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At 87, John gives the youngsters a run for their money!

12:00am | & Lifestyle

This Sunday brings the 38th London Marathon, officially the world’s biggest annual fundraising event.

More than 380,000 people applied to take part in this year’s event, which will see over 40,000 participants tackle the mostly flat 26.2-mile course around the England’s capital city. As well as elite runners competing to win and set new record times, there will be hundreds of thousands of club and charity runners.

Many will never have run a marathon before, but not this year’s oldest runner, 87-year-old John Starbrook (right), of Staines-upon-Thames. He has run 32 of the 37 London Marathons so far, beginning with the third event in 1983. On Sunday he hopes to complete his 33rd, running for charity Age UK

The fit-as-a-fiddle grandad doesn’t like to be seen as one of the ‘old boys’ by his fellow runners so often knocks at least a decade off his age: “I often bump into other elderly runners or swimmers when I go to the pool and I ask them their age and they are usually in their seventies,” said John. “I think to myself ‘I can’t say I’m as old as I am’ so I say I’m 76. I don’t like being 10 years older than everyone else!”

John, who turned 87 last September, might not like shouting about his age, but he is still proud to be the oldest runner. When he last ran the event in 2016, he was the oldest male runner, but this time he is the oldest person in the entire field: “I am chuffed,” he said. “As long as I’m not the slowest runner I’m happy to be the oldest.”

He didn’t run last year after a minor health scare and instead went into London to watch the race and cheer on some team-mates from Runnymede Runners: “That was really hard, watching all my friends run and me not being able to,” said John. “I’m not a good watcher, but that experience made me even more determined to run again and I was training the next day.”

His training involves joining his running club friends when he can – “but they are all much younger and faster than me… they all call me grandad,”. When he can’t he goes out on his own, either for a run, to the gym, or to the pool where he plays water polo on Sundays.

His wife of 57 years, 80-year-old Judy, will be watching the marathon on TV this year and keeping tabs on her husband via an online tracking service. But she’s also insisted her husband has some company for the 26.2 miles: “I’ve got a young lad, Bobby, who will be running with me because my wife panicked a bit last time,” said John. “So he’ll be there running alongside me the whole way.

“I’ve also got my water polo team coming up to watch me. They did the same in 2016 and sat in a pub along the course, drinking pints and tracking me. As soon as I was near they came out and then ran as far as they could alongside me on the other side of the barriers until they said I was going too fast and had to stop!”

John is aiming to finish inside six-and-a-half hours and says he’s confident that he’s in good shape: “I’ve done a lot more training than I have done in recent years and feel better,” he said. “I plan to walk and run my way round. I’m looking forward to it.”

The oldest woman this year is Eileen Noble, from Bexleyheath, who is 83 and running her 16th London Marathon. She says running, and marathon training in particular, has helped her not only stay physically healthy but has helped her mentally overcome some tough times.

“I don’t have any real secret to my running,” said Eileen. “It’s just about hanging in there and not giving up. Even when I’ve been ill, as soon as I can I’ve got back out running again – it’s therapeutic. 

“When my husband Tony died, it was running that kept me going. He died 16 years ago in the January and I ran the marathon that April. I didn’t have time to do much training and my friends were surprised I did it, but I thought ‘I must do it’. I remember running four hours and 59 minutes that year and being really pleased to scrape in under five hours.”

Even though this will be Eileen’s 16th London Marathon, the excitement of the event has never dimmed for her: “I really start to feel the excitement when I go to collect my number, then the day itself is just so exciting.

“I’ve got my daughter coming down to watch and my son will be following me on the live tracking from his home in Australia. I’m looking forward to it. I feel OK and though my training has been disrupted a bit by the weather, I’m feeling fairly positive.”

● If you want to watch the marathon and can’t get to London to cheers on the runners in person, TV coverage of the event starts at 8-30am on Sunday on BBC One.

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