Most people would imagine a 77-year old grandma as someone frail, probably needs assistance walking, and plagued by the common aches and pains that come with old age.
Not Mommy Linda.
Last week, she participated in the National Masters Athletics Championships, and won in seven categories: 100-meters, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 3000m and 5000m runs.
Being the most senior, and perhaps the most popular member of our running team, WeKenRun, she was asked to give a short talk during our last track session.
“Kung kaya ko, kaya niyo din,” she enthused. Ever the humble one, however, she added, “Kaya naman ako nanalo dahil ako lang sumali from my age category.”
But that is precisely the point. Perhaps no one in her age group is as fit and active as her. That at her age, she still trains and continues to show up, is the amazing part.
Even the Philippine Sports Commission recently recognized her achievement by being one of 2025’s Flame Awardees in All Women Sports Awards.
Mommy Linda’s story has been told and retold a number of times.
At the age of 65, she, like most other women her age, began feeling the physical challenges that come with aging. She was also already on maintenance medications.
Then, one day, one of her sons urged her to begin running. At first, it was just mostly walking with brief jogging intervals, until she progressed to running all the way.
While it was painful and extremely difficult at first, her son encouraged her to continue and, before she knew it, she began to enjoy and look forward to her runs. After a while, she also came off her maintenance medications, which all the more encouraged her to continue the sport.
In 2015 she did her first marathon at the Bull Runner Dream Marathon.
In 2023, when one would expect for her to have significantly slowed down because of age, she joined the Milo Marathon and even lowered her personal best by 50 minutes, finishing at an astonishing five hours, 48 minutes.
She has also done ultramarathons, the longest being a 65-kilometer distance and has collected more than 100 finisher medals from all the races she has participated in.
Her activities may be concerning for ordinary people but running into one’s old age presents immense benefits for one’s health.
As we age, we lose bone density, muscle mass and strength, as well as experience stiffness in our tendons resulting in a marked decrease in flexibility. This often leads senior citizens to an even more sedentary lifestyle, thinking they would just get injured by engaging in sports. This in turn results in worse health outcomes.
We should know that the opposite is true. As we grow older, it really becomes a battle against time and we need to fight even harder to counter what many thought is inevitable — declining strength and fitness.
There are so many examples already of people who have “defied” aging.
In the United States, Joan Benoit Samuelson, the very first ever Olympic Women’s Marathon champion finished the Tokyo Marathon last year at the age of 66 with a time of 3:38 at the age of 66.
Mommy Linda is actually the same age as Kathrine Switzer who was the first woman to run the Boston marathon in 1967. Switzer ran the Boston marathon again after 50 years from her first run and still managed to finish with an impressive time of 4:44.
Despite all her achievements, Mommy Linda is showing no signs of slowing down.
She regularly attends WeKenRun’s speed sessions every Thursday at Bonifacio Global City. While many of us would already be exhausted after doing the assigned workouts, Mommy Linda usually still has the energy to run back to where she lives in Parañaque.
As feminist Betty Friedan once said: “Aging is not lost youth, but a new stage of opportunity and strength.”