Francois Font (born in 1944), now 62 years old, recently ran 1:19 for the Half Marathon in Nice, South of France.
The time is not only outstanding for someone his age, but another fact which is interesting is that Font hardly trains anymore, contenting himself with 3 runs a week, for a total of about 30 kilometres a week (about 18 miles a week).
When living and working as a teacher in France (1996-98) I first became aware of this phenomenon when Francois won the Regional cross country for Masters at age 54, beating all the younger masters (age 40+).......
At the time (in the 1996-98 period), Francois was training only a little bit more than now - 4 times a week with a key 5 times 1000 on the track with Odile Ohier, with an average in the 3:15-3:20 times.....that was his key session.
The retired engineer, has to be one of the most talented runners in the world (at least in his age group), but despite urging by me, and many others, he refuses to travel overseas to take part in World Championships for Masters his age......
Just accross the border in Italy, there is another famous over '60' by the name of Luciano Aquarone, who can still post times in the 35' area for 10km road.
Francois Font was never that good as a senior (around 32" for 10.000).....but what sets him apart is that instead of slowing drastically between the age of 40 and 60, his decline has been very minimal. At age 57 he ran 32:50' for 10.000! Last year at age 61 he posted a 33:44' time for 10km roads (Marseilles).
A truly astonishing and surprising runner, with natural ability.