When fitness lecturer and personal trainer Daniel Shelver reviewed my book, Running for Life, he referred to “inspiring stories from everyday heroes”. I like his label “everyday heroes” for the 10 local veteran runners whose stories and running tips I share in my book. So much so, that it has given me the idea of writing an “Everyday heroes” series in this blog in which I will briefly introduce some of the runners who feature in my book — and some who don’t.

Percy Dalton is 78 and still runs very fast — although when I recently complimented him on maintaining his speed at his age, he said there are some runners of his vintage who are faster. Well, I guess there are a few somewhere out there. But I wonder if any of them have run a half marathon every week for over five years like Percy and his friends in their Weekly Whacky Wednesday (WWW) club who meet for breakfast somewhere every Wednesday after their early-morning 21.1 km run. Actually, Percy missed one six weeks stretch during his WWW streaks when he was immobilised after a freak running accident three years ago — a story I share in my book.

Percy began running at the age of 36, to lose a little weight, and in his seventies he won the Men’s 70 to 74 category of the South African 10 km Championships in Middelburg in 2018 and the national 75+ Cross Country title in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) in 2023. At 78 it’s a bit tougher to make the podium in the very competitive 70+ category. But Percy is still a force to reckon with, and, as he shares in his racing strategy advice in my book, he always keeps on pushing right to the finish line, He says if anyone beats him “they deserve it because I’m going as well as I possibly can”. Watch out 80+ category in less that two years!