Running is a sport for young and old alike, as demonstrated at the sixth annual Reindeer Run 5K/10K in Fernandina Beach. The event recorded its youngest overall winner to date – and its oldest finisher.

Thirteen-year-old Eric Tallbacka of Jacksonville led the holiday-season 5K on Dec. 12 in 17:32. Yulee runner Tiffany Beechy, 32, was just 10 seconds behind to take the women’s overall title, setting the women’s time record for the 5K run.

Eric, a student at Darnell Cookman Middle School in Jacksonville, only began serious training in March and has finished first in his age group in several Jacksonville-area races. The Reindeer Run was his first overall victory, and also a personal 5K record by 38 seconds.

“It was great,” he said. “People were cheering me on. It was a fast course.”

Sharing the 5K field with him was 85-year-old Joe Connolly of Jacksonville, who crossed the finish line in 46:48.

Joe’s goal is to finish 1,000 races. The Reindeer Run was No. 946.

“When you have a goal, it makes things a lot easier,” he said. “That’s my goal, to make 1,000. I figure I can do it the latter part of next year.”

Joe began his running career early in the 1970s and tries to do a race almost every weekend. “Anyone can say they’ve done so-many races, but I can prove it. I kept all my bibs,” he said. “I write the time and date.”

He has another goal -- to inspire others, showing them the healthy benefits of an active lifestyle. Even when he suffered a heart attack in 2006 -- in the last half-mile of the 9.3-mile Gate River Run – he was back on the road a few months later, with his doctor’s permission.

“You find out a lot about yourself,” he said. “No matter how much you train and take care of yourself, that’s 50 percent. The other 50 percent is what your mom and dad give you, your genes, your arteries. Two of mine were 85 percent blocked.”

“My doctor said it probably would have happened 20 years earlier if I hadn’t been keeping myself in shape,” he added. “I wear two stints now, and keep my heart rate under 130.”

And in all of those 946 races, what was his greatest thrill? In the following year’s River Run, “passing over that spot where I had the heart attack. I stomped on it real hard.”