It's fitting that Toshiko d'Elia was among the first class elected in January to the USA Track & Field Masters Hall of Fame. After all, she's been running through previously unopened doors for last two decades.

A 67-year-old resident of Ridgewood, NJ, d'Elia has been at or near the top of her age group since 1976, when, at age 46, she finished as the third woman overall in the New York City Marathon. In 1980, d'Elia became the first over-50 woman to break 3:00 in the marathon with a 2:57:25 at the World Veterans Championships in Scotland. Several U.S. presidents later, d'Elia is still at it. At March's National Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships, her 6:59.89 mile made her the first 65-and-over woman to break 7:00 for the classic distance indoors. While at the meet, d'Elia also bettered the American indoor W65 record for 3,000 meters with a 13.39.60.

Despite her barrier-breaking success, d'Elia doesn't consider herself physically gifted. "I don't see myself as a thoroughbred type like Sister Marion [Irvine] and Miki Gonnan," she says. "I don't have the natural talent, and so I have had to really work hard to succeed. And I've been fortunate in having two ring coaches in Peter Squires and Bob Glover (Both now function more as mentors.)

A native of Kyoto, Japan, d'Elia was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1951 to study audiology at Syracuse University in New York. She then settled in Ridgewood with Fred d'Elia, to whom she's now been ; married for 3 years, to use her master's degree to teach the deaf.

A common nemesis - unacceptable fitness after age 40 - sparked her running career. "Fred and I had been avid bikers," she explains, but in 1971, after fatigue kept her from making it to the top of Mt. Rainier, she decided to give running a try. "It was to build stamina for high-altitude climbing," she offers. "It was just one mile a day at first. I never thought about competition." But when her daughter, Erica, entered her mother in a local two-miler, d'Elia, then 43, finished third and was hooked.

The 5-foot-1, 102-pound d'Elia credits climbing as laying the physical base for her rapid running success. Mentally, she; thinks that growing up in Japan during and after World War II has been a factor. "You had to scramble to just survive and go to school," she says. "I do think that it gave me the discipline to do the necessary training, Today, there are many more choices. If you don't have choices, you don't know any better."

Topping d'Elia's list of memorable experience is the 1979 Boston Marathon. "I Was 49 years old and I was told there was a good possibility I could run a sub-3:00 marathon," she remembers. "When I actually did it [in 2:58:03], I was just over whelmed, so thrilled. It's an experience I'll never forget."

During her fastest years, d'Elia regularly put in 80- and 90-mile weeks. These days, she averages 40 to 45, including a long run of up to two hours and one, sometimes two, interval sessions. The decreased mileage is partly because she doesn't run as many marathons as she used to and partly because of the limitations imposed by aging. But neither the reduced training mileage nor slower times (47:05 for a recent 10K compared with her 39:14 PR in 1978) frustrate her.

"It's like my hair turning gray and more wrinkles on my skin," she muses. "Running is my closest companion and means too much to me to let slower times bother me. I've run to obtain important goals in my life, to have the health and energy to better enjoy family relationships, to excel as a teacher, to demonstrate to my peers the importance of well being and good health You don't have to win races to do this."

Mike has been a competitive runner for more than 30 years and is a professional journalist. Since 1978 he has been a reporter and columnist for The Honolulu Advertiser. His special interests are in the area of aging (and its effects on athletic performance) and metaphysics.