91-year-old Bach does it again, wins 400 meters

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• Bach, 91, wins gold at National Senior Games

Harold Bach got going and never looked back Thursday afternoon.

The 91-year-old Dickinson runner exclaimed as he crossed the finish line to win the 400 meters and his second gold medal of the 2011 National Senior Games in Houston.

Bach finished in 2 minutes, 25.91 seconds to win the race for men ages 90 and older. He beat the runner-up by 23 seconds.

On Wednesday, Bach won the 100 meters.

“I was really scared of the 400,” Bach said during a phone interview. “I haven’t trained a lot for that, but I still won it. That’s something I really didn’t expect. To get two golds made me quite proud.”

Bach was competing in his first national meet. He had won several senior titles at the state and regional level in past years.

Bach said he was able to pace himself early in the once-around-the-track race and then began to pick up speed when he neared the finish line.

“He said he was going to pace himself and then got a sense of how the other competitors were going and went at a slower pace so that he knew for sure he was going to make it across the finish line, and he did,” said Carla Hillard, Harold’s daughter who accompanied him to Houston.

Now, the only question is can Bach repeat at the next National Senior Games in 2013?

He laughs at the notion.

“To tell you the truth, I’m not looking that far ahead,” Bach said. “But it gives me an incentive to keep going.”

Though Bach said winning at the national level was one of his goals, he has no intentions of stopping. He plans to keep training six to seven days a week at the West River Community Center.

He said his main reason for running is simple: it keeps him healthy.

“If you keep your heart and lungs in shape, the rest of your body kind of take care of itself,” Bach said.

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