An O'Hara woman, at nearly 90, gears up for yet another race: 'She just keeps on trucking'

Tina Demchak would like to make one thing clear: "I don't think there is anything exceptional about me in any way."

Her physical fitness indicates otherwise.

Demchak will turn 90 this summer. She has run 17 marathons and numerous shorter races, including half-marathons. Every morning, she puts on her "barn boots" to walk her two nearly 100-pound dogs, traversing through grassy fields near her home in O'Hara. She also spends 20 minutes or so on the elliptical trainer every day and often bikes for a couple of hours on the weekend.

A breast cancer survivor, Demchak will bike 15 miles next weekend in the Rush to Crush Cancer, a fundraiser for cancer research at the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

"She just keeps on trucking," said her daughter-in-law, Missy Demchak, of Shaler. "She doesn't stop."

Demchak would be considered a "super ager" under nearly any definition. And research has found that one of the most significant factors in aging well is steady exercise.

"Nothing surpasses regular exercise for promotion of healthy aging!" writes Eric Topol in "Super Agers," his bestselling 2025 book. "Exercise can be viewed as the single most effective medical intervention we know."

In the book, Topol cites a study, published in PLOS Medicine in 2012, of 650,000 people that found that briskly walking 450 minutes per week, compared with getting no exercise, was associated with living 4½ years longer.

"It just kept me going," she said of her exercise habits. "I just think any kind of movement and exercise keeps you going, keeps you alive and keeps you healthy. It's just natural for me."

Growing up in Erie, Tina Demchak had an active childhood riding horses, swimming and playing tennis. She settled in Pittsburgh for her former husband's job in 1973, getting in the habit of going for a run in the evenings after caring for her four children.

"It was wonderful for me to relax and unwind," she said. "After supper, and after the kids had their supper, I'd go off running, and usually I had a dog or two with me."

Walking her dogs is one of the many ways that Tina Demchak stays active.(Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)

Her oldest son, Brian, was born with hydrocephalus, or excess fluid in the brain, and had intellectual disabilities. He didn't walk until he was 4, but when he saw his mother running, he wanted to run with her. Together, they ran miles on the roads of O'Hara and Fox Chapel.

"I'm terribly proud of him," she said. "He just wanted to run with his mother."

He wanted to run marathons, too, and eventually ran three with her.

She has a photo of him running framed with his marathon finisher certificate in 1990, signed by then-Mayor Sophie Masloff, for completing the marathon in 4 hours and 28 minutes.

She started to get charity contributions when she and Brian would run together, raising thousands of dollars for the Special Olympics. She joked that, once she started to raise money, she felt like she just had to keep running marathons to keep the donations coming.

Brian Demchak died in 2016 at the age of 57. A 5K fundraiser race at UPMC St. Margaret that he enjoyed was named for him after his death. The race now takes place as a virtual fitness fundraiser.

As Demchak entered her mid-60s, the full marathon distance of 26.2 miles began to feel like too much. The plaque that she has in her living room - for winning the 60-64 age group in 1997 - marks her last marathon. She continued running, however, doing half-marathons and shorter distances, until getting knee surgery about 17 years ago. When doctors told her after the procedure that she shouldn't run anymore, she switched to cycling, the elliptical trainer and long dog walks, in addition to gardening and doing her own yard work.

"I worry when she climbs trees, takes branches down, especially with her age," said her daughter-in-law. "She still cuts the grass and everything."

Tina Demchak holds a photo of her late son Brian, who ran marathons with her.(Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)

The best part about running, said Demchak, wasn't actually the physical fitness and relaxation. It was the many conversations and friendships she formed over the years with other runners. To replace those, she now takes pains to get out of the house to connect with other people, whether it's a local Silver Sneakers exercise class or volunteer clean-up shifts at the Allegheny RiverTrail Park.

Missy Demchak was riding with her mother-in-law two years ago in the Race to Crush Cancer when Tina Demchak took a spill after her bike mirror caught on a gate. Bloody from the fall, she insisted on finishing the ride and got wrapped up in bandages like a mummy in the medical tent at the finish line. Nonetheless, she biked from the North Shore back to her car at the Millvale Riverfront Park trailhead.

"She looked like was ready to play hockey when she was done," said Missy Demchak. "She was sitting in the tent with some 65-year-old guy who was inspired by her. And then we ran into these young kids on the way back to trail. They asked her, ‘What's your secret?'"

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