Like many people, Joe Forney is welcoming his 60th birthday with open arms. The difference between him and most other people his age is that this year, he collected 15 Trifectas. Why would a man who is literally twice the age of many Spartans be doing so much more than his juniors?

“Why not,” he shrugs, while beaming his trademark smile.

“It’s more fun playing in the mud, and there’s nothing better than being outside with like-minded, positive people. Part of it is the challenge, I admit, but part of it stems from when I was younger.”

Coming off an active life in college, Joe ‘grew old’ and got tired of being overweight and tired of…well, being tired. For a long time, he fell into the rut and the misguided belief — the myth — that “that’s just how it is.” For a long time, Joe accepted that he was simply, “just getting old and slowing down.”

When Joe started with Spartan Race, his goal was simple: start the race; finish the race. “Then,” he laughs, “it became start and finish, and not get hurt.”

Joe found that by constantly training, or at the very least, staying active, his energy levels didn’t go down. Movement begets energy, which begets movement. You could say it’s the opposite of a vicious cycle.

This same cycle brought Joe to one Spartan Race after another, and soon Joe was eyeing the possibility of breaking his previous record of seven Trifectas in a year.

Still, he think he could do better. “I didn’t leave the country.” he says.

“If I had raced abroad, I probably could have got more. But that’s how it happened, just a case of picking through and realizing that if I just added race after race, I could get there.”

What the man affectionately known as the “Tortoise” has in store for 2016 is still undecided, but Joe isn’t a man that deals in excuses. Having already gathered 22 Trifectas in 2 years, he’s still hungry for more and he’s already reading the schedule for next year like a menu.

Read more at Spartan.com