5 elite runners who started late in life

When one thinks of elite athletes, it is assumed they have been training all their lives, investing time, money and resources from a very young age to hone an already innate ability at a specific sport.More often than not, this is very true – tennis icons Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both began training around the age of 3, while Tiger Woods was introduced to golf by his father at 2!Genetics also play a significant part in an athlete’s predisposition to sport; basketball, for example, where height is of the essence or for swimmers, most of whom are broad-shouldered.Some elite runners lived almost entirely unhealthy lives, – smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, subsisting almost entirely on junk food, until they turned their lives around to win marathons and run in the Olympics – most of them in their 40s.Proving age is just a number and fitness is largely in one’s head, here are 5 competitive athletes who began running and competing at an age most athletes retire:

#1 Dean Karnazes

Karnazes still runs, and advocates healthy living and eating

The American ultramarathoner’s name is legendary in running circles. He holds a number of staggering records and has been the Athlete of the Year several years in a row.

Karnazes was part of the American Ultrarunning Team, which one the World Championships in 2005 and 2008. He won the Badwater Ultramarathon (135 miles (217 km) across Death Valley in 120 °F (49 °C) temperatures), 2004 (with five other top-10 finishes from 2000-2008).

In addition, he’s completed several runs in excess of 100 miles, once doing a cross-country United States Run – running 3000 miles from Disneyland, Florida to New York City – on opposite coasts of the United States.

Although the California native did start running for fun and trekked as a hobby, he was incompatible with his high school coach and stopped the sport altogether.

His life then spiralled out of control; Karanzes was expelled from two schools for arriving drunk to class, and continued to be an alcoholic through university, when his sister passed away in an automobile accident.

Folllowing this, an adult Karanzes took a break to earn degrees, ultimately returning to running to become the icon that he has today.

#2 Priscilla Welch

Welch, pictured in 1996, won the New York Marathon in her 40s

Priscilla Welch’s story is extraordinary, and not just because of her age. Serving in the British army, Bedford-born Welch wasn’t just a non-runner – she was also a heavy smoker. Welch went through a pack a day by her own admission, a quantitiy that would wreak havoc on one’s lungs.

She had never been a runner before – which means the strain on her lungs would have been even more than it would have for someone training for a long time. Combined with her smoking habit, it meant Welch was one of the most unlikely candidates for what she went on to do – run the London Marathon a year later.

Her training became so intensive that Welch joined the British Olympic team 4 years later, participating at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and at the age of 40, having only run competitively for over 4 years, finished in 6^th place.

Following this, she began setting world records in her age group, then deciding to run the New York Marathon. Welch ran both New York and London that year, taking top prize at the former and second at the latter. Although she did not take up a chance to medal at that year's Rome Championships, she set the record for her age group in Boston that year – a record that lasted for over a decade.

The Englishwoman also fought breast cancer; she’s currently 70-years-old and still keeps active.

#3 Steve Way

From very overweight to elite English athlete – Steve Way has had a long journey

The inspirational Briton only started trianing at the age of 32, running his first marathon with a mere 3 weeks of training. At the time, Way was very overweight, ate unhealthily, and was a heavy smoker as well, smoking upto a pack a day combined with a diet largely comprised of junk food.

Thereafter, Way left his job to take a clerical one that would leave him more time to train; he devoted the next 6 months to intensive training and ran the London Marathon, finishing in half an hour less than his target time. He bettered his time in the following two years, and in 2014 had a top 20 finish at the London Marathon – with his time ahead of the Commonwealth Games qualification by a staggering 33 seconds.

He went on not only to participate in that year’s Games, but finish first for England. He participated in the world championships that very same year, finishing in the top 15 despite a stomach virus that caused him to stop to use the restroom at frequent intervals.

From a formerly overweight, unfit 30-year-old to a 41-year-old elite athlete – Way has had an incredible transformation at an age most athletes decide on retirement.

#4 Ray Zahab

A heavy smoker, Zahab had no fitness background whatsoever, but took up running in earnest despite smoking more than a pack of ciggarettes on a daily basis. With two other runners, the Canadian crossed the length of the Sahara Desert – 7,500km, running 70 kilometres each day with no rest days in between.

The trio were tracked by National Geographic, with a documentary filmed on them to raise awareness for the residents of North Africa, reeling from an absolute shortage of potable water.

Zahab used the run to leverage more attention for the cause, and the experience led him to not only become more passionate about running, but also become a motivational speaker.

Since the Sahara run, Zahab has broken the world speed record for an unsupported expedition by a team to the South Pole, with the entire group completing the stretch without the use of skis.

He also became the first person to run across the Atacama Desert in Chile, doing 60km a day over 20 days.

Although he continues to run, Zahab now juggles this with being a motivational speaker looking to inspire people to push their bodies.

#5 Evy Palm

Evy Palm 2012 — Palm, pictured in 2012, continues to run, inspiring others to do so as well

Sweden’s Evy Gunilla Palm ran a few days a week in her youth, but had not been into fitness in a big way. She largely lost touch with it as she grew older, and after having children moved away from running for the most part.

Only returning to it after her daughters grew older, Palm once said the free time “inspired” her to get back into running after having been a homemaker and full-time mother.

She would go on to get back into the sport with an unprecedented vengeance in her 40s, and in 1988, at 46 years of age, represented her country at that year’s Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, finishing inside the top 25 in the women’s full marathon.

Prior to the Olympic games, she set the world record for the 10,000m in her age group – a record that is yet to be broken.

Palm represented Sweden internationally for 7 years, until she was 47 years old, and won the Stockholm Marathon on 3 different occasions.

At 73, Palm still runs today.