Arch Jelley (CNZM, OBE) a retired running coach who trained Olympian Sir John Walker, was a primary school principal and is a long-time fit person, does not seem his age - 102 years.
He walks easily to the door, but recently gave up running up the stairs to the top floor of the Green Bay retirement village in West Auckland, where he lives with his second wife Jean, 92. Jelley has discovered the “secret sauce” to a healthy long life.
“One hundred and two is a ridiculous age I know,” he jokes, adding that no magic was needed but exercise, for the body and the brain, are among the reasons for his long life.
Jelley is probably best-known for coaching top Kiwi Olympic athlete Sir John Walker.
“Walker was a fantastic guy to coach. His outgoing personality made him shine,” he says.
If the late Sir Peter Snell and Walker were young athletes competing today, Jelley believes they’d still be at the top. Snell’s 800-metre world record was won in 1962, on wet grass with (old-style) spiked shoes. It lasted for 62 years, broken only in 2024, by Kiwi runner James Preston. Jelley says Snell and Walker never trained at high altitude, which helps some athletes.
So, what can we learn from Jelley to feel less burdened by the advancing years and the passage of time? Lessons from the Olympic champions’ coach, who retired in his 90s, include:
Regular exercise, up to three times a day
At first, Jelley denies he is fit – but he is. “I guess I’m in reasonable shape… I walk about 3km a day, mostly around the retirement village – 4000-5000 steps; I do three sets of half-squats of 30 a day, and a bit on the gym’s exercycle.”
The half-squats are a bit easier for seniors, says Jelley, who until recently also used a rowing machine.
Walk every day, jog if you want to
Walking suits many people, but some may want to re-start jogging. “Get into it very slowly. Don’t worry about your pace, just run for a certain time, and be content, otherwise you will be injured,” says Jelley, who jogged till his 90s.
In his 70s, he jogged up Auckland’s One Tree Hill with Walker. “I was very fit until I was about 92, I used to run up the stairs.” Around then, he and Jean walked their last “fun run.” More recently, the couple stepped down from 5km walks, from Green Bay to the local mall and back. He never uses a walker.
“Perhaps when I’m older,” he jokes.
Busy people can still find time for exercise
It’s hard to think of a busier life. Jelley held a variety of teaching and school principal positions, around the country. His second job was a sole charge teacher at Rataiti, near Hunterville, with about 10 pupils, “about one student for each class - it was quite a challenge.”
A highlight was opening Fruitvale School in West Auckland, as principal and a teacher, with no clerical support. Jelley describes it, with a smile on his face, as “about the hardest job I have had.” He was also the founding principal at Sunnybrae Normal School on Auckland’s North Shore, remaining there for 20 years when he retired in 1987. He kept jogging, and training children in sports and fitness.
Through it all, Jelley held numerous coaching positions, including coach for the New Zealand Olympic team at the 1976 and 1984 games and manager of the New Zealand team at the inaugural World Championships in 1983. He’s also a former president and ombudsman for Athletics New Zealand. He wryly points to a framed life membership presented to him after he turned 102.
Jelley came out of retirement in his 90s to train Hamish Carson, a five-time national 1500m champion who competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Look for opportunities to exercise
Jelley’s first job in 1939, aged 17, was as a clerk with the Lands and Survey Department. If he was running late for work and missed the cable car, he would run down the hill, beating it.
Try to get some exercise at work
Jelley’s father Albie was a cricket umpire in Dunedin. Albie ran a barber’s shop and tobacconist, until his doctor told him to lose weight, so he got a job with exercise as a meter reader. He lost weight.
Albie “was a Gallipoli veteran, wounded by a machine gun in the first few days of the battle … Dad died at 72 after smoking a few million cigarettes. He finished up selling the stuff, too.”
Jelley is smokefree. “I gave up smoking at age nine,” he jests.
Exercise your brain
Jelley’s secret to brain-fitness is a love for playing cards. He and Jean play at least once a week, at the Mt Albert Bridge Club. “Bridge is an absolutely fantastic game,” he says. It helps keep him alert, as do reading and regular projects, like family history research.
Balance work and exercise
Within weeks of returning home from WWII, Jelley was at Teachers’ College in Dunedin in 1946 and enrolled at Otago University, where he completed two degrees, mostly part-time.
Think positive
Around this time, Jelley also ran cross-country, representing Otago. “The Otago Daily Times said we were the weakest team ever to represent Otago, but we went up to Wellington and finished with five in the first six,” he says, proudly.
Children follow you
Jelley’s children, Suzanne, and Martin, were keen runners in their youth and Suzanne, now in her 60s, still runs competitively. Third child Rocky played junior rugby in Auckland. Grandson Stephen is “a very good soccer player”, but after having difficulty breaking into the professional circuit overseas, during the Covid period, he came home to study.
Fitness will help when you get sick
Perhaps a heart valve replacement in his 80s has helped keep Jelley young. In his late 90s, he survived pneumonia, caught after a knee replacement operation. Little doubt, his fitness and attitude helped.
Find someone to love
A good relationship might give you an exercise buddy. Arch’s first wife, Rachel suggested he join the local bridge club where he met Jean, who became his bridge partner. After his beloved Rachel died, he and Jean got married - “I asked her out for a cup of coffee.” Jean’s husband had died within months of Rachel. “We retired from teaching bridge when I turned 99, during the Covid epidemic,” he says.
You might have some good luck
Jelley says his wartime experience wasn’t heroic, but it was risky as a seaman on a Royal Navy warship escorting a convoy to Murmansk, Northern Russia. Luckily, bad weather kept German submarines and planes at home. He was promoted to sub-lieutenant, became a gunnery/ torpedo officer, then navigator, including on a submarine.
