He ran his first marathon at age 73. At 91, he's still running
WEYMOUTH, Mass. − It is the day before Thanksgiving and although Larry Cole slept in for an extra half hour, he is still one of the first ones outdoors getting in his exercise.
"I'm running late this morning," he says as he rounds a bend and stops inside the clubhouse in the retirement community where he lives before heading out again at 9 a.m. The past two days before the holiday have been especially busy.
Seeing him jog slowly but steadily down the street, few would guess that this is a gentleman who at age 91 competes regularly in road races around the area and on Cape Cod.
He has completed nine marathons, three in Boston and two Marine Corps Marathons. He especially likes running on the grounds of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station because of the wide roads with bike lanes and miles of sidewalks.
The only indication of his advanced age is perhaps the slight forward lean. He wears a back brace under his clothing when he runs and sometimes carries a cane that he uses for balance when he slows to a walk.
At 85, Larry Cole was the oldest finisher in the Boston Marathon
A half-dozen of his neighbors at the Union Point community have gathered to cheer him on before his next charity race a few days later in Dennis, Massachusetts. Cole is a member of the New England 65 Plus Runners Club and the Cape Cod Athletic Club.
In 2019, at age 85, he was the oldest finisher in the Boston Marathon. The year before, he served as co-grand marshal of the event as it honored the 100th anniversary of the World War I-era Boston Marathon of 1918. (The grand marshals were selected for their past military service and Cole served in the Army in the Korean War.)
Cole is well-known in his community, not only for his athletic abilities but also for his friendly, helpful personality, civic responsibilities and as an aficionado of India pale ales, or IPA. He loves to arrange evenings out at local craft beer establishments, including events known as Suds for Seniors.
"Larry has a real zest for life and a youthful spirit that allows him to be friends with people who are decades younger," his running friend John Goldrosen, 74, said. "He is a joy to be around."
Cole moved to Weymouth in Massachusetts' South Shore region during the pandemic in 2020. He moved from the Cape, where he had served as a selectman in Harwich. His wife Loretta, 77, had died in 2009; their house had become much too large, and he wanted to downsize.
Cole, who retired in 1997 from a career in economics, now serves on the retirement community's finance committee and gives lectures on foreign policy for residents, who have dubbed him a "go-to person."
"Larry Cole is a well-rounded Renaissance man," Rosella Cicchese, a fellow resident, said. "Larry sets the bar higher for all of us."
Pacemaker, bursitis, arthritis, cancer, new hip − nothing stops Larry Cole
Cole also impresses others with how he has handled different medical setbacks.
He kept running through painful bursitis in his right hip, osteoarthritis in his lower back, treatment for an irregular heartbeat, is on his third pacemaker, and in 2015, had six weeks of radiation therapy for prostate cancer. (A few days after that final radiation treatment, he ran a 5-mile race.).
In 2020, he had a hip replacement that left him with a limp when he walks but not when he runs.
"None of it stops him; he is an amazing man'" Walsh said.
After he dislocated his shoulder while stretching on Nov. 2 and it was reset, he kept running, using a sling for a week. He did make one concession − the 7-mile Falmouth in the Fall road race was the day after he fell, and he walked that one with his cane.
"It took me only slightly longer than if I had run it," he said.
His life story is a testament to perseverance and trying new things. Although he started running in high school at Vermont Academy in 1951, he didn't run his first marathon until he was 73 in 2006 and was asked to help represent the American Stroke Association. (His wife, Loretta, survived a stroke at age 56 in 1987 and the couple became active in the organization.) He played old timers ice hockey until he was 81.
He enjoys the post-race microbrews
Joyce Haglund of Quincy, a former community manager, admires Cole as "one for whom age is not an excuse, though it may slow him down now and again."
"Larry is brilliant, funny and a lot of fun to be around," Haglund said. "And he is a very dedicated runner, though I think he often enjoys the post-race microbrew more than the race itself. He is one in a million, for sure."
Cole's approach to life reinforces the benefits of connecting with people in one's later years.
"I still enjoy the races," he said, "but the post-race parties with my friends have become the most frequent aspect of my social life. I focus on joining races with a post-race party with beer."
His parents always said, 'Finish what you start'
Neighbor Bette Hanian said the best word to describe Cole is "driven because he continues to run races into his 90s."
Asked why running means so much to him, Cole thought back to his formative years in Keene, New Hampshire, and said he had always loved sports and started running as a kid.
"My parents were both involved in community activities and encouraged me to do things as a child and to finish what I started," he said.
Having run now for 73 years, he clearly is not finished yet. On Nov. 30, he finished a Thanksgiving road race – coming in 292nd out of 414 runners.
Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.