Miles of Experience : At 87, Woman Will Be Running L.A. Marathon for the Ninth Time

At the age of 63, when some people might consider settling into a rocker, Mavis Lingren got out of hers and began running.

That was 24 years ago, and she hasn’t stopped running since.

Lingren, now 87, figures to be the oldest and one of the most experienced runners in this year’s Los Angeles Marathon.

When she lines up at the starting gate Sunday morning, Lingren will be embarking on the 70th marathon of her career. And though her expected time of about seven hours will be well off her best showing of 4 1/2 hours, Lingren says matter-of-factly, “You get slower as you get older.”

Lingren is just one of 19,000 runners from across the country and around the world--elite runners as well as weekend huffers-and-puffers--who are expected to participate in the 10th running of the Los Angeles Marathon.

Nearly as many people--about 15,000--have volunteered to assist, staffing aid and water stations, controlling traffic, helping runners at the finish line. And about 1 million spectators are expected to line the race route.

But even in this huge pool of participants, Lingren stands out.

“Once you get past 80, it’s remarkable,” says Tom Feuer, manager of public relations for Nike, which sponsors Lingren along with a fleet of top athletes. “She’s a tremendous inspiration.”

And something of a medical mystery, too.

“It just underscores the huge differences in people,” says Dr. Steven Simons, medical commissioner for the Los Angeles Marathon. “The number of people able to do this in this age group is obviously small.”

But some specialists say Lingren represents the wave of the future.

“More older people than ever in history will be going stronger than ever,” says Dr. Audrey Stein of the UCLA Center on Aging, who ran part of last year’s marathon with Lingren. In fact, 12 people over 80 entered the race last year.

“More and more of these people are just going to go out and do it,” Stein says. “They are not thinking ‘I’m 80.’ . . . Mavis got this running notion, and she is having a fabulous time.”

Lingren’s unique status in marathoning has made her something of a celebrity. She’s been invited to run in London and lecture in Tokyo and has been cheered by thousands as she crossed the finish line at the New York Marathon.

Lingren didn’t set out to be a star.

In fact, she didn’t even set out to be a runner. But after suffering through four bouts of pneumonia in five years, Lingren said to herself, “I’ve got to get out and get active.” She did, and she hasn’t had pneumonia or any other serious ailment since.

Lingren started walking around the block in her neighborhood. “It was one mile around and so it was easy to keep tabs. I liked that.”

After a while, she began adding a few steps of running. Soon she was covering the mile route in under nine minutes. Then she extended her course to five miles.

Lingren had to learn a few lessons along the way. One was on the need for staying current with sports fashion.

“I was running in a dress,” she says. “My daughters saw me one day and said, ‘Mom, don’t do that. People will think you’re running away from home.’ ”

They got her into a pair of slacks, and eventually into a sweat suit and shorts.

But other passers-by found it hard to believe that a woman her age was running just for the fun of it.

“People would always stop and ask if I needed a ride,” Lingren recalls. As she got healthier and slimmer, people took notice. “One man stopped, leaned out his window and said, ‘Lady, don’t get any thinner,’ ” says Lingren, who weighs 100 pounds and stands 5 feet 2.

At age 70, she ran her first marathon, the Avenue of the Giants race in Northern California. Then she went to Hawaii and ran the Honolulu Marathon a year later.

With that, she was off and, well, running. She once ran five marathons in four months and went on to win and hold for eight years the world record for women 70 years and older, posting a time of 4 hours, 33 minutes and 5 seconds.

She has already run the Los Angeles Marathon eight times, including once with her granddaughter, Dawn Ramsland.

At one point, concerned family members persuaded Lingren to get a medical checkup, to make sure it was safe for her to keep such a rigorous schedule.

Although she was past 70, doctors at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Riverside concluded that she had the health profile of a woman in her 20s.

Lingren, who worked most of her life as a nurse, says she was never particularly athletic, though she adds, “I was always a fast walker. I always wanted to get things done.”

Lingren and her husband, Carl, raised their family in Riverside but now split their time between a new home in Orleans, in Northern California, a winter home in Desert Hot Springs and time spent with their three children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandson.

She chalks up her longevity and health to her lifelong vegetarian diet and a “trust in God.” She also recommends good shoes, plenty of rest and lots of water when training.

It must be working. A year ago Lingren said she was checked again by the university doctors. “They said I can do anything I want,” Lingren says.

This year, she wants to complete a schedule of at least four marathons in addition to the Los Angeles race.

Her family says the activity and her notoriety is great.

“I was retired; I never expected this much excitement,” says Lingren’s husband, Carl, who is also 87 and accompanies Mavis on her trips. Still, he notes with a laugh, “I’m acting my age a lot better than she is.”

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But he adds quickly that he hopes Mavis keeps running. “Otherwise, Old Man Age may catch up with her.”

Mavis agrees. “I think it’s great people stay active. People are meant to stay active. You get into trouble when you’re not,” she says.

And she’s equally philosophical in looking back on her unlikely career.

“It’s been good,” she says. “I’ve been to interesting places. I meet a lot of nice people.”

* MARATHON GUIDE: B2