Run Grandad Run True North

This programme contains some strong language.

The world's population is growing older.

But getting older isn't what it used to be. All across the world,

the elderly are throwing away their Zimmer frames

and competing instead for gold medals and world records.

If you're still vertical, you're still in the game.

These are the people who refuse to grow old.

Amongst them is 91-year-old great grandad John McKeag.

I sit on this for about 40 minutes.

You do break into a sweat.

Meanwhile, 71-year-old spring chicken Patsy Forbes

has his sights set on being crowned the world's fastest man over 70.

People might think that we're crazy but we're keeping young,

feeling young. We're looking after our health.

Later this year Patsy will travel to Turin, where he'll take part

in the World Masters Games - the Olympics for grannies and grandads.

This is the world of Masters Athletics,

where men and women grow bolder as they get older,

and where the ultimate battle is with age itself.

I don't feel 91. That is the problem, maybe.

I don't feel 91.

You know, it doesn't give me a problem being 91.

I just take every day as it comes and make the best of it.

I wouldn't like... to have nothing to do.

I have to be doing something every day.

Either cycle or running or a bit of work about the house

-or out in the garden.

-He's a bit of a wee stubborn Superman.

Wee, independent, stubborn Superman. But, yes, Superman, yes.

-Can he hear me?

-No, no, it's all right being independent...

-You need to be independent.

-Yes, but...

There'll come a time where you can't be too independent,

-you might need a bit of help.

-That's true.

So, it's nice to know that you can fall back on people

for a bit of help...

-If you need it.

-..if you need it.

I have never, in 21 years, since my mother died, washed a shirt,

cleaned his house, ironed a shirt, did washing for him.

I've done nothing for him.

Nothing. Except maybe his PA. That's it.

ALL: # Happy birthday, dear John

# Happy birthday to you. #

All right, go!

CHEERING

LAUGHTER

19 again!

71-year-old Patsy Forbes is one of the world's fastest pensioners.

Today, he's training with friend Desy and son Brian,

himself a former Commonwealth athlete.

Brian is preparing Patsy to compete in the World Masters Games in Turin.

As far as getting old - don't think about it.

Desy doesn't think very much about it, I don't think about it.

We just... There's different stages of life, isn't there?

But haven't thought about getting older.

He's very driven.

And that's what got him into a lot of things.

Through life, everything he does he takes 100% serious.

He never knows when he's beaten, which is a great quality to have.

But, you know, he's very competitive.

Well, he's me son but Brian is like a brother.

Very good brother.

And from a training point of view he knows what it's all about

and I'm happy to listen to him.

If he says do whatever you have to do, I do it, you know?

It's a chance to bond with your father,

where maybe plenty of other people at this age,

maybe the relationship's fallen apart or it's moving apart.

But, no, it keeps contact and there's always something

to talk about and something that you have you can relate to.

Cos he does the same sessions as me a lot of the time.

In the autumn of his sporting career, being crowned

World Champion would be Patsy's greatest ever achievement.

But one major obstacle stands in his way.

There's a German competitor called Guido Muller who's, you know,

he's one of a generation, he is brilliant.

He can beat most athletes in the age groups below him,

so he's the main man in that age group.

But I'll be happy if I could get a medal.

Bronze medal, silver would be brilliant,

gold would absolutely be brilliant. If I got a medal I'll be happy.

Despite being in his tenth decade,

John McKeag is still following a punishing training regime.

An eye condition prevents John from driving,

so he now relies on his bike to get around.

I train on a Tuesday, running.

And then if it's a good day I would have the bike out on the road.

And if it's a reasonable day, I could do 35, 40 miles.

But if the weather's bad during the week I use a turbo trainer.

And you can look at the TV or whatever.

I just look out through the window.

These are some of my medals I've won over the years.

1942, the McConnell Shield.

Which was my first race cross-country.

73 years on the road and the fields.

Yeah, 73 years.

I still enjoy it.

I still enjoy to go out for a run.

It's nice to be out and about.

I'll do it while I'm able.

I started in the shipyard and was only getting

six and a penny every week,

32p a week in the shipyard.

And if I travelled on a bus or a train I hadn't much to give my mum.

But I decided to buy...

My mum and I went up to Cochrane's

and we got bought a new bike, a BSA.

So, that's what started me off, this new bike.

Riding to the shipyard.

This is where I sat 73 years ago when I joined a club.

The very same spot here.

So, here I am today, still sitting in the same spot.

And it just brings back memories to me,

all these seating, all these forms all round.

Runners were ready to go out for the run but...

Happy memories and a good lot of them have passed on. Not here any more.

It was very primitive then.

There was no heating, no showers.

There was a fire somewhere in the centre of the building here.

And went out training, out in the fields,

out in the back here in the dark winter nights.

Come in, get the hot water, the buckets into an old bath,

and that's where we got a leg washed.

If you were getting one leg in you were lucky.

If you're late coming in you put your leg into a couple of inches of mud.

I met my wife and she came from Cumber. So she did.

So, how I met her was when I was cycling and my wife worked in Cumber.

For some reason when I was cycling down,

when I was coming home from work,

I was meeting all these girls coming out of a clothes factory in Cumber

and she worked there.

I got my eye on this...brown-eyed, dark haired girl coming out of work.

And for some reason, got to know her, stopped the bike.

And had a bit of a chat with her.

And it went from there and I used to get in a bit of trouble

when I arrived home for my dinner.

My mum says, "Where were you? What kept you?"

I had to home before this,

you know, so I was talking to Isabel then for maybe half an hour.

I've been blessed with good health

and it goes to prove that being active and the motivation

to go out there even now at my age, and you get the satisfaction

after you do these things when you become a certain age.

And there's no reason why people can't carry on in their old age

taking part in sport.

And the other side of it, meeting people,

socialising and getting involved.

I go to different races now and talking to people down memory lane...

Patsy has arrived at the World Masters Games in Turin,

along with daughter Claire.

This is his first experience of competing at world championship

level and the enormity of the challenge ahead is sinking in.

The over-70s record for 100m is 12.77 seconds.

Which is, like, three seconds slower than Usain Bolt, which is crazy.

That's like one, two, three and those guys will be

coming over the line behind Usain Bolt. It's crazy.

At our age you have to be kind of, you know,

or there's no point being there.

As his race approaches, Patsy seems tense

but a meeting with some other Irish team members calms his nerves.

-How you keeping?

-Very good. How are you, yourself?

-Great.

-Still representing Ireland, are you?

-How's the body?

-Good.

-The body's good.

-How's the mind?

-Mind's good.

-That's all that matters...

We've always been twins

so we don't know what it's like not to be a twin.

The fact that we're both in athletics is just coincidental.

-Have you been competing here?

-Yes, I did, yesterday.

-How'd you do?

Eh...grand!

-Not marvellous.

-She did the shot.

-The shot-put.

-You got third place. You've got a bronze medal.

Absolutely brilliant.

-Pleased about that.

-Absolutely!

You see, I've had three strokes

and it takes a bit of... edginess out of me.

-She puts herself down all the time - "I'm going to be last."

-I'm useless!

No, you're not. You've got to think, you're not useless, by any means.

Girls didn't do athletics when we were playing tennis.

Mother would not approve.

Our father would not approve.

"No," he says. "Not for ladies."

Isn't it hilarious, really?

My attitude - keep going as long as I can for as well as I can.

Meanwhile, Patsy is preparing to compete.

The heats are on there now already, so you've got...

Dad's in the first heat.

And there's only two heats so it's the first three through in each one.

-Yeah, you would be the favourite.

-Oh, I don't know about that.

I get really nervous before and also feel sick

but then full of pride for Dad as well but I get really nervous.

I'm worried now because he should be here and he's off getting changed.

I need to find out where he's at and things like that

cos otherwise he's going to miss his call times.

Got two Australians and two Italians and a Lithuanian.

-You need to go down there.

-OK.

OK, see you.

I'm cross because he come out and he hadn't got his spikes on,

which takes maybe a good five minutes to put them on and he was sitting

down when everybody else was waiting on him, they were getting agitated.

And then because they'd all different styles of starting,

that threw Dad off as well cos one guy was standing,

one was half and one was fully down, which Dad's not used to.

STARTING PISTOL FIRES

The guy in lane five false started and I thought it was Dad,

so that kind of threw him as well cos he hasn't been in a false start

situation before.

STARTING PISTOL FIRES

And then when they put up a black and green card, I don't know

if he was aware, he thought he was disqualified cos it was second.

But then the guy said, "No, you go ahead and run."

So, I'll speak to him later about all of that.

STARTING PISTOL FIRES

CHEERING

Despite being nearly disqualified, Patsy has won his heat

and is through to the final.

But in the second semifinal is his arch rival Guido Muller.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Guido has won his race comfortably,

but with a slightly slower time than Patsy.

Tomorrow, Guido and Patsy will meet in the final.

We'll see tomorrow what happens. We'll give it a go anyway.

Get a few starts first done and...

But I was prepared, I done a good warm-up. Everything was right.

Just a wee bit tight coming out on time.

Can't happen tomorrow cos then he'll be agitated.

John McKeag has arrived in the Isle of Man for their annual marathon.

John has been coming to the event for 21 years but this year

he won't be competing because he's recently injured his foot.

My heads wants a run but my body doesn't want to.

It's a problem now.

At running, you have a good day and bad day.

Here we go.

CHATTING

Isabel was the only girl that I ever went out with.

And we were childhood sweethearts, so we were.

Isabel never was ill in her life. She never had the flu.

And then one day we're in Belfast and she says to me,

"John, I'm not feeling too well. I think I'll go home."

It was a bad old day.

She got considerably worse and Isabel had a heart attack.

She was getting over the heart attack and she says to me,

"John, my eyes are funny.

"I've got a vision, you know, a blurred vision."

And then they sent her for a scan and they found she had a massive stroke.

I would say she died, you know,

the way she went in the hospital.

She didn't lose any weight or anything like that.

No features was changed or anything.

So, it was a big, big blow to me

and all the family because Isabel and I were always together.

And when Isabel died it was a big loss to me.

And I had a motor home then

and every time I went out in the motor home I didn't go too far.

Nobody beside me. Isabel wasn't there.

She wasn't there.

It broke his heart when she died and he couldn't even go

and sit in his own house. He sat in my house for about a year.

And, erm...

Running and cycling saved his life, I would say.

He just put his heart and soul into it.

And I started to come to the Isle of Man and that helped me

to get among people, having conversations

and even talking about Isabel, because it brought back memories

when I was speaking about her.

It kept her fresh in my mind.

That's life.

You can't do anything about these things at all and somebody's

taken away from you, you can't just lie down and that's it.

You can't do anything about it.

-Have a good run.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

-Thank you.

-Well done.

I was born in 1942.

But I was born up here in Drumads outside Coagh.

I wasn't in the hub of our group.

And I would have been on the farm with my uncle

and my grandmother and grandfather.

This road was tarmaced in maybe around 1960.

Around that time. But it was like that, the road was like that.

Lots of stones, even rougher than that.

And as wee boy I used to run about in my bare feet.

I could run on them stones as if, no shoes,

love running through fields in your bare feet, you know?

And the neighbours, I used to be friendly with all them

and they used to ask me, "Let me see you run on the stones."

They thought this was great, you know?

Would have played sometimes down the bottom field there, kick football.

But a lot of football I played against the wall.

I could have kicked the ball against the wall.

I spend hours, you know, kicking the ball against the wall on me own.

Full of energy, yes. All the time.

I suppose round about that time

I decided I wanted to go to the boxing in Cookstown.

I seen these photographs in the paper

and I read about the boxing in Cookstown.

So, I got on me bicycle and went into Cookstown on the bicycle.

Cos you went everywhere on your bicycle, you know?

A lot of people used to ask me, "Could you beat Percy Forbes?"

I'd say, "Now, I'd hate to have to find out.

Then another question was, "What kind of boxer was Patsy Forbes?"

And I always said, "Patsy Forbes would fight anybody anywhere."

Right, lads, what about a round?

-No bother.

-Been looking forward for years.

Shake hands and come out fighting.

After 60 years of success in a range of sports,

Patsy retains his overwhelming desire to win.

If somebody had said to me, "You need to look at yourself.

"You'll have a heart attack." You know?

And somebody else said, "God, you need to catch yourself on."

And there's other people say,

"This is great, I love to see you doing that."

And I said, "Why do you want to see me doing it?"

"Well, you're ten years older than me and it means I can keep going, too."

Back in Belfast, John is off to see a sports injury specialist

about his injured foot.

Yes, a bit sore...just there. In there, yes.

HE LAUGHS

-Yeah.

-I think we've found the...

-Found the culprit.

-The main culprit.

Yeah.

-Yeah.

-It looks as if it's your plantar fascia.

-Pardon?

There's another thing I done.

I was out cycling in the morning and I didn't take my cycling shoes off.

And I walked for two hours on my cycling shoes in Tollymore Forest.

But they were quite sturdy shoes.

-So they were. I thought they were ideal for walking.

-Right, OK.

It will be a new one on my, mind you, but, right.

And how long ago was that?

That's two weeks ago - three weeks ago.

Three weeks, maybe?

-Yes.

-How long have you got this condition?

About, yes, two to three weeks. Three weeks. You're glad I mentioned that?

I'm very glad you mentioned that.

-OK.

-Think we'll put an end to walking in the cycling shoes.

I get a phone call...

Before every major competition, I get a phone call the day before.

It's basically my father.

It's a reinforcement. He asks me what he should be doing.

He knows what he should be doing but he wants to hear it again.

Six o'clock tomorrow morning.

Got to get up at six.

What he should be drinking, what he should be eating.

Food's first class, very good, first class.

So, if we're going down to the stadium then what I'll do is

get organised, make sure...

I'll maybe check out my spikes, just to make sure.

He knows all these things

but it's just a ritual he has that obviously I'm happy to take part in.

Every major competition, the day before.

So, that's grand, Brian. So, good luck. See you.

Bye, thank you. Bye-bye, bye-bye.

STARTING PISTOL FIRES

There's your lane, four.

In 13.93. And then Guido on the other side is 14.16.

ALL CHATTING

Bye-bye, Grandpa.

It's now Patsy versus Guido in the final of the 100m.

The winner will be the world's fastest man over 70.

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

STARTING PISTOL FIRES

CHEERING

DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES

Guido has won.

DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES

It's good.

I'm glad to get a medal, you know, happy to get a medal.

But happy to get second place.

He was hard to beat, he's hard to beat.

He is the world record holder, so.

And over 70, so.

But...

it's good to be there, good to take part.

Meanwhile, John hopes that his foot has recovered,

and is preparing to run a 5K race.

John will be the first person over 90 ever

to have completed the course.

I'll feel better when I get started.

After about a quarter of a mile over, "How do I feel?" You know?

It's just getting going.

Should be OK. We'll see what happens.

We'll just it nice and steady. Yes.

DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS

Come on, John!

Super running, John!

Super running, John. 12 minutes 48, 49. 12 minutes 50.

The day of the funeral was massive, so it was.

And they wanted to...

Well, I didn't want it in the church, I wanted her in her own home

because she loved home.

She loved home.

And I says, "No, we'll have the funeral from the house,

"which she loved."

And the flowers were massive that day on the grave after she was buried,

with all the graves all round that area.

Cos I bought all those graves where Isabel's buried today.

I bought those graves all next to her.

And I'll be there, Anne'll be there.

Who goes first, who knows?

So, we'll all be together one day.

I was always happy to get a medal and I'm happy to get a medal

because you're competing with runners from all over the world.

So, look, I'm relieved to get a medal.

Maybe somebody might say to themselves,

"Oh, them old boys, they're so old and all that there."

But I can tell you, I have played sport all my life.

It's the same, the whole build-up doesn't change.

You're a competitor and you go out there to do your best.

And you are a competitor,

so it's not going to change to whatever time you can't walk.

You know, that's the way it is.