Aren’t old people delightful? So feisty! Such spunk! When they’re not threatening your five-year-old with an iron bar, they might be off practising kung fu on would-be teen muggers (and quite rightly – punks) or dispensing advice to lad mag readers. This much is clear: retirement just isn’t what it used to be.

Witness Buster Martin, the 101-year-old with an invincibility complex. And no wonder. After first gaining notoriety for refusing to take a day off from his job at Pimlico Plumbers to celebrate his 100th birthday, Buster has since gone on to make headlines as agony uncle for FHM, as a member of one-hit wonders The Zimmers (that’s Buster giving the iconic rock-star finger at the end of the video), and for basically kicking the asses of a gang of muggers. So we should hardly be surprised to learn that “Bionic” Buster, after completing the Roding Valley half marathon in Essex on Sunday in 5 hours and 13 minutes, is now gunning for the London Marathon next month, even raising money for charity whilst doing so. If he finishes, he’ll be the oldest recorded marathon participant in the world.

After various gripes about the meaninglessness of records these days, Buster restores our faith in overreaching humankind. Don’t get us wrong – we think he’s crazy. Setting out to purposely run 26.2 miles in a single stretch is a bit mad even in the best of times and the height of health (and we count ourselves among the crazed). Still, we have to respect a man well over half a century our senior whose first words after crossing the finish line of the half marathon were, “Where’s my beer?”

Entirely inappropriate pic courtesy of Our Pilot via the Londonist Flickr pool