89-year-old Greek runner finishes his 13th consecutive Athens Marathon

At an age when most people might rely on a cane or a crutch, 89-year-old Greek runner Ploutarchos Pourliakas has once again defied expectations.

On Sunday, Pourliakas completed his 13th consecutive Athens Marathon with his son, Petros, crossing the finish line with a time of just under seven hours and 30 minutes. He was the oldest finisher in the field for the fourth year in a row, and his time was good enough for 52nd in the loaded men’s 75+ age group, beating eight runners younger than him.

Pourliakas reached the finish inside Athens’s Panathenaic Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, where he was greeted and cheered on by his family and grandchildren.

His philosophy for longevity in running is simple: moderation and consistency. “I’ve never smoked. I don’t drink, and I eat in a balanced way,” Pourliakas told Reuters in an interview following last year’s race. He revealed that he does enjoy a daily sip of tsipouro, a traditional Greek brandy, saying he considers it “more a health tonic than a drink.”

Pourliakas began running at age 73, inspired by his son, an ultramarathoner. Today, he follows a dedicated training regimen in his hometown of Kastoria, running about five kilometres on weekdays and 10 to 15 kilometres on weekends.

Pourliakas’s story echoes that of the late Canadian masters running legend Ed Whitlock, who also found running later in life. In 2000, Whitlock became the oldest person to complete a sub-three-hour marathon at age 69 and later set the men’s 85+ world record, with a time of 3:56:38, at the 2016 Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

Like Whitlock, Pourliakas’s continued commitment to keep coming back to the Athens Marathon shows older runners that, no matter your age, running marathons is still possible. “Why wouldn’t you believe it? We all can do it. As long as we want to,” Pourliakas said.