When Julia “Hurricane” Hawkins turned 100 years old she stopped biking and started running. She knew she’d be a good runner because she had a lot of practice sprinting to pick up phone calls to her landline. Now at 103, she knows her suspicions were right: She won gold in the 50- and 100-meter races at the National Senior Games this week and set their record for the oldest woman to compete — and win! “I always came running in to answer the phone so I thought maybe I could run,” she told TODAY. “I’m so glad it’s over. I love running but, boy, it hangs over your head.” Throughout her life, Hawkins was an avid bike rider and gardener. She has dozens of bonsai trees on her acre of land in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “I would ride my bike every day and as I got older someone would go with me,” she explained. “I decided to quit after I had one fall and dislocated my elbow.” When biking became too challenging, she wanted to replace it with another activity and picked up running. Soon after, she started running at 100, she broke several world records. “I don’t train like most runners. I just keep active and do lots of things,” she said. While she doesn’t run regularly, she bends and stretches every day and walks around her property to tend to her plants. She has lived in the same house since she and her husband, Murray, built it after World War II, when he became a physics professor at nearby Louisiana State University.
Julia ‘Hurricane’ Hawkins, 103, breaks records at the National Senior Games
