How people like 70-year-old Chow Yun-fat keep pushing their endurance limits as they age

Hong Kong actors Chow Yun-fat, 70, Kent Cheng, 74, Lau Kong, 79, and Paw Hee-ching, 76, made headlines in January for being among the oldest participants in the 10km event at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2026. In 2025, the then 69-year-old Chow ran the half-marathon at the event, completing the 13.1-mile (21km) race in two hours, 24 minutes and 33 seconds. Recently, a growing number of people in their sixties, seventies, eighties and older have been in the news for taking part in endurance events. In October 2025, 80-year-old American Natalie Grabow became the oldest woman to finish the 140.6-mile (226.3km) Ironman World Championship triathlon in Kona, Hawaii. This gruelling race includes a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a full marathon run. Korean-American Jeannie Rice, who turns 78 in April, is known for being a fast runner for her age. She has taken part in many marathons, including the 2025 Tokyo Marathon and the 2024 London Marathon – in which she set a new age-group record of three hours, 33 minutes and 27 seconds. Nearly a week after that London race, scientists put Rice through a series of health tests and concluded that she had the highest VO2 max (47.8) ever recorded for a woman aged 75 or older, and a high maximum heart rate of 180. VO2 max is a measure of cardiorespiratory fitness that refers to the maximum amount of oxygen the body can absorb and use during exercise. A VO2 max of 48 is generally considered excellent for a woman, indicating strong aerobic capacity. Results from the Rice study were published in 2024 in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Hiromu Inada, 93, is another older athlete who is breaking records. In June 2025, at 92 years old, the Japanese nonagenarian became the oldest person to complete the 70.3-mile Ironman in Cairns, Australia. He also holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest person to complete the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. He achieved this feat in 2018 at 85 years old, when he completed the race in just under 17 hours. Inada first completed the Ironman World Championship in 2016. He is not done racing and hopes to return to Cairns this year. Inada, who was born in 1932 and lives in Yachiyo, in Japan’s Chiba prefecture, did not become athletic until later in life. “I was never a sporty person. In fact, I used to be quite lazy,” he says. “When I retired at age 60, I started swimming for my health. Ten years later, I competed in my first triathlon.” Inada remembers the Cairns event in 2025 as being particularly difficult – he injured his foot and did not feel that he had gone into the race well prepared. However, he felt encouraged by the other athletes and the spectators, who cheered him on until he reached the finish line. Preparing for a big event like the Ironman is not easy for Inada. He trains hard and often. “I attend training camp once a month and go on long bike rides once a week. These help me maintain my fitness,” he says. “I’m always afraid before a race. The older I get, the more I worry about how I’ll perform. But I know that if I train hard enough, I will make it across the finish line.” Proper nutrition and recovery are also crucial to his success. “I choose foods that nourish my body and help me recover from daily training. My meals are balanced and include plenty of vegetables, fish, meat and fruit,” he says. “I still move on my rest days – I’ve found that active recovery training, which involves low-intensity exercise, relieves muscle fatigue and keeps my body supple.” Taking precautions when training for an endurance race and prioritising rest and recovery are crucial, especially for seniors. Aerobic capacity, muscle strength and recovery ability naturally decline as we age, says Norma Ngai, a physiotherapist at Matilda International Hospital in Hong Kong. Ngai advises seniors to increase their training volume and intensity gradually. She recommends strength training to maintain strength and support endurance performance, and balance training to reduce fall risk and improve stability. It is important to protect joints by using proper technique and lower-impact options when needed, she adds, as well as gradual loading. Most healthy seniors can safely begin low-intensity exercise without medical clearance, she says. Those with cardiovascular, metabolic or kidney disease, or anyone experiencing symptoms such as chest discomfort, dizziness, unusual breathlessness, palpitations or unexplained fatigue – at any age – should speak with a doctor first. A recent study found that male endurance athletes aged over 50 may be more likely to experience abnormal heart rhythms – ventricular tachycardia – during training if they already have scarring in their heart. This is a significant finding, seeing as nine out of 10 sudden cardiac deaths during sport occur in older males. Scarring may be caused by heart attacks, disease and exertion from high-intensity exercise over many years. The study, published in January in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, highlights the importance of regular heart health checks for veteran male endurance athletes to ensure they are not at risk of complications while training. Savvy senior athletes undergo regular functional and fitness assessments. Ngai says that these tests measure walking speed, balance, endurance and strength. They are useful for identifying early mobility limitations or fall risk, setting training baselines, tracking progress, and adjusting training plans appropriately. “Age-related changes can occur silently, so assessments allow training to remain safe, targeted and effective,” she says. Ngai says exercisers should always listen to their bodies and not ignore pain, excessive fatigue or prolonged soreness. At 65, Singaporean Yim Pui Fun is as avid a runner as she was in her twenties, when she took up the sport to get into shape while studying in Canada. The retired civil service worker took part in the Penang Bridge International Marathon in Malaysia in December 2025. It was her 44th marathon since 1988 and her 14th overseas marathon. She is also a vertical runner, racing up stairs in tall buildings. Her last vertical race was the inaugural Sky Race in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in August 2025. For the event, she climbed the world’s second-tallest building, the Merdeka 118, coming second in the senior veteran women (age 60+) category. Yim runs and climbs stairs regularly, even when not preparing for a race. She enjoys running because it helps her maintain her weight, and she says that climbing stairs strengthens the heart, lungs, muscles and bones, as well as builds stamina, burns calories and minimises fall risk. For those who want to take up an endurance sport like distance running but worry about being too old, Yim suggests starting small. “Just increase the intensity of your training slowly and celebrate any small improvements along the way. During the initial weeks or months, expect some soreness as your body adapts.” Inada’s key advice is “not to think about age too much”. “Just start moving,” he says. “If you train every day, you’ll eventually see results, and that will motivate you to embrace newer, bigger challenges. Remember that you’re also doing something good for your health.” Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.

How people like 70-year-old Chow Yun-fat keep pushing their endurance limits as they age

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Chow ran a half-marathon last year, while silver stars like Natalie Grabow, Jeannie Rice and Hiromu Inada are breaking records. Here’s how

Chow ran a half-marathon last year, while silver stars like Natalie Grabow, Jeannie Rice and Hiromu Inada are breaking records. Here’s how