Like mother, like daughter: 83-year-old mother, 62- year-old daughter do 5Ks

By Melica Allen
Sports
nwamallen@
centurytel.net
HALEYVILLE - Ruth Ingle is not your typical 83-year-old grandmother. The Guin resident and her daughter, Judy Ledbetter, 62, of New Market, recently participated in the 5K race for the Mark Forester Price of Freedom event held at the Haleyville High School campus in May. Ingle did the race in 48:33 with her pink button up blouse, blue jeans and tennis shoes, with Ledbetter coming across the finish line in 31:04. “I didn’t break my personal record,” Ingle noted. “It was too many hills.”
Ingle said she began her racing career two years ago in July at the Firecracker 5K. It lit the fuse for her new hobby. “My granddaughter came to my house one day and said she was going to run a 5K. I had never heard of that, so I asked her what that was. She said it was just three miles. She asked me if I was going to do it. I told her I couldn’t run, but she told me I could walk it. I knew I could walk three miles,” she laughed. “I  thought to myself I am going to do it. I tried it and I did it and have been ever since.” have done it and have been ever since,” she said about the 5Ks. Ledbetter said she and her mother had just ran the Chick-fil-A 5K two weeks prior to the Mark Forester race. She has participated in 10 races since she began doing the events.
Ingle said she has participated in races that began at 10:30 p.m. and midnight before. “It is really better, because it is not so hot,” she explained.
The spry young-at-heart lady said she works in her yard all the time and likes to golf. “That’s about all I do at home. I don’t do anything special to prepare for the races,” she said. “I don’t cook anymore. It is just me at home. I don’t even cook when my kids come home,” Ingle said as she looked at her daughter and laughed.
Ingle and Ledbetter proudly accepted their medallions and will move on to the next race.