5K walk/run attracts old, young

In many ways, Saturday was just another day for 91-year-old Myrl Hamilton. An avid walker five times per week, Hamilton awoke before the sun as she usually does to prepare for her three-mile walk.

The day was anything but ordinary.

As Hamilton crossed the finish line of the Deseret Morning News/KJZZ-TV 5K walk/run at Liberty Park, her accomplishment and age were announced to everyone over the speaker system. "Grandma Hamilton" was then rushed to a nearby tent to discuss her walk on a sports radio station.

As she strolled around the post-race refreshment tables, various strangers shouted words of encouragement for "Grandma Hamilton."

"It's just wonderful to be able to do this," said Hamilton, who usually walks her three miles in the neighborhood around Hogle Zoo. Hamilton also finds time to do aerobics three times per week, in addition to gardening in her yard.

She's leading the type of lifestyle Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper was referring to when he wrote his landmark book "Aerobics" in 1968. In the book Cooper said, "It is easier to maintain good health through proper exercise, diet and emotional balance than it is to regain it once it's lost."

That message hit home for Dick Harris, a journalist at one of Cooper's lectures in Dallas in 1975. A little overweight at the time, Harris decided to heed the doctor's advice about exercise. Twenty-eight years later, Harris is still exercising.

Harris, 85, was one of the many participants in Saturday's 5K walk, but like many people, he jogged throughout much of the course from the Delta Center to Liberty Park.

"I run almost every day in the Avenues," said Harris, a Salt Lake resident who spent most of his life living in California.

Saturday's noncompetitive 5K event brought out all kinds of runners.

For West Valley resident Daniel Moore, he would have preferred running the competitive 10K event, but he's battling a leg injury.

"I just didn't feel comfortable doing the 10K," said Moore, who says he suffers from IT band syndrome, an irritation to a band of fibrous tissue spanning the hip to the knee. Despite a few lingering effects from the injury, Moore ran what he called a "decent" 18 1/2-minute 5K.

Moore ran cross country the past two years at Weber State, but he's hoping to walk on at Utah State this fall.

Traci Neeley, 21, ran to support her father.

"We both wanted to do something together," said the Sugar House resident. "It's a fun activity, and it's outside — unlike going to the movie."

Neeley finished in 24.58, while her father, Gordon Ostler, finished in 28 minutes. Not bad for someone who only recently took up running.