Meet the NYC marathon's oldest runner; he's about to turn 95
Don’t listen to anything Jonathan Mendes has to say.
A few days before last year’s New York City Marathon, this 94-year-old race participant insisted to USA TODAY, “This is it – the last hurrah.”
As it turns out, Mendes does not tell the truth. Now, a year after promising his children he would stop this business of taking on the biggest marathon in the world, Mendes will once again be the oldest entrant in the race of 50,000. His clothes are laid out in his East Side Manhattan apartment, he’s set to meet his personal trainer by an elevator in his building on Sunday morning and he has written out the telephone numbers of family members in case he needs to call them from the 26.2-mile course.
"I can't believe I'm going to be 95 (on Nov. 3) and I can still do these things and I'm still in good health," Mendes said during an interview from the gym in his apartment building. "I'm just so grateful for it."
Sunday will mark the 16th time Mendes has towed the line at a marathon and the 14th time he has done so in New York. He will walk the course that traces through New York City's five boroughs -- his doctor made him stop running about a decade ago, when he was in his 80s, because it was banging up his joints.
Somewhere during the last year, Mendes decided he wanted to tackle this race at least one more time. Part of the reason was that during last year’s marathon, notable for high winds that made conditions difficult for the runners and walkers, Mendes dropped out of the halfway point because his muscles started tensing up. He’d like to try again, he says. Last year, he was with his grandson, and this year, his personal trainer, Tom Mangan, l will walk the course with him.
Mangan says this way, he can give Mendes advice or help him stretch if he runs into problems. Mendes is doing great, Mangan says, partly because of his positive attitude.
The goal on Sunday is "just to finish," Mendes says. "I'll take about eight hours."
The twice-widowed retired marine colonel who served in the Pacific and in Korea began running 50 years ago, he says.
He was a smoker, and when his doctor told him he had to quit, he did, but found himself needing an outlet. A neighbor introduced him to jogging and he began doing it around the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir in Central Park. It was around the time of the running boom of the 1970s, and began running with a local running club. He ran the NYC Marathon and was hooked, becoming friends with race founder Fred Lebow and even running with him sometimes.
Mendes is not sure why he’s been able to stay fit in his senior years, but he says his mother lived until she was 97 and his father until he was 90. He also eats well, he says, with a diet full of avocado, steamed vegetables, radishes and only occasional meat. He works out with Mangan once or twice a week and walks daily.
"And of course I have a good scotch before dinner," he jokes.
But really, he is not sure why he still has the ability to travel a distance on his feet that most people cannot fathom, he says.
"I can't understand why I am so fortunate at (almost) 95 because most of my contemporaries are gone," Mendes says. "I thank God for good health and a good quality of life."