Clarence Hartley is a sporting star! He has fought in two wars, Korea and Vietnam as well as conquered both non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and prostate cancer and at 81 easily qualified for the Boston Marathon. He beat his age and gender’s required time of 5:00 by 21 minutes.
Having run almost 150 road races since the spry age of 68, in 2005 he decided it was time for a marathon, but his two illnesses forced him to delay the start despite qualifying.
“I remember lying on an exam table thinking about Lance Armstrong and what he accomplished,” he notes. “I thought if I survived, I’d come back like he did and run Boston.” He told Runner’s World Magazine.
His goal for the race he said was to beat “several thousand younger runners,” he told the magazine.
He did just that with a time of 4 hours 26 minutes and 25 seconds.
