Think you have to slow down as you age? Think again. Just a few days shy of his 72nd birthday, Gary Patton ran a mile faster than most people 50 years younger than him. He clocked a 5:29.81 mile at the New York Armory, setting a new world record for 70 to 74-year-olds in the indoor mile.

His jaw-dropping time broke the previous record (5:32.4), which had stood for 30 years. Patton, now 72, and a retired engineer from Rock Rapids, Iowa, ran the first half-mile slower than he intended, so he picked up the pace, and gutted it out.

“I kind of messed up the first half,” he told Runner’s World. “And when I saw I was almost four seconds off the pace, my thought was, ‘I’m just going to sprint this sucker and see how long I can last.’”

Patton prevailed, and perhaps most impressive, is the fact that he’s trimming his time in the distance as he ages. He attempted the record on the same indoor track in 2016 and recorded a 5:34.9 mile.

Patton took up jogging in college, according to the Sioux City Journal, but didn’t start racing until he was in his 40s, when his boss convinced him to sign up for a local weekend road race. He ran it and left before the awards ceremony started. The following Monday, his boss handed him some hardware.

“Apparently I was the only one my age who was in halfway decent shape, and he handed me this medal for 1st place for over (age) 40,” Patton said. “I thought, ‘Wow that was really cool.’ That’s when I started getting into it.”

Today, Patton holds many middle-distance records, but don’t think that just because he’s speedy, he’s putting in heavy miles on the roads. In fact, he only runs once every three days (about 15 miles a week), instead preferring to cross-train with strength work, biking and agility movements. But, when he does run, his legs and lungs are getting “quality” miles, put in over hill workouts, a 7-mile run with longer intervals and a track session with shorter intervals.

The regimen seems to be perfect for him in terms of remaining injury-free. To date, he hasn’t missed an indoor or outdoor national masters meet since his first one in 2008.

Running isn’t the only thing that fills Patton’s schedule in retirement. He also volunteers his time helping seniors understand the Medicare system.

“I sit down next to a lot of 65-year-olds, and I’m thinking to myself, ‘Boy, I’m sure glad I’m not in their condition,’” he told Runner’s World.

How’s that for proof that if you put your own health first, anything is possible.