At 77, he is happy at the New York marathon

What better marathon (42.195 km) than New York to celebrate? Ten days ago, in the middle of a peloton of 55,524 runners, Paolo Di Silvio (77 years old) completed his fourteenth year (previously Beijing, Paris, Rome, Chicago, Cologne …) and the last marathon… “I suffered so much in the second one. half that once I crossed the line, I promised that I would not be caught again, after finishing the first one too fast in 2h08, laughing the Barcaresian, He reached Roussillon in 2010, from his native Belgium, when he retired. This shows that we can have knowledge and still make mistakes But since then, I am not sure about anything today. We’ll see if I don’t make fifteen…” continues with malice the man who has a record of 3h01 over distance (New York at 53 and Rome at 56). Especially since New York must have been a special race. “My wife (Edith), my two daughters (Sandra and Sarah) and my three children (Léane, 22 years old, Maéva, 20 years old and Lyne, 12 years old) had to go together to me ” A true family adventure. Unfortunately her eldest daughter had to look after her sick mother in Belgium. “Having them close to me was such a big driver,” explained “Babbo”, his nickname, who was racing for the fourth time in New York. “Even though I was doing between 70 and 80 kilometers a week in training, when you get to Central Park, there are a lot of hills, it’s very hard on the legs.” But when he arrived, the former Caterpillar official finished his adventure in 4h51’25, 11th in the M8 category (74-79 years old) out of 73 (37.675th at his ‘ end) In Charleroi, his wife and the older man, put a stop to his few emotions. “We followed it thanks to the tracking the group got. We weren’t there but we got the pictures live and we watched it live, he carried us with them,” explained Sarah, who is still very moved by the trick of her champion father.