Just last month, we told you about Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins. She’s the 101-year-old who didn’t start running until she was 100.
Over the weekend at the USA Track and Field Outdoors Masters Championships, the Baton Rouge, La. resident who was born in 1916 ran the 100-meter dash in 40.12 seconds to set a new world record in the distance for women 100 or older. Her time beat the previous record holder by about six seconds.
“[I] missed my nap for this,” she said (via USATF) on Saturday at the event at Louisiana State University, not far from where Hawkins lives in Baton Rouge. (The Washington Post)
Hawkins got her athletic career underway at 81 when she took up cycling. The former schoolteacher then decided to give running a try almost two decades later.
“I enjoy challenges,” she told WBRC. “I lost my husband a few years ago, and I had to fill my life up with something else, and this is one of the things…I knew I could run because the phone always rings when I’m in the yard, and I run in for the phone.”
Hawkins credits her longevity and vigor to eating healthy, exercising and spending quality time with her four children, three grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
She’s clearly doing all the right things. Have a look at her record-breaking sprint:
Who needs a nap when you have things like this on your schedule?
