74-year-old Gu Dawo is the the oldest official pacemaker in Chinese marathon history

When many friends of his age are suffering from senile diseases, some of whom cannot even walk without external support, Gu Dawo, 74, is running the marathon. For the second time, Gu shows up as a pacer on Sunday's International Marathon in Yinchuan, the capital city of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Reigon. "I'm leading the pace and I also want to lead more to participate in this activity," Gu said. He has been quite experienced in marathon running. The past 2017 was a fruitful year for the 74-year old. Gu went to the United States to run a half marathon in Georgia, and a triathlon in the Ironman 70.3, Chattanooga of Tennessee. "I was the oldest to complete the triathlon, many jumped cheering when I was introduced to be from China in the award ceremony," He said, showing a video clip recording the big moment he was breasting the tape in Chattanooga. "A Chinese grandpa of 73 was recorded to be the oldest to complete the Ironman 70.3," A local American website said while many American audience nicknamed him as Chinese Grandpa to set a record. In the same year, he also competed in marathons in Lanzhou and Xiamen, becoming a running idol for people both old and young. "Everytime I compete in a marathon, many will come to me and say 'if only I could run like you at your age'," Gu said, adding that young people wish to be as strong as him when they are aged, but always excuse themselves that they are much too busy to exercise. "One should exercise young. Some of my age envying me of my physique have lost the best time to run for exercises," Gu said. "I always ran to work when I was young," he added. Since the 1990s, Gu has kept this habit of running and the first time he competed in a race, he won 20 yuan ($3.13US) which encouraged him a lot. 

posted Wednesday May 23rd