The oldest among the runners was 86-year-old A. Devaraj, a retired professor of the PSG College of Arts and Science. He completed the nine km marathon on Sunday morning and won a special prize.
Completing the run was not a challenge as he does the same almost every morning outside the Nehru Stadium.
“Come on a morning at six and you can see me running,” he says. After running, he does some basic exercises at a nearby gym.
Mr. Devaraj, who taught sociology, says he has been maintaining a healthy lifestyle since 1975.
I’ve decided to be healthy and it’s a conscious decision, he says pointing out that whenever he alights at the Coimbatore Junction he only walks home. He lives in Gandhipuram.
Though he’s happy about completing the marathon there’s a tinge of regret as well: “I haven’t seen anybody above 60 in the marathon and that’s not an encouraging sign.”
