If you think you're too old to exercise, consider the case of Gladys Burrill

If you ever think that you’re too old to get out and get some good exercise, consider 92-year-old Gladys Burrill, who was featured in Ripley’s Believe It or Not! last Friday.

Burrill broke a world record in December 2010 when she completed Hawaii’s Honolulu Marathon, becoming the oldest female marathon finisher in the world. A resident of Prospect, Oregon, Burrill finished the 26.2-mile race in nine hours, 53 minutes and 16 seconds by power-walking and jogging.

Burrill, known by her nickname as the “Gladyator,” broke a world record that was set in 2002 by 90-year-old Jenny Wood-Allen of Dundee, Scotland, who finished the London Marathon in around 11 hours.

One of the cool things about Burrill is that she didn’t start running marathons until 2004 when she was 86 years old. She typically trains by running between 30 and 50 miles a week.

Before entering her first marathon, Burrill had experience as a hiker, horseback rider, mountain climber and multi-engine airplane pilot.

Burrill says that the secret to her success is simple, chalking it up to “positive thinking.”

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Like a lot of people, I’m getting in the mood to watch the upcoming Summer Olympics, which will be held July 27 through Aug. 12 in London. It’s estimated that 10,500 athletes from 204 nations will compete in 302 events during the 2012 Olympic Games. There will be a little time lag on the television coverage for us here in Alabama due to the fact that London is six hours ahead of us, but there will be more than enough for us to watch during the 17 days of competition.

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The good folks at the state tourism office recently released their list of Top 10 events to attend in August. As you might have imagined, there were a couple of sports-related items on the list.

The 19th Annual Buckmasters Expo will be held Aug. 17-19 in Montgomery and will include over 300 exhibitors. The event will include the Buckmasters Top Bow Indoor Championship, a hunter education course, a deer scoring classing and activities for “Young Bucks.”

The Franklin County Watermelon Festival will be held Aug. 17-18 in Russellville. In addition to arts and crafts and a beauty pageant, the event will also include a 5K race, golf and tennis tournaments and a watermelon-seed-spitting contest.

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Thirty-six days.

That’s how long we’ve got to wait until the start of the high school football season.

Sparta Academy will play its season opener on Fri., Aug. 24, when they play Pickens Academy at Billy McGee Stadium in Carrollton.

Hillcrest High School will play its season opener on Fri., Aug. 31, when they travel to Chatom to take on Washington County High School.

The college football season will kick off on Thurs., Aug. 30, with three nationally televised games featuring South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Washington State, BYU, Texas A&M and Louisiana Tech.

The NFL regular season will start with a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants on Wed., Sept. 5, with a full slate of games to be played the following Sunday. Preseason games will start in early August.