Feel-Good Friday: Betty Lindberg Proves to Stay Alive, You Set Goals and Keep Moving

98-year-old Betty Lindberg continues to break records and defy expectations. Screenshot credit: Atlanta News First/YouTube

Enough of Gen Z for a bit! This week, it’s all about the Greatest Generation, or at least one in particular. This Feel-Good Friday is about how you are never too old to reach new achievements, and it is never too late to try something new. I started kickboxing at 55. Betty Lindberg started running at 63.

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It’s only a society that ignores and marginalizes their seasoned citizens that insists they have to slow down, lie down, and descend into decrepitude as they age. As I am moving into my senior years, I am shocked by the number of people, young and old (including doctors), who think I should just be managing my impending death, rather than living out my fullest life. Thank God for Betty Lindberg, who obviously is having none of that.

Last Saturday, Lindberg, who is already the 5K world record holder for her age group, just completed Atlanta’s Publix 5K, clocking in at 59 minutes and 6 seconds. This new accomplishment topped the record set for her age group at the USATF Masters 5K Championships.

The woman is a badass. A swift one at that.

Lindberg was greeted with flashing cameras and applause from fellow runners as she crossed the finish line. Still, the nonagenarian was oblivious to the fanfare as the first thing she did after crossing the timing mat was, of course, stop her watch.

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Since her first race in 1989, she has only missed one Peachtree Road Race.

At 91, Lindberg broke the world record in the 800m for women over 90 at an All Comers Track and Field Meet hosted by the Atlanta Track Club. Her time of 6:57.56 outdid the previous record of 6:59.18 set in 2001.

In her off-race hours, Lindberg works with a personal trainer three times a week in order to stay in top form. She runs six days a week (for her, a brisk walk) around her neighborhood.

Lindberg has been making local headlines for years with her racing exploits. She began running in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race, an annual 10K, after driving her children to the race’s starting line in 1988 and feeling inspired by the runners there. “I was watching all these people come running by, and I said, ‘I can do that,’” she told WXIA last year.

“I always say I’m never going to do it again,” Lindberg, then 97, told the news outlet in 2022. “I guess I just don’t know any better. As soon as I get across that finish line, all the aches and pains just disappear.”

Confirmation and affirmation that we keep moving, and keep on, keeping on. Our bodies were not just created to move, but to be challenged. Along with the Suduko, this is what keeps the brain supple, along with keeping the body from calcification and atrophy.

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It’s also about setting goals. The next race gives Lindberg something to look forward to, and it is something that does not involve another person—It’s all about her, and that’s a good thing. I have this George Elliot quote on my wall:

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

Just because a dream has not been fulfilled doesn’t mean it won’t be. Where there is life, there is always hope.

Atlanta loves its local celebrity, and in the video below, Atlanta News First profiled Lindberg for her 5K race. It will put a smile on your face, and inspire you to feel good about growing older. As the Irish proverb goes,

“Do not resent growing old, many are denied the privilege.”

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