Dare to Be 100

By Mia Coen 

Some people can’t imagine what it would be like to live to 100. Some people can’t even imagine 80! But how about running your 40th marathon at the age of 80?

It was no sweat for Dr. Walter Bortz, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. Recognized as one of America’s most distinguished scientific experts on aging and longevity, he’s living proof that the benefits of exercise extend beyond the point in life when we think we’re “over the hill.”

After completing the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon on April 19th, he said, “I wanted to show what an organism can do this late in life.” He indeed showed, if not proved, that it can be done. Dr. Bortz has been running for 40 years, since the death of his father. Running has become a sort of therapy for him, and he’s been participating in marathons ever since.

It took him eight hours to complete the trek across the Boston ’burbs and into the city. Hundreds gathered at sunset to see the last of the runners cross the finish line on Boylston Street.

Dr. Bortz reminisced about his first days of running in his essay, Running, Aging, and Human Potential. “The Boston Marathon, then the only world-class running event open to the running-around slug, appealed to my Walter Mitty personality. So I entered and finished my first marathon in 1971 in 5 hours and 5 minutes, as I recall.” Not bad, for a then-40-year-old doctor, who’s now double the age that he was.  

It’s physically evident that Dr. Bortz practices what he preaches. His career and research are focused on “physical exercise in the promotion of robust aging.” He is the former co-chairman of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Aging, former president of The American Geriatric Society, and current chairman of the Medical Advisory Board for the Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation, as well as a senior advisor to Healthy Silicon Valley, a community collaborative effort that addresses the soaring incidence of obesity and diabetes.

Dr. Bortz has published over 130 medical articles and authored numerous books, including We Live Too Short and Die Too Long, Dare to Be 100, Living Longer for Dummies, and Diabetes Danger.

All this—and he still has the time and energy to train for marathons. Inspiring all of us to dare to be 100, Dr. Bortz’s story is certainly moving us here at CBI.