Meet Our Members: Darlene Backlund

Darlene Backlund celebrating her win in the USATF Masters Half Marathon Race Walk in the age 80-84 category in Santee, CA last January. Backlund holds multiple world records in her age class.

By Russ Alman, Communications Director

I had to make sure to squeeze in an interview with Darlene Backlund during early February before she left on her latest trip... to Antarctica!

Darlene Backlund moved to the Wenatchee Valley about 18 months ago to be closer to family, including a son in Orondo and a granddaughter and three great grandchildren in East Wenatchee. She also has family in Western Washington.

After moving here, as a widow of 9 years, she wanted to also build connections of her own. She quickly found the Wenatchee Valley Senior Activity Center and bought a membership, and soon after joined the Walking Group that meets at Pybus Market on Tuesdays and Thursdays. (Members of this group referred her to me as a potential subject for a Livewire article and assured me that I would not be disappointed... That was an understatement!)

Darlene was born in Yakima and since then has lived all over the United States. Growing up in Sacramento and New York, she moved to Everett, Washington in 1967 after graduating from college and worked as a social worker for the Department of Social and Health Services. She married John Backlund, a juvenile court worker, in 1970.

"When I was in high school, there were no sports for women," she said, so she discovered physical fitness in her late twenties. The couple became avid soccer players in the north Seattle area when she was 29.

They retired early — her husband at age 53 and she at 48 — and moved into their motor home for 10 years so they could tour the country. Since joining a soccer club was out of the question while they were traveling, they started power walking as a way to exercise anywhere. In 1996, one of their motorhome friends said that Palm Springs had a fast-walk 5K competition and told them they should give it a try. The result: her husband set a meet record and she set an age group record. They were hooked.

They started training and competing internationally. Realizing that they had the potential to do longer distances, her husband encouraged them to do so — first 30K, then 40K, and eventually 50K races, which are the longest distance covered at the Olympics. In her first 50K race, Darlene set a new American record... and then discovered it was actually a new world record.

Over the years, Darlene has set four age-group world records in the 50K. While she had aspirations to compete at the Olympic level, the 50K event has never been offered for women. However, the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will hold half-marathon and full-marathon length race walking events, so she competed in the Olympic trials in Santee, CA this past January. She set a record for the half-marathon in the age 80-84 category. She also set American records for her age group in the 5K and the 20K.

Darlene and John accumulated so many medals that when they moved from Oregon to California, they donated about 350 medals to a local school to be reused.

"We found that race walking totally enhanced our retirement because we met people all over the U.S. As we traveled in our motor home, we were able to go to races in different parts of the U.S. And then as we traveled around the world for the World Masters..." she said. "Plus, it kept us healthy. I still take no medication. I've had no surgeries since having my appendix out at age 10. Because of race walking …  really … has kept me healthy."

Darlene has given away hundreds of medals because she ran out of room to display them. However, she’s kept the most important ones, like her 50K world records and national championship medals.

Darlene stressed the importance of staying physically and mentally active as a key to her health and positive attitude. "There was an article in the New York Times a few weeks ago about the value of walking and for dementia. Dementia runs in my family. My mother died of Alzheimer's, my brother died of dementia, my two older sisters have dementia, my aunt died of dementia so ... exercise, diet, sleep, socialization are all the things to do to prevent getting dementia."

While Darlene moved to the area to be closer to family, she loves the outdoor exercise opportunities of the Wenatchee Valley. She has already hiked to the top of Saddle Rock 11 times since she moved here and uses the Loop Trail regularly for race walk training. She also enjoys playing ping pong with the group at the Eastmont Community Center and at her apartment complex.

"I turned 80 in August. 80 is awesome because everything I do, people think I'm amazing,” she laughed. “I went skydiving the day after I turned 80 ... loved it! I lift weights, I hike, I snowshoe, I do dynamic stretches, static stretches, and just keep moving."

Darlene also provided me with a tour of her medal collection. Watch the episode on our podcast, The Buzz, below.​