At 95, Bill Benson still running strong

The Greater Long Island Running Club hosted a one-mile fun run to celebrate the 95th birthday of member and Valley Stream resident Bill Benson on July 22.

The run was held at Hendrickson Park, and was followed by a party for runners, friends and family.

Benson says he has been running races and logging miles since 1979 when he was 60 years old, although he first started running as a freshman at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. “I couldn’t join the team as a freshman,” Benson said. “So I would run everyday with the team until I could compete in meets as a sophomore.”

After taking a 32-year break from running in his life, Benson started up again by first walking, then signing up for 5K races and tracking his mileage. “I’ve ran a total of 924 races since then,” he said, “and I have logged 19,958 miles in total so far.”

The Greater Long Island Running Club is Long Island’s largest organization for runners across Nassau and Suffolk counties and hosts dozens of events for members and non-members each year. The club hosts monthly meetings that feature interesting programs, special clinics and road workouts, and offers discounts to local running stores. Members range in both age and ability level. Benson boasts that the club has 12 members that are 80 or older.

The party and one-mile run was met by beautiful weather and more than 200 participants in the race. Benson says he was very glad to see younger runners participating, “The youngest being my 3-year-old great-grandson, who finished the race before I did!”

Participants also brought canned goods to donate to Island Harvest and were given commemorative T-shirts to wear during the run. “Overall it was perfect,” Benson said. “The aura was great and so were the people that came out.”