He’s 90 and still runs half-marathons. How this retired Korean-Canadian defies age

Yul Kwon rises at 6am and starts his day with stretches and a fitness regimen that includes planking for 60 to 90 seconds, 50 sit-ups, 50 squats, and standing on one leg for a minute and then the other – twice. He then eats a banana and, every other day, he heads out for a 10km (6.2-mile) run. That is an impressive regular warm-up for a 90-year-old. “Health is most important, so I put priority on my daily exercise,” says the sprightly Korean-Canadian, a retired economics professor living in Vancouver, Canada. The nonagenarian ran the BMO Vancouver Half Marathon in May, in three hours, 50 minutes and 33 seconds. He was disappointed to discover that he came last in the 85-89 age group as there was no 90-plus division. Kwon said to a local newspaper that it was unfair for someone in their nineties to compete against runners in their eighties, and he asked the marathon organisers to consider opening a new age category for him. They obliged. Fitness has been a big part of Kwon’s life since his mid-forties when he took up tennis, although he had to stop playing after developing tennis elbow. When his daughter, Janice – now a surgical gynaecologic oncologist at Vancouver General Hospital and BC Cancer – started running as a student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, she suggested Kwon take up the sport. He told her he would think about it. A few years later, in 1996, he and his wife Joanne moved from the Canadian province of Saskatchewan to Brisbane, Australia, where he took up a post at Griffith University. That year, at the age of 60, he began running seriously and took part in his first 10km race. “My colleague at the university was a marathon runner, younger … and taller than me, and we both ran the 10km,” Kwon says. “Afterwards, he asked me how I did, and I said I struggled and finished. He asked what my time was, and I said it was 56 minutes, something like that. He said, ‘You are faster than me!’ After that, I was kind of encouraged.” He continued running 10km races before graduating to his first half-marathon – 21km (13 miles) – three years later. “The tiredness and difficulty increased in proportion to the distance,” he says. “In my first half marathon, I wasn’t trained to have a long run. I had … blisters and one of them broke. It was a very terrible experience. “I really struggled and as soon as I finished, I looked down on the ground at my foot and saw blood all over it.” Overcoming adversity from a young age Born into a family of farmers in Masan, South Korea, Kwon is used to physical pain and adversity. “I grew up in a very poor rural village in Korea that was devastated by [the Korean] war and poverty, and I really struggled all my life,” he says. He went barefoot as a child until he was taught to make rice-straw sandals at four. At five, and jealous that his older sister got to go to school, Kwon was determined to get an education. Of all his siblings, he is the only one to graduate from high school and go to university. He first worked in the Bank of Korea’s research department, writing monthly bulletins on the national economy. That led him to study economics. “My parents and I never dreamed of me going to university, but I managed it by myself,” he says. This perseverance helped him develop true grit. “When I had that difficult experience doing the half marathon, I knew I was not going to quit. I would rather watch the problem and try to fix it,” Kwon says. He continued running half marathons and, at the age of 68, ran his first full marathon in Brisbane in 2004, in four hours and eight minutes. “My daughter called after I finished, and when I told her my time, she said I qualified for the Boston Marathon.” Kwon took part in that race – the world’s oldest annual marathon – the next year. The day before, instead of resting, he ran around 10km with his son and daughter. During the race, Kwon’s right thigh began cramping up at the 25km mark. “It was like a stone; I never had that kind of experience before,” he recalls. “Then my left leg had a cramp too. I struggled to move and then walked.” Spectators asked if he wanted to call an ambulance, but he knew it would mean disqualification, so he carried on. His finishing time was so bad that he does not remember it. Afterwards, he read up on marathon preparation, learning that runners should taper off training two weeks before a race, and not run at all two or three days before. He began running a few marathons each year, always checking his watch to keep pace – his average pace is 1km in six minutes. “I like to look at a person 20 or 30 metres in front of me and set a target of passing them, usually ladies,” he says with a chuckle. When he turned 80, a decade after his first Boston Marathon, he redeemed himself with his second race entry, finishing first in his age group, in four hours and 31 minutes. He ran marathons regularly up until 2019 when Covid-19 began to spread. There were no marathon races during the pandemic, so Kwon regularly ran 10km on his own. When races resumed in 2022, Kwon focused on half marathons. “I do not have enough time to do all this endurance training. When you get to my age of 90, you know the end of your life is coming, so I would like to achieve something before that. So that’s why I’m busy,” he says. Other pursuits include completing academic books and his Korean-language memoir. His memoir took two years to write and, unable to find a translator, he is using AI to translate it into English himself. Mediterranean diet and regular sleep key to longevity Kwon is diligent about maintaining his weight at 55kg (121lbs), and he is careful about what he eats, preferring a Mediterranean diet. For breakfast, he eats yogurt and oatmeal with berries, while lunch consists of fruit, half a muffin and a boiled egg or salad. For dinner, he has salmon, mackerel or chicken. Two to three times a week, he will have Korean dishes like kimchi and tofu soup with rice. “When I went back to Korea [to visit], some friends gave me a [custom] suit as a gift. I had many suits tailor-made 30-40 years ago, and I can still wear them,” he says with a laugh. Sleep is crucial for Kwon. He goes to bed by 11pm, and he starts his day at 6am. Kwon’s wife died nine years ago. Today, he lives in a retirement community on the University of British Columbia campus, close to his three grandchildren and his children – both of whom have followed demanding paths in medicine. While Janice treats patients as a gynaecologic oncologist, his son, Brian, is an orthopaedic spine surgeon. The two practise out of the same Vancouver General Hospital campus. Seeing his children thrive in their careers brings Kwon comfort, but his own focus remains firmly on making the most of every day. “I’m very happy,” he says. “To be happy, you have to have good health, and I have a lot of things to do. Although I am busy, I don’t have the sort of stress young people have. I try not to have stress intentionally.” Every morning, he makes a wish: that he will be running marathon events at the age of 100. Like what you read? Follow SCMP Lifestyle on Instagram. You can also sign up for our eNewsletter here.

He’s 90 and still runs half-marathons. How this retired Korean-Canadian defies age

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Meet Yul Kwon, a nonagenarian who maintains his endurance through daily exercise, a Mediterranean diet and a focus on sleep

Meet Yul Kwon, a nonagenarian who maintains his endurance through daily exercise, a Mediterranean diet and a focus on sleep