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UjENA FIT Club Running Interviews and articles with 100 Interesting People

Best Road Races and the UjENA FIT Club is speaking with 100 people who we feel have a lot to say about running, racing and fitness  We will give you background information as will as their insights into the future.  Be sure to post your feedback and comments.

Read All UjENA FIT Club Running Interviews

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The sport of Double Racing is about ready to Take Off!
Posted Thursday, February 19th, 2015
by Bob Anderson, publisher of Double Runner magazine (Photo Bob Anderson with world record holder Julius Koskei wearing the yellow... Read Interview
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2013 Ujena Fit Club Male Runner of the Year
Posted Monday, March 17th, 2014
The Chris Jones story is a running saga of epic proportions.  Don't try this at home! (Photo - Leadville 100... Read Interview
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Sharon Vos: Three in a Row
Posted Sunday, March 23rd, 2014
Aging ever so gracefully at age 59 and forging a career record that becomes ever more impressive, Sharon Vos is... Read Interview
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Julius Koskei: All In the Family
Posted Tuesday, November 5th, 2013
 By David Prokop Editor Best Road RacesJulius Koskei (pronounced Kos-kay), who set the current world record in the Double Road... Read Interview

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101-year-old Fauja Singh finishes last Race
Monday, February 25th, 2013
"Running is my life. I will keep running to inspire the masses" he says.
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The world's oldest marathon runner ran his last race on Sunday Feb 24, 2013 at the age of 101.

Fauja Singh, who lives in Ilford, East London,  finished the Hong Kong 10-kilometer (6.25-mile) race in 1 hour, 32 minutes, 28 seconds.

Singh, a Sikh with a saffron turban and a flowing white beard, followed the route along the northern lip of Hong Kong island.

He was accompanied by a group from the city's local Sikh community, joining about 72,000 other runners taking part in the marathon.

The Indian-born runner, nicknamed the Turbaned Torpedo, had said that he would hang up his sneakers after the race in the southern Chinese city, just before his 102nd birthday.

"I will remember this day. I will miss it," Singh said minutes after crossing the finish line.

Singh, a great-grandfather, became the oldest man to run a full marathon at Toronto in 2011, at the age of 100. His accomplishment was not recognized by Guinness World Records because he doesn't have a birth certificate to prove his age. Singh has a British passport that shows his date of birth as April 1, 1911, while a letter from Indian government officials states that birth records were not kept in 1911.

Comments and Feedback
run This is an amazing story...
Bob Anderson 2/25/13 9:47 am
run What a feat! I also had a friend Larry Lewis who ran 6 miles a day for years up until he died at the ripe ole age of 106. Now he was awesome.
Mary Etta Boitano Blanchard 2/25/13 1:55 pm
run I remember Larry...I agree, he was awesome!!!
Bob Anderson 2/25/13 2:07 pm
run I saw Larry running in Golden Gate park once back in the 1970's. He was moving along.
Richard Stiller 2/25/13 8:44 pm
,,,,,

"I am feeling a bit of happiness and a bit of sadness mixed together. I am happy that I am retiring at the top of the game but I am sad that the time has come for me to not be part of it," Singh said in a prerace interview. "And there will always be times in the future where I will be thinking, 'Well, I used to do that (running),' " the Punjabi-speaking Singh said through his coach and interpreter, Harmander Singh.

Singh took up running at the age of 89 as a way to get over depression after his wife and son died in quick succession in India. The death in 1994 of his son took a particularly hard toll on Singh because of its grisly nature. Singh and his son, Kuldip, both farmers, were checking on their fields in the middle of a storm when a piece of corrugated metal blown by the wind decapitated Kuldip in front of his father's eyes.

Singh, whose five other children had emigrated, was left all alone. "He didn't think his life was worth living without his son" following the traumatic incident, coach Harmander Singh said. He went to live with his youngest son in London. That's where the sports enthusiast Singh attended tournaments organized by the Sikh community and he took part in sprints. He met some Sikh marathon runners who encouraged him to take up long-distance running. One day he saw a marathon on television for the first time and decided that's what he wanted to do, too.

In 2000, he ran the London marathon, his first, and went on to do eight more. His best time was 5:40 at the 2003 Toronto marathon.

"From a tragedy has come a lot of success and happiness," Singh said before the race as he explained how running has changed his life, allowing an illiterate farmer to travel the world, meet dignitaries and stay in five-star hotels.

Following his retirement from racing, he said he hoped "people will remember me and not forget me." He also wanted people to continue to invite him to events "rather than forget me altogether just because I don't run anymore."

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