Still running strong: Michigan woman, 73, ready for Indy Mini, her 109th half-marathon

At 73 years young, Adele Pitt is no stranger to darting through the finish line.

She's gearing up to run her 109th half-marathon in the OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon on Saturday, May 4.

"I've run all 50 states and D.C, five continents and a couple islands," she proudly listed.

But the 13.1-mile trek that starts in the heart of downtown Indianapolis is by far her favorite.

"How many people get to run on the Indy 500 track? It's awesome!" Pitt said.

In fact, she loves the "Indy Mini" so much that she's made the trip from her home in Benton Harbor, Michigan, to run almost every year since 2004, only skipping 2018, after she was diagnosed with colon cancer. She skipped that year as she started treatment, but refused to stay down for long.

The diagnosis may have slowed her stride, but never stopped her in her tracks.. 

She was back the next year, not at full strength, but fully confident she'd "run the cancer away," she said.

"I had a good race that year," she said, looking at a picture from 2019. Pitt loves to look back at race day photos and is now compiling them into a scrapbook.

Now in remission, "Back and Better" seems to be one of her mottos. She's ready to lace up her running shoes, and her running dress (yes, it's a thing, she said) – as she does every year. 

"I usually put on a fake tattoo and my mantra is, 'I can, I will, I am and then one foot, one foot, one foot,'" she said. "And that applies to more than just running. It's just one foot at a time, one step at a time."

Still running strong, Adele plans to tackle many more steps, miles and milestones, taking it all in full stride.  

"When I got to my 100th race, there were people that were like, 'Well, are you done now?'" she said, gladly telling them, "No, we are never done! We just keep on going." 

posted Wednesday April 24th