Fauja Singh, world's oldest marathon runner, completes final race at 101 | Hacker News Reader

Fauja Singh, world's oldest marathon runner, completes final race at 101

extramustard.si.com

60 pointsLightning18 comments

A major factor for his health is, that he follows the traditional punjabi practices regarding life.

There is a saying in Punjab "Eat and Dress Well, Leave Rest to the God"

Been to punjab myself, and after spending 12 years in a sikh dominated school, I know why they say, "You cannot simply return from Punjab hungry"

6:00 am morning, A traditional Walk in the feilds, Fresh Air (morning air also has higher Oxygen content), 7:30 am Breakfast, starting with a approx 600 ml glass of Lassi (Curd + Milk mainly), and spending 3-6 hours out in open each day, and a sleeping at night at 10 pm sharp, in Open Air. People would swear by organic things in Punjab.

Geez I miss those days. Punjab is a really great place to be.

From what I've heard, Fauja Singh eats very little. Source: my mom, who happened to meet him when he was attending a wedding in Punjab. She asked him what he ate. According to her, it's a couple of pinnis for breakfast (a pinni is a wheat-based local sweet) and palak di subzi (spinach leaves, curried) for lunch.

Also, I hate to contradict you but Punjab these days is up to the neck in alcoholism and drug-abuse. There was a discussion in here the other day about Russian road rage; it's about the same situation in Punjab in my experience, and I've spent most of my life there.

About Palak di subzi, yes, its a favourite dish in Punjab, but not as much as the now iconic, Chole Bhature & local favourite, Sarso da Saag(Spinach Dish)+Makke di Roti(Bread).

Well, its not like a state of apathy in Punjab. A lot of the original Punjab is the small villages, not much connected to the public view. Alcoholism & Drugs is a problem faced by many countries, compared to that Punjab is no different.

A social change is coming in India, you know how they say language is culture. At this moment, Different Local languages are driving the way of adoption of western habits in an Indian way. In Delhi, a mix of English-Hindi-Urdu has become the norm, though many see English as a status standard, educated people know that it is not a big deal, and they are leading the way of the transition of Bharat(India in Hindi) to India, the later being not just English.

That's great, but a marathon by definition is 26.2 miles. He ran 10K (about 6 miles).

All my relatives died before then. Give the man a break ;-)

He is a marathon runner while his last race wasnt a marathon, but the facts are still correct.

The title is correct, and he finished his last marathon at age 100.

This guy "starred" in Horizon's "Eat, Fast and Live Longer". His secret, good genes aside, is to eat fresh and not much.

I liked the T-shirts he and his pals were wearing emblazoned with "Sikhs in the City" -- the worst puns are the best.

I hope I can do 15 minute miles at 80, let alone 101.

Doesn't sound very fast but walking is 2mph so he is twice as fast.

That's an interesting piece of news. I could not understand why Guiness World Records aren't able to verify the age of this supposedly decagenarian?

Do they really rely only on a piece of paper to confirm age? I believe not. It shouldn't be hard to estimate the age of anyone accurately given the available options and technology? And isn't it true that in some parts of the world even today birth certificates are not in widespread use?

I don't understand what you mean. How would you verify the age of a person outside of official documents?

I imagine you could do a rough verification via medical means. From what I understand there isn't a perfect method to determine the age of a person other than looking at the wear on teeth and bones, but that might be enough to expose a fraud.

Like continue to use the denial card for publicity? I thought so.

We have well documented progressions in physiology for age estimates of younger people[1]. Though these are quite inaccurate, as recent cases of Indonesian child sailors jailed in Australia as adults have shown. I would think the uncertainty would only grow with age as different lifestyles wear bodies in drastically different ways.

[1] bones and teeth change throughout childhood and into early adulthood as a normal part of growth.

Hmm a quick search showed that one cannot easily determine age using genetics [1]. Although the article is from 2004 it would be really interesting to know what the options are in 2013.

Answers 24andme?

[1] http://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask8

Obviously the solution is to cut off an appendage and count the growth rings.

Give him 2 years, he will get bored and will do another run, I know these "never again" old geezers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com