 kilometer (26 mile) stretch.

His best time so far is 5 hours, 40 minutes – he achieved that aged 92. If he won’t make it into the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest marathon runner, it’s because he can’t produce a birth certificate. "He has a passport with his age in it, and a 100th birthday letter of congratulations from the Queen, but no birth certificate since they didn’t have those in India back in 1911.”