AT H L E T E W I T H I M PAC T
The Octogenarian Record-Breaker Age is no boundary for Newfoundland runner Florence Barron BY COLEMAN MOLNAR TRUDIE LEE Canadian writer and journalist. Find him wherever there’s sunshine and Wi-Fi, from Vancouver, B.C. LIETCO
CLOTHING: DECATHLON CANADA
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here are few runners on the island province of Newfoundland who draw as much fanfare as Florence Barron. It’s perhaps not surprising that the crowds cheer so enthusiastically when she runs by, because Barron is precisely what you look for in a role model athlete: disciplined, ambitious, talented, kind, and dominant amongst her peers. In short, an inspiration. And at 84 years old, she’s very fast, too. “There’s no one for me to beat” says Barron, commenting on the local competition within her age category. “So, I’m just running for the joy of running.” Indeed, Barron moves with an efficient and considered stride, and wears the casual expression of someone who’s enjoying the journey as much as she is looking forward to the destination. The St. John’s resident discovered the sport at age 59 after a lifetime of activity—cycling, swimming, skating, skiing, often with her five children—when she signed up for the province’s oldest and most well-attended event, the Tely 10 Mile Road Race, on a whim. “I thought, ‘well, I can do aerobics for a couple of hours, so I guess I could go and run that race with everybody else,’” she says. “Without a bit of training, I went, and I ran the ten miles and got the first-place trophy for my age.”
46 I Running Issue I IMPACT MAGAZINE
