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VIDEO: 100-Year-Old Man Finishes Toronto Marathon

Fauja Singh, 100, celebrates at the finish line after completing the Toronto Waterfront Marathon in Toronto on Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011.

Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon

Talk about a really amazing race:

"Fauja Singh, 100, finished Toronto's waterfront marathon Sunday evening, securing his place in Guinness World Records as the oldest person — and the first centenarian — to ever accomplish a run of that distance," CBC News reports.

Singh, a British citizen born in India, crossed the line in just over 8 hours, 11 minutes — and, officially at least, wasn't the last finisher. Four people, who it appears were in a group accompanying Singh, were 1 to 10 seconds behind him according to the electronic chips they carried to record their times.

From Toronto, Dan Karpenchuk reports for NPR that:

"Singh, who speaks only Punjabi, said through his coach and interpreter that he was overjoyed and achieved a lifelong wish. He aims to raise money for local charities, including a children's foundation that provides basic needs. His coach said part of his secret is that eats a diet of mainly tea, toast and curry. His training is to run about 10 miles a day.

"He only took up running twenty years ago at the age of 80."

According to the CBC, Singh — known as the "Turbaned Tornado" — beat his goal of finishing in 9 hours.

There's video here of what it was like at the finish line as Singh came across ( note at 4:15 p.m. ET, we've replaced the earlier video with one that's a bit shorter).

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.