100-year-old marathoner finishes race

When an old man loses a spouse or a child, many around him worry that he will soon give up on life. After all, what is the day worth without the companion to whom you have devoted every day since you can remember? What's there to look forward to?


Singh found something, and he put his whole heart into it. He didn't want to simply make it to 100. He didn't settle for a piece of cake and a nap. He wanted to break a record. And he did. Singh wasn't just the first centenarian ever to run 26.2 miles. He beat five other runners. He's now in the Guinness Book of World Records.


And he did it with a sense of humor, wearing a T-shirt that read "Sikhs in the City."


This isn't his first marathon, either. He's completed 10, running a 6:41 at age 89, a 5:40 at 92, and a stunning sub-five-hours at 94. Only days before his historic feat, he accomplished something just as incredible: He set eight world age group records in one day -- running the 100 meters in 23.14, the 200 meters in 52.23, the 400 metres in 2:13.48, the 800 meters in 5:32.18, the 1500 meters in 11:27.81, the mile in 11:53.45, the 3000 meters in 24:52.47 and the 5000 meters in 49:57.39.


Event workers dismantled the barricades along the finish line and took down sponsor banners even as Singh made his way up the final few hundred yards of the race.


Family, friends and supporters greeted Singh when he finished the race.


"Beating his original prediction, he's overjoyed," his coach and translator Harmander Singh said. "Earlier, just before we came around the (final) corner, he said, 'Achieving this will be like getting married again.'


"He's absolutely overjoyed, he's achieved his lifelong wish."


Sunday's run was Singh's eighth marathon — he ran his first at age 89 — and wasn't the first time he set a record.


In the 2003 Toronto event, he set the mark in the 90-plus category, finishing the race in 5 hours, 40 minutes and 1 second.


And on Thursday in Toronto, Singh broke world records for runners older than 100 in eight different distances ranging from 100 meters to 5,000 meters.


The 5-foot-8 Singh said he's hopeful his next project will be participating in the torch relay for the 2012 London Games. He carried the torch during the relay for the 2004 Athens Games.