At 95, Jayant Soni was the oldest runner at the Tata Mumbai Marathon. He’s just getting started

When Jayant Soni, 95, announced that he would be running the senior citizen marathon at the Tata Mumbai Marathon on Sunday, nobody in his family batted an eyelid. They’re used to this. Ever since he started running at the age of 85, Soni has diligently participated in Mumbai’s premier marathon. This annual custom began when his friends at the Lions Club decided to participate in the event a decade ago. “I thought, ‘Why not join them?’” he says with a twinkle in his eye. What began as a nonchalant dare between friends soon became a personal mission for Soni to test his own strength and endurance.

The nonagenarian’s relationship with fitness began long before his marathon years. Born and raised in Mandvi, a coastal town in Gujarat, he learned to swim at the age of ten. “We had a lake nearby but it was too dangerous to swim in. So I learned to swim in a well, which was quite common back then.” Even as a child, Soni understood the importance of physical activity, inspired by his father, a contractor, and his mother, a hands-on homemaker, who pursued an active lifestyle despite being busy with work.