Running Past Fifty by Gail Waesche Kislevitz

Author:Gail Waesche Kislevitz
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510736306
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2018-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

Robert Lida

DOB: November 11, 1936

Residence: Wichita, Kansas

Bob Lida

“I used to be fast. Now I am just fast for my age.”

When Ken Stone, athlete, writer, and webmaster of masterstrack.blog suggests I interview someone, I jump on it. He never lets me down and he hit a home run with Bob Lida. When I called Bob at home in Kansas, he had just returned from walking his dog five miles in minus 17-degree weather. That says something about how tough he is but he is also engaging, self-deprecating, and charming. He pushes himself but that’s what you have to do to set age group world records. In 2012, seventy-six-year-old Bob Lida, having already accumulated five world records in his age group and been inducted in two Hall of Fames, thought, I hope I can keep running until I’m eighty. I’m going to keep pushing myself until I can’t push any longer. That’s what I love to do.

Now eighty-one, this former University of Kansas sprinter has a total of elven American records and nine world records in the seventy-five-to-eighty age group. He was also selected as the World Masters Athlete best male masters of 2017, adding to his 2012 title of Best Masters of the World award received from the International Association of Athletics Federation in Barcelona, Spain. He’s only one of five Americans to receive such an honor and the only American to win it twice.

He’s been profiled in the New York Times, among other media outlets, not only for his speed but his dedicated work ethic, respect for others, his gracious attitude, and uplifting personality. Lida is laughing at the typical stereotypes of aging—that rocking chair—and is running fast in the opposite direction.

Lida grew up in Kansas City. He credits with his strong belief in being responsible for your actions. “Just remember that what you do will reflect on the entire family,” he states. “She [Lida’s mother] didn’t expect us to win every time but we damn well better have given our all, and she’d know if we didn’t.” He still hears his mother’s voice in his head with that message.

His older brother, ten years his senior, was a great athlete in high school and when Lida came along the coaches were expecting another great Lida athlete. What they got instead was a ninety-eight-pound, short kid who wasn’t great at anything. He wanted to play football and had to get a doctor’s note to clear him to play because of his size. “What a joke that was,” he laughs. His mother bought him football shoes four sizes too large, knowing that sooner or later he’d have a growth spurt. “I can recall stuffing paper towels into the toes of my shoes so I could wear them,” he laughs. As a freshman he didn’t make the team, but by his junior year he had that growth spurt his mother and tried out again. On the first day of practice during a running drill, he sprinted down the field. When the football coach saw him run, he called the track coach and said, “I think you need to see this kid.

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