America\u2019s Finest City Half Marathon<\/a> in San Diego on Sunday, Aug. 17, and a few weeks later, she\u2019ll be running or hiking at least some of the 485-mile Camino de Santiago in Spain to Santiago de Compostela.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019ve been running for 55 years,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cI believe we owe it to ourselves to be the best we can be \u2026 which comes from paying attention to our fitness and diet as we age.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCoy first started running in high school, where it was one of the few athletic offerings for females. She recommitted to running when she was in her 20s and found she still enjoyed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt offered exercise and a time I could be outside my body and think and go into meditation,\u201d she said. \u201cIt helped me that way. It kept me fit mentally and physically. I got hooked on it and kept running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon she realized she could compete in longer races and travel the world at the same time.<\/p>\n
She has since reached more than 215 countries and territories and experienced a gorilla trek in Uganda, the Pyongyang Half Marathon and the Olympic Stadium in Athens. The \u201cmost frightening thing\u201d was swimming in the Devil\u2019s Pool at Victoria Falls in Zambia, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[It] has been a blessing,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cThe huge benefit of my running has been increasing my stamina for travel. So for me to travel to that many countries and have the flexibility and make changes at the last minute or something physical at the last minute has given me so many opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though McCoy got into fitness in her youth, she says \u201cit is never too late to start.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you want your senior years to be? What do you want to do with that time? Do you want to be ambulatory and do what you want?\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s so important to have that core strength and flexibility to try and control or prevent those falls that can happen as we get older. It\u2019s a quality of life thing. If you want opportunities and good health, you have to make a commitment to \u2026 stay as fit as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
That can mean everything from chair yoga to starting a running club, McCoy said. \u201cWe all are built differently and have different capabilities, so just keep moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Gloria](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ljl-l-gloria-mccoy-2.jpg\")
Gloria McCoy and her granddaughter Anna Sepkovic at the Rock \u2018n\u2019 Roll Half Marathon in San Diego. (Treat Public Relations)<\/p>\n
McCoy now runs with her two grandchildren, ages 12 and 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy granddaughter has run two marathons,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cSo I think I have set an example for them to lead a healthy life with a healthy attitude and commitment. And the influence has moved on to my friends, and that\u2019s what I want in my life. I want to live by example.\u201d \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For most of her life, Gloria McCoy has been an avid runner. Taking that to half and full…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":124460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3548,7354,19284,3549,3550,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-124459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la-jolla","12":"tag-la-jolla-light","13":"tag-la-jolla-light-news","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-county","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114983644953491320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}