PROFILE--Gary Circosta has been running for 43 years

(8-18) Gary Circosta is 71, and has been running for 43 years. Along the way, he has completed

160+ marathons, including a streak of 19 consecutive Bostons at one point. He still works full-time as a dentist, meaning that he must do most of his running in the early morning (4:00 a.m.) He has lived in Massachusetts most of his life. 

When and why did you start running?

I officially began running as a self-standing hobby in 1975. At the time I was in the Air Force as a dentist. I had a lot of

RESEARCH--Don't Be "Skinny Fat." Do Your Strength Training

(8-18) Many longtime runners are justifiably proud of their trim bodies. After all, we live in an "obesity crisis" era, and thousands of studies have proven the health benefits of a low to modest body weight vs. excess weight. Thin is good.

But "skinny fat" isn't. The subject has been getting a lot of coverage in recent days due to a new study in the British Journal of Nutrition. The research project tracked the BMI and WHR (waist-hip ratio) of more than 5000 Irish residents over age 60. The two measures--BMI and WHR--were then associated with various health risks. WHR is, loosely speaking, a measure of "belly fat" or excess visceral fat around the middle, also termed "central adiposity."

The paper concluded that belly fat was

PROFILE--Sylvie Kimche has been running for 40 years

Winning on Fifth Ave.

(8-18) Sylvie Kimche is a member of New York’s Central Park Track Club and is a record breaking-masters runner. Now 71, she looks to her age-graded performance where she consistently places between 84 to 89 percentile (it was in the 90s until 2015 when the age-grading table were adjusted and became much tougher) and still hits above 90 percent in the mile. She cross-trains by hiking and biking throughout Asia, Africa, South America, and Africa. 

Kimche grew up in southeast France and competed in alpine skiing before immigrating to the United States in 1979, becoming a US citizen in 1990. She has competed on the road and track in distances from the 400 meters to the marathon, but dropped the marathon from her resume in 1989 to concentrate on shorter distances. She is a well-respected and fierce competitor but when the race is over she is gracious and loves being social.  She retired in 2007 from her work as a designer for Abercrombie and Fitch. Kimche has been called one of the