The Legacy Team puts lifelong running in the spotlight

What if the ultimate performance was simply continuing to run for decades? That is the idea behind Altra’s The Legacy Team, a British team of four runners aged between 75 and 85 who have clocked up a combined 321 years. The brand wants to pass on the experience of runners who have made longevity a genuine philosophy of practice to the next generation.

Four journeys, one shared passion

At 82, Peter Giles is described as the fastest British man over 80 on 5K. His advice to younger runners? Do not always try to do more. “Many young runners train too much and make things unnecessarily complicated. Whatever your age, it is important to build good habits. My advice is to listen to your body.”

Alongside him, Rajinder Singh MBE, 79, is the oldest runner in the British Sikh community. Laurence Cummings, 85, has set 204 parkrun records across different age categories. Finally, Pritpal Kaur, 75, completed the London Marathon this year, becoming the oldest British woman of Asian heritage to finish the race.

Running for the long haul

The campaign is based on research commissioned by Altra, which found that the average British runner stops running at 39. One in three people who quit cite injury as the main reason, while more than half of the runners surveyed say they have already taken a break of at least three months. Those figures provide the starting point for The Legacy Team’s central question: how can running become a practice we can maintain throughout our lives?

Pritpal Kaur sums up that philosophy simply: “Take care of your body and your body will take care of you. Running helps us both physically and mentally. It gives us so much, and it is free.”

To give the project an added dimension, all four members were photographed by acclaimed British photographer John Rankin Waddell. It is another way of highlighting a different kind of performance: longevity. Later this year, Altra will also publish The Long Run, a free book bringing together the four runners’ advice and experiences.

Ultimately, the American brand is championing a simple idea: success in running is not measured by the clock alone, but also by the ability to keep running ten, twenty or thirty years from now. It is a fine lesson in running, where the best time may be the one we keep adding to year after year, with passion.