Health & Wellness
Meet 105-year-old runner Ida Keeling
Bronx native Ida Keeling is a great-great grandmother and by all means not like any other 105-year-old you have ever met.
Ida Keeling is a Caribbean American centenarian track and field athlete.
Trained by her daughter Cheryl Keeling, herself a World Record holder, Ida holds Masters records in 60 meter and 100 meter distances for women in the 95-99 and 100-plus age groups.
Ida Keeling the runner is in great shape
The Bronx native is a great-great grandmother and by all means not like any other 105-year-old you have ever met.
At 4’6” and 83 pounds, she takes one prescription drug. Keeling told BlackDoctor.org,
“I am not a sickly person.” On size 5 and1/2 feet, she runs in the hallways of her apartment building and on treadmills, lifts weights, and rides an exercise bike.
Ida has written a book, titled ‘Can’t Nothing Bring Me Down: Chasing Myself in the Race against Time.’
In the book, she details the challenges during her early life and the tragedy which occurred when she was in her late 60’s, which led to the beginning of her running career.
This running miracle woman didn’t start running until the age of 67, an age when most other runners would have been long retired.
Keeling lost her husband to a heart attack at age 42, in 1958. She lost two sons, Donald and Charles, in drug-related homicides, in 1979 and 1981. Her blood pressure went up to dangerous levels at 206/106.
After the death of her second son, Keeling fell into a deep depression and that is what prompted her daughter Shelly to take her to the 5K run.
Keeling went as a spectator but sitting on the sidelines of life had never appealed to Miss Ida.
She quickly went from being a spectator to becoming a participant in running events when she was nearing age 70.
She has been running for over 35 years and there is no stopping place in sight.
In 2011, at 95 years old, Keeling set the world record in her age group for running 60 meters at 29.86 seconds at a track meet in Manhattan, and in 2012 she set the W95 American record at the USATF Eastern Regional Conference Championships at 51.85.
In 2014, at the 2014 Gay Games, Keeling set the fastest known time by a 99-year-old woman for the 100-meter dash at 59.80 seconds, although the relevant USA Track & Field webpage does not currently include a 100-meter record for US women older than the 90–94 age division. On April 30, 2016, Ida became the first woman in history to complete a 100-meter run at the age of 100.
Keeling says she maintains a healthy diet and exercise routine, plus a shot of cognac a few times every week, to keep herself fit and strong.
After this report, Ida Keeling passed away on August 28, 2021 at the age of 106. What a life well lived.