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JOE IHM STILL RUNNING AT 85

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Joe Ihm

By Pam Reinig

Register Editor

 

Editor’s note: More “Healthy Lifestyle” articles can be found in the special supplement included with this week’s newspaper.

Here are two words for people who still don’t believe that a balanced diet and regular exercise lead to a longer, healthier life: Joe Ihm.

Ihm, 85, has spent more than 60 years watching his food intake and being as active as possible. The pay-off for the Guttenberg native and current resident is obvious: He looks good and he feels great. He takes no prescribed medications and he’s seldom ill. He continues to run competitively, something he didn’t start doing until he was 74. In July, he participated in the seven-mile road race through downtown Davenport known as the Bix. It was his 12th appearance at the Bix; he’s placed six times, winning a first-place medal, two seconds and three thirds.

“I had a physical before my hip replacement and my doctor told me I should live to be 100,” Ihm said. “I don’t know about that but I have made it this far.”

Ihm has no plans to slow down, either. He’s looking forward to the upcoming ice hockey season—he’s played in an “over-30” league for 23 years—and he’ll be back in the Quad Cities next summer for the 2017 Bix race. 

A Korean War combat veteran, Ihm earned an undergraduate degree in physical education at what is now the University of Northern Iowa before his service. He earned a master’s in the subject at the University of Iowa after his honorable discharge. He taught 19 years in the Chicago area before returning to Guttenberg were he did maintenance work at the hospital, worked as a rural postal carrier and helped establish the Guttenberg Ambulance service.

“By the time I retired from that ’82, I’d done almost 1,000 runs,” he said with obvious and well-deserved pride.

As an educator, Ihm led by example doing chin-ups, sit-ups and abdominal exercises along with his much-younger students. It’s a regime he continues today. His only concession has been trading sprinting for walking.

“My lane is 1/8-mile with a slight slope and the beginning a steep slope at the end,” he said. “I walked that for 45 miles, three days a week, though I do more when I’m getting ready for a race. I also take two yoga classes a week taught by my daughter, Caroline, and believe me, those are tough.”

Ihm’s also very careful about what he eats. He makes his own low-sugar granola, which he has daily for breakfast along with an apple. He doesn’t eat lunch but supper, which varies little, is generously portioned, usually consisting of chicken, pork loin or fish that he’s caught along with brown rice and lentils, a green vegetables and a large salad. He tops off his meals with grapes, yogurt and New England brown bread with honey and sugar.

Though Ihm traces his healthy habits back to his college days, he believes that it’s never too late to make lifestyle changes.

“No matter how old you are, you can gain strength and improve your endurance,” he said. “And almost everybody can walk. You just have to start slow and build up.”

Ihm’s has one more fitness goal to reach, though he needs some cooperation to get there: He’d like to run a Bix with his daughter.

“I’d like to convince her to run it with me,” he said. “I think that would be really neat.”

 
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