The New England Journal of Medicine recently featured University of Delaware’s Bill Farquhar and other researchers from UD and Mayo Clinic in providing details about the physiological profile of a 71-year-old marathoner from Pennsylvania who seems to defy nature by running faster the older he gets.

Farquhar is a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology within the College of Health Sciences. He and his team used words like “exceptional” and “remarkable” to describe the performance data of Gene Dykes, 71, who ran a marathon in two hours, 54 minutes and 23 seconds in December, unofficially the fastest time on record for a man over the age of 70. (It would have been a world record for his age group, but the race was not on a course sanctioned by the USA Track and Field, the governing body for the sport in the United States.)

On April 15, Dykes broke his own age-group record in the Boston Marathon, racing the storied 26.2-mile course in 2:58:50, earning the course record in the men’s 70-to-74-year-old group.  

“I think no doubt he is unique,” Farquhar said. “Compared to a typical 70-year-old, his numbers are incredibly high.”

Dykes, who lives in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, visited UD’s Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus in August 2018 at the invitation of Farquhar, who knew him from a local running group. While at the Health Sciences Complex, Dykes underwent several performance tests measuring his maximal aerobic capacity, lactate threshold, running economy and body composition.

The testing was the first time Dykes had ever run on a treadmill — and likely his last.

“I’m certain I will never want to do that again,” Dykes said. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, because when you run you always succeed — you reach the finish line, you finish your workout. It’s always on a note of success. But when you work out on a treadmill for this testing, they test you to the point of failure. All of a sudden, you can’t go another step.”