Pass the wine – I’m ready to run

New York – She runs three hours a day, 365 days a year – but don’t get her started on diets or supplements.

For 85-year-old Ginette Bedard, staying on her feet has been an essential part of her long life, and it has kept the loneliness of her later years at bay.

When she ran her 16th New York City Marathon yesterday, Bedard, who was born in France, was the oldest woman in the field – and perhaps one of the few to admit she doesn’t mind indulging in a little wine, cheese and ice cream even in the runup to race day.

“I don’t need any special preparation, because I run every day for three hours, and I’m always ready,” says the slightly built woman with a big blonde hairdo, firing off her words like a machine gun as she sits in her office, filled with her medals.

“It’s an addiction, a habit, and that’s all,” she adds. “I have plenty of time, I’m retired, my husband is no longer around. What do I do? I run, it passes the time.”

She is not alone as an older runner.

As average lifespans continue to grow in developed countries and running becomes more and more popular, there is a higher number of both octogenarians and even nonagenarians competing in marathons than ever before.

Every morning, Bedard makes her way to the beach, just a stone’s throw from her house in the Queen’s borough of New York.

She never listens to music or podcasts while running. “I don’t want anything in my ears,” she emphasises. “I just think – about my youth, my life in France, America, a bit about everything – bills, money!”

Come rain or shine, Bedard, who emigrated to New York in the ’70s, before becoming a US citizen 20 years ago, runs 20 km daily.

“My body tells me what I need to do,” she says. “I listen to it.”

Nor does she believe in special diets, describing them as “expensive and phoney”.

“I believe in everything in its place,” she says. “A bit of wine, a bit of cheese, a bit of ice cream. Everything in proportion.”

Bedard, who began her distance running career at 69, yesterday aimed to beat her personal best of 3 hours, 46 minutes, which she set at age 72 in 2005. –