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Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesAthlete Aims for World Record at 99

Athlete Aims for World Record at 99

Ida Keeling reels off her daily push ups.Ida Keeling walks with a cane but runs with champions. She turns 99 in May, and in June plans to beat her own world record in the 60-meter sprint.

“I’m over the hill and picking up speed,” the 83-pound athlete said.

America’s fastest nonagenarian from Bronx came to St. Croix last month to visit her niece, V. Celeste Fahie, “because of the weather,” in New York this winter.

Fahie has been busy keeping up with her “witty, “very independent,” aunt. They have met new relatives and discovered records of Fahie’s great-great grandfather, William Creque, who lived in the Virgin Islands around 1797.

Despite the New York weather, Keeling sounded eager to get home and start training for her next sprint in June, where she hopes to beat her 2011 record of 29.86 seconds for 60 meters.

While talking to the Source at the Beeston Hill gym last week, Keeling easily reeled off six military push-ups and did several over-the head stretches – part of her regular training. She also rides a stationary bike and works with weights during her biweekly training sessions.

Keeling attributes some of her success to her diet. She learned to read labels from her mother during the Depression and tries to “eat for nutrition, not taste.” Since she has arthritis, Keeling eats foods known to reduce inflammation, such as cherries, and consumes low-fat meals with grains and vegetables.

“I’m running from arthritis and old age,” she said. “I’m very proud of the fact that I concentrate on what I need to do and stick with it.”

Ida Keeling works out on an exercise bike. This summer she'll be 99 and aims to break her world record for the 60-year dash.Keeling’s trainer is her 62-year old daughter, who convinced her to participate in a mini-run 30 years ago. After suffering tragic losses including the violent deaths of two sons, Keeling said she was depressed and her blood pressure skyrocketed, so she agreed.

“I didn’t know the mini-run was 5K,” she exclaimed. “While I was running I felt like I was coming out of a hole. I felt free.”

Keeling ran that event when she was 67 years old and has been running ever since. She started out running in Central Park to compete in three-mile races, and then entered shorter races because she wanted to run fast – “to just take off.”

When she ran shorter races, she did “take off.” When she was 90, she was recognized at the World Masters Track Meet in Atlanta and on her 90th birthday, Keeling set a world record of 31.82 seconds for 60 meters in Clermont Ferrand, France.

In May 2011, Keeling beat her own record, with a speedy 29.86 seconds at New York’s Armory Track and Field Center. Her milestone was reported by ESPN, ABC News, Huffington Post and other national news media. Five other women ran the 60-meter in the “masters” category – competitors over the age of 40 – and Keeling came in last but became the first woman over the age of 95 to complete the distance.

Keeling talked about one memorable race when she was 90. Her competitors were 50, 60 and 70 years old. There were no 80-year-old runners and she “left the 70 year old in the dust,” she said proudly.

While at the gym, Keeling was asked for her secret to success. “ Love youself and eat for nutrition,” she advised.

Keeling has lived an active life, climbing trees and jumping rope as a child, taking gym classes in high school. As a mother of four, romping in the park with her children and working long, hard hours in clothing factories, Keeling stayed fit. She raised her children to be active the same way she and her seven siblings were raised.

“Keep them moving, so at an early age they have no doubt they can do things,” she said of her children.

In the last few years, Keeling has attained a level of celebrity. She has appeared on the Oprah television show and in Vogue magazine.

She was “most awed” last year, when Oprah and Vogue magazines featured her in interviews and the fashion sections. Having a camera crew at her house for two days and being escorted through the fashion magazines’ offices, wardrobe and makeup areas was “like a dream.” she said.

“That’s why I was hugging everybody – to make sure it wasn’t a dream,” Keeling said.

Ida Keeling plans to visit St. Croix again, but for now, her focus is on the Long Island Senior Games in June.

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