Most 69-year-olds are starting to slow down. Not Carter Jones, who is director of Jacksonville’s Senior Citizen Program, Jones ran in his first marathon, the Mercedes Marathon, in Birmingham on Feb. 11.Running races is not a novelty to Jones who has run in many 5K’s, 10K’s, 15K’s and even half-marathons. The Chief Ladiga Trail half-marathon came about as a result of Jones’ efforts. The marathon however, was something that Jones had never attempted until now.
Jones became interested in running the Mercedes Marathon when he received a flyer in the mail advertising that Team-in-Training was going to be involved with the event. Team-in-training pairs up with runners to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with the runners getting sponsors to donate money for the cause.
The idea of running in this race immediately appealed to Jones who lost his sister Julia to Hodgkin’s disease in 1984. Jones, who wakes up at 4:30 and runs three to six miles every other day, starting training with more intensity last September, increasing the distance of his weekly long runs.
In addition to the running, Jones set out on his task of raising money for the worthy cause. He sent out 400 letters to corporations and individuals asking for donations; he received over 100 letters back, raising $8,200. Midway through his training Jones sent out other letters giving a progress report to his donors of how he was doing. The money raised by Jones was the most money raised by anyone in Alabama. The night before the Mercedes Marathon Jones was honored for his efforts.
Jones was well prepared for the 26.2-mile race. “I felt real good about it,” admits Jones. “In my heart I felt warm about the race. I wore a bracelet with my sister’s name on it and looked at it now and then and remembered our childhood and about the time she died.”
Jones who finished 590 out of 684 finishers with a time of 5:10 had a lot of time to reflect on many things as he ran the 26-mile endurance race. “I looked in front of me at all the runners and thought of how people talk about people in Alabama being unfit. Here were all these people running and it just really got to me. While I ran, I prayed, I sang (in my head) I reflected on the meaning of life, on values and future aspirations.”
The race, which started out in 20-degree temperature, warmed up into the high 40’s. Jones recalls that he never “hit the wall”; never got tired or discouraged. Jones was in such good shape that the day after the marathon he and his wife Elizabeth went dancing and he taught a fitness class two days later.
Jones, who started running at the age of 60 “for health and mental well-being,” says his next venture is to run in more local 5 and 10K’s.
Will he ever run another marathon? “Don’t tell my wife,“ joked Jones, “but I probably will run again!”
