Never too old: Lifelong friends team up to run the Penn Relays
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (WPVI) -- Guy DeLillio didn't want a party for his 70th birthday. He just wanted to run in one of the greatest events of them all: The Penn Relays.
"I've run for decades, and then I retired from running when I was 50," he said. "About a year ago I realized that, geez, I'm in pretty good shape as I approached 70."
He started to make some phone calls to old friends from his running community. One of them was Jack Garniewski, who graduated from Salesianum High School with DeLillio in 1971.
"50 years ago, I ran in the Penn relays, but I haven't run here since," said Garniewski, who led the Master Mens' 4x100 60 and older relay race.
The team represented the nonprofit, Delaware Running Club, and came in sixth place with a time of 1:08.61.
"We didn't expect to win," said DeLillio. "But what they did, as a team, means more to me than anything else."
While today's event seemed like a great send-off for a lifetime of running, DeLillio thinks of it as a new beginning.
"I said I'm going to celebrate my birthday by ending the old decade and starting the new decade," he said. "And that was doing something extraordinary for someone my age."
The Penn Relays continues this weekend. To learn more, visit their website.
RELATED: 100-year-old South Jersey World War II veteran takes flight of a lifetime
