On the Trail, Every Day for 30 Years

Photo Gisela Mandl, above in June in Central Park, said she had run, biked or swum every day for the past 30 years. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times Just after 7 a.m. on a sunny Wednesday in June, a 61-year-old woman darted in front of taxis in Columbus Circle outside Central Park. A few seconds later, she proclaimed — to no one, to everyone — how great it was to be alive.

The woman, Gisela Mandl, wore a bright green T-shirt, gray running shorts and white knee-high compression socks. She had just finished a 35-minute run through the park and was starting an eight-minute jaunt back to her apartment on West 48th Street, where she would stretch, do push-ups and situps, and enjoy a…