No Time to Become Stagnant?

If Anthony "Cokey" Damon is slowing down at age 81, we'd love to have seen him at full speed. Daman works out for 3 hours a day, 6 days a week. He runs, racewalks, strength trains, cycles, and jumps on his trampoline. "The exercise energizes me," says Daman, who records his activities in a logbook each day.

Damon started running at age 58 when he noticed he was slowing down on the tennis court. Ten months later, he finished his first marathon in 4:06. "I was tickled to death," says Daman, who lives in Virginia Beach, Va. "I felt like I could conquer the world."

Since then, Damon estimates he has run 500 road races and covered more than 40,000 miles. he has run at the national level in the 70-74, 75-79, and 80-84 age groups, and has finished 23 marathons. (He ran his fastest marathon in 3:36 at age 69.) Says Daman: "There's no standing still for me. You have to be goal-oriented. If you're not, you become stagnant."

What's Daman's next major goal? This fall, he hopes to crack 5 hours at the Richmond Marathon. "I try not to go wild when I run marathons," says Daman, who recently clocked 2:07 in a half-marathon. "After all, I'm doing it for fun."

*Reprinted by permission of Runner's World magazine. Copy written 2001, Rodele Press, Inc. All right reserved.