Live Long and Master Aging: Running, Red Wine and Orchids
Zab Mosenifar, MD, professor and executive vice chair in the Department of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, was recently interviewed by longtime BBC correspondent Peter Bowes for his 100th episode of the Live Long and Master Aging podcast.
The nearly one-hour episode titled, Running, Red Wine and Orchids, covered a range of topics, including Mosenifar’s recent achievement of running his 100th marathon at the age of 70.
Mosenifar completed his first marathon 45 years ago in Philadelphia. Since then, he has competitively run all the big-city marathons—at a record 3 hours flat—as well as international races in European countries and marathons in Death Valley, CA, during the dead heat of summer. And Mosenifar is running in a Death Valley marathon again next week.
Since the day Mosenifar began running 50 years ago, he has never once skipped a daily run. His mileage equates to roughly 5.6 times around the Earth, a total of about 135,200 miles.
"I use running not just for my own solitude, but as a tremendous release of stress from work, because there can be some really tough, sad days," said Mosenifar. "I am disciplined. I am not someone who will have a few drinks. I go home and go for a 10-mile run, even if I already ran in the morning. That's my bar. That's how I try to get over some of these stresses of my life."
When asked by Bowes if Mosenifar has thought about how long he expects to live – and what those final years will look like – the lung expert replied, “I always tell my running friends that I have 18 good summers left. And I expect to continue running marathons for another 10 years.”
Click here to listen to the complete LLMA podcast.
Read more on the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Ask a Doc: Is Running Good or Bad for You?