How Cleusa Uenaka Started Running at 70 After a Fall
Inspired by an online challenge, the runner pushed past uneven sidewalks and scrapes to finish her very first workout.
At 70 years old, Cleusa Uenaka decided to lace up running shoes for the first time after watching an online livestream. Despite taking a hard fall on her very first block, she got back up and finished her first kilometer.
Taking up a new sport is always quite a challenge, but taking your first steps at 70 requires an extra dose of determination. That is exactly what happened to Cleusa Uenaka when she decided to overhaul her habits and put on running shoes for the very first time, spurred on by a social media challenge.
The initial spark came while watching livestreams by Paulo Machado, who shared his routine of running 5 km daily for more than 800 consecutive days. Impressed by the feat, Cleusa sent messages of encouragement and saw the influencer issue an open invitation to anyone ready to start moving immediately using the "FIA 5" method (Do It Now in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1). When she signed up with her name and age, she faced taunts from other participants asking if "grandma" was going to compete, which only fueled her resolve not to hesitate.
The First Outing and a Fall on the Pavement
On a Sunday morning around 7 a.m. in São José dos Campos, Cleusa put on shorts and a T-shirt, laced up her sneakers, and headed out alone into the street without any prior warm-up. On the very first block, uneven sidewalk steps caused her to trip, sending her crashing face-first onto the ground.
The impact scraped the skin off her hands and bruised her knees against the concrete. Looking around at the empty streets, Cleusa stared at her injured hand—where the quick-decision motto was still written—and refused to quit right then and there. Picking herself up from the ground, she kept going around the block to complete 1 km before heading home bloodied, honoring the commitment she had made to herself.
