By Arun Kumar
Washington, May 18 (IANS) India’s grand old marathon man Ashis Roy has completed his 90th marathon, finishing the Delaware Marathon in Wilmington in a time of six hours and 32 minutes on a chilly rain swept morning.

Going up and down a hilly course in two loops, Roy - at 76 the oldest of 600 participants - took nine minutes more to finish the 26-mile run Sunday than he did in the Potomac River Run Marathon in Alexandria two weeks ago.

“It was extremely tiring,” Roy told IANS on phone. Roy had to wear two layers of tee shirts to keep warm. His arthritic right knee also acted up slowing him down considerably especially on the downhill slopes.

But an undeterred Roy plans to participate in yet another marathon - the Bob Potts marathon in York, Pennsylvania - on May 31 to complete three long runs in a month.

Back home, he had completed his last marathon in Noida in February in six hours and 4 minutes and the one in Mumbai a month earlier in six hours and 7 minutes.

With plans to complete his century of runs by 2010, Roy, who took to long distance running at the age of 50 after retiring from the Indian Air Force where he served as a cardiologist for 21 years, has just penned a book on the “Joy of Running”.

Roy figures in the Limca Book of Records and has to date competed in marathons in 20 countries outside India including the International Veterans Marathon in Athens in 1986.