By Michael Vitez

Hugh Campbell started running at age 86, joined a running club at 87, and broke the world indoor record in 3,000m for his age group at the University of Delaware last month, at 88.
“They got all excited,” said Campbell, “because they found when they had a world-record beater, there was a need for a drug test, and they didn’t know what in the world to do about it.”
He waited for nearly an hour as officials huddled. “The new masters drug-testing rules were difficult to interpret,” said Robin Jefferis, a meet official. They finally sent him home, concluding no test was needed. Hugh is sure he would have passed.
“The only pill I take,” he says, “is a multivitamin.”
Campbell, of Wilmington, Delaware, attributes his record times to “fresh legs” — the very fact that he never ran before. But more satisfying than setting any record has been discovering a new sense of purpose and joy so late in life.
“My take is this is great,” said his wife of 55 years, Naomi. “An 88-year-old man comes alive!”
He protests. “Are you trying to say I wasn’t alive before I was 88?”
“No, you were alive, then, too,” she clarifies. “But it’s better!”
She laughs and explains: “He’s happy.”
One way of looking at Campbell’s success as an old runner is that his whole life has been preparation for it.
Born in Canada, in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island, he joined the Canadian Navy in 1944, and after the war earned a PhD in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He spent his career with DuPont and retired in 1985 at age 60. “I’ve been retired nearly as long as I worked,” he says.
He is the youngest of 10. His eldest sister died at 104. A brother lived to 101. Other siblings thrived well into their 90s. Virtually every day since he retired, until he started running, he played golf. He had a foursome with other retirees. Two died, and the third grew ill. So he started golfing with his son.
Two years ago, feeling an urge he can’t explain, Hugh ran around the block. He wasn’t tired.
So he measured a three-quarter-mile loop with his car, and soon he was running four laps. In May 2011, he entered his first race at the Red Clay Creek Presbyterian Church in Wilmington. Naomi tells the story: A woman at the registration table saw his age and said, “You’ve been running a long time, haven’t you?”
“No,” Hugh replied. “This is my first race.”
“Why are you starting now?” the woman asked.
“Because I figured before I die, I wanted to run a race.” “Oh, it’s on your bucket list.” When Hugh finished, said Naomi, “and didn’t look like he was going to drop dead, the gal came up and gave him a big hug.”
Hugh can’t recall his time. “My mind isn’t as capable as my legs anymore.”
At first, his knees ached, and he went to his doctor, then to rehab. He didn’t quit. Research shows that the very old can still build muscle and increase strength. Soon the pain went away, and what was left was the joy of running, improving.
In May, at 87, Hugh was running one morning at Delcastle Recreation Area near his home. He met Dave McCorquodale, 68, who soon hopes to complete his 100th marathon. The two got to talking.
McCorquodale runs for the Pike Creek Valley Running Club, one of 10 masters clubs in the region, including the Greater Philadelphia Track Club. McCorquodale knew immediately what a recruit Hugh could be.
The 10 clubs vie against one other in the Grand Prix Challenge. Runners compete in age groups, 40-44, 45-49, and so on. Hugh runs in 85-89. Each runner gets an “age grade” — his time compared to the world record in his age group.
If you equal a world record, your grade is 100.
“An age grade of 90 or above is considered world-class,” McCorquodale said. “Kenyans get that kind of age grade.”
The team with the best age-grade runners wins.
McCorquodale, no fool he, rounded up team member Rich Syzmanski, and they went to Hugh’s house last spring to woo him.
This introduced Hugh to a whole new world and community of runners. Not that he was lacking in friends and family, but isolation is a scourge of old age. Hugh practiced all summer. He’d run one day, play golf the next. McCorquodale tried to teach him things that experienced runners know — interval training, long runs, recovery days — but Hugh simply wanted to go out and run.
McCorquodale and others urged Hugh to run a USA Track & Field 5k race in Syracuse, New York, in September.
As he finished, Hugh said, “there was an announcer calling out, ‘Here comes Hugh Campbell, and he’s breaking a world record!’ That’s pretty exciting.”
Hugh ran 26 minutes, 45 seconds, smashing the 27:42 record, achieving an age grade of 101.93. (His time ended up only a US record. A younger Brit, just 85, ran 24:57 last autumn.)
Hugh broke his own US record March 16 at the Adrenalin 5K in Haddonfield, New Jersey, running 26:33, averaging 8:32 a mile.
He is the top individual in the 10-team grand prix, and his club is leading.
“Here’s a guy that’s world class,” said McCorquodale, “but he’s a work in progress because he doesn’t really know how to run. It’s fascinating.”
How can Hugh run so fast at 88?
One reason is genetics. Scientists now believe people like Hugh and his siblings, who live to be very old in good health, have the same bad genes as everybody else.
But they also may have “protective variants,” genes that slow ageing and decrease risk of disease, said Boston University’s Tom Perls, head of the New England Centenarian Study.
Hugh also exercised and ate right.
“Ageing is not something that happens to you,” said physiologist Wojtek J Chodzko-Zajko of the University of Illinois. “Your decisions definitely have an impact.” Hugh has his own theory: “I’ve played golf almost every day for the last 25 years,” he said.
“I like to walk when I play golf, and carry my clubs. That gave me the kind of strength in my legs that kept them in good shape without burning them out.”
“People who have been running for years aren’t still running at 88,” he adds. “They’re either dead or had sense enough to quit.”
Hugh went for a run the other afternoon at Delcastle park. He stretches every morning, so he did a few warm-up strides and just took off on the 1.5-mile loop. He hopes by summer’s end to run four loops.
He is 5-6, 127lbs. He has a strong, smooth stride. He huffs, but not too much to keep him from chatting. He’s cheerful, saying hello to all runners. He checked his watch at the mile marker, about 9 minutes.
“I’m 88 and a half,” he said. “That makes me wonder, what can I do when I’m 90? If I stay healthy for two years, I’ve got the world at my fingertips. I find that exciting. But it’s stupid to think about two years hence when you’re 88 years old. That’s the fallacy of my thinking.”
Naomi doesn’t worry about running. Her brother willed them a blood-pressure monitor; Hugh’s is below normal. His resting pulse is low 50s.
She frets more about him climbing a ladder, cleaning the gutters.
He finished his run, 3.5 miles in 33 minutes. Not bad for the end of March.
Hugh will run a 5-miler at Valley Forge, Philadelphia, next week, and then compete in an 8K road race on June 1. This is a national masters meet.
“The race organisers invited me, with expenses paid!” he said. “That’s like big-time stuff, don’t you think?” — The Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT



Is modern technology
changing the way
our brains work?

By Alva Carpenter


The Internet has had an awesome effect on modern life and it would be hard for the young to imagine a world of no e-mails, no Googling information and computer games, and no instant access to information and instant contact with friends and family all over the world.
The development of new technologies has increased dramatically and will continue to do so at a terrific pace.
It often amazes me to remember that there were no computers or mobile phones when I was young. But it is amazing the effect that the Internet has had on our lives.
Of course, there are terrific benefits from technological progress – but there can be great dangers as well, and I believe we could be sleepwalking into the next great problem to sweep the world.
The brain is malleable and developing — not just in early childhood but on into adulthood and beyond. Neuroscientist tells us that the surrounding environment has a huge impact both on the way our brains develop and how that brain is transformed into a unique human mind.
The brain changes according to the environment and the life we lead. It not only goes on developing, changing and in some tragic cases, eventually deteriorating with age; it is also substantially shaped by what we do to it and by our experience of daily life.
The brain actually changes at a microcellular level; the infinitely complex network of nerve cells that make up the constituent parts of the brain really change in response to life experiences and stimuli.
The human brain is most sensitive and could be under threat from the modern world. Electronic devices have an impact on the micro-cellular structure and the complex biochemistry of our brains. And that, in turn, affects our personality, our behaviour and our characteristics. In short, the modern world could well be altering our brains.
There are many dangers that we should reflect up on.
Have we stopped using our brains to think? Do we just use the Internet to gather information?
No longer do we work out how to get from point A to B, we switch on the sat-nav and go where we are told.
I have seen mothers amuse babies by giving them an i-Pad to play with.
Already, it is pretty clear that the screen-based, two-dimensional world that so many teenagers — and a growing number of adults  — choose to inhabit is producing changes in behaviour. Attention spans are shorter; personal communication skills are reduced; and there is a marked reduction in the ability to think abstractly.
This games-driven generation interprets the world through screen-shaped eyes. Today’s technology is already producing a marked shift in the way we think and behave, particularly among the young.  Many parents will notice how addictive some video games can be and how the young can waste the whole day gaming until their eyes are red and tired.
We could be raising a hedonistic generation who live only in the thrill of the computer-generated moment, and are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from the real world.
But with our brains now under such widespread attack from modern technology, there is a danger that the cherished sense of self could be lost.
The brain is like any other muscle in the body and you need to exercise it and use it in lots of different ways to keep it growing, stimulated and healthy.
Alzheimer’s research has shown that there is some truth in the adage “use it or lose it”.
It is something we all need to think about; especially as parents. Our children will not thank us if we let them sleep walk into future problems as has happened with the tidal wave of obesity.
Chinese researchers have found that our grey matter — the part of the brain responsible for processing of speech, memory, motor control, emotion, sensory, and other information — is shrinking or atrophying. Numerous studies show that the more a person spends online the worse they are likely to feel.
Constant Web use often replaces exercise, and face-to-face contact which can lead to loneliness, and depression.
It is important as with all things in life to have a balance. It is important that even after leaving school or college we go on learning new skills to keep our brains bright, sharp and active.
Children should be encouraged to use their brains in a variety of different areas such as sport, learning to play an instrument, mathematics and writing. And to constantly stretch their brains by acquiring new skills. In a world where we are living ever-longer it is important not to take our brains for granted and to use them to become lifelong learners.
Limits should be put on time spent on technology and you should control your time. Meal times are important family time and all technology should be switched off.
I hope this article will make you reflect on your use of technology and look at is as a tool in life that should be used wisely and in moderation; and that you should also intentionally make your brain work in other ways too.

Ask Alva
Can you give me tips on giving up smoking? I smoke and have a bad cough in the mornings?
— Keith
People say they’re going stop smoking but according to psychologists the reason people find it hard to do that is you’re replacing this behaviour with no behaviour. So what you need to do is replace a bad habit with some other good habits.
If you want to quit smoking, adopt the target to run 2km.
It is hard to remain a smoker if you are trying to run. If you are very unfit always start with a daily walk. Then gradually start to run for 1 minute and walk for 1 minute. Eventually you will be able to run for the full 2km. You could use the treadmill at the gym but it is good for you now that it is cooler to get some good fresh air into your lungs.
This will help you stop smoking and get fit. I also suggest for your health you take a good quality multivitamin and eat two pieces of fruit daily. You will soon look and feel so much better.