Background: Little, 69, grew up in Scotland, where she was a competitive swimmer in high school and college. She moved to the United States in 1964 when her husband, a physicist, accepted a job at Harvard. Little worked at Princeton, assisting chemistry and biology researchers. She took up running seven years ago “to keep up with my husband,” who is an avid trail runner. In the local 2008 Dirt Dog Cross Country Series, Little has won her age group in all three races she entered.

Westward bound: Little and her husband, Roy, retired to Pacific Beach in August of last year. Roy had been coming to San Diego since the mid-1990s on work assignments. They previously lived in Hopewell, N.J.

Quotable: Asked the secret to running into her late 60s, Little said: “I don't know. You just do it.”

Keep moving: It helps that Little has been active virtually her entire life. Besides swimming, she was an equestrian and had been running for about five years before racing.

Trashed: While she enjoys living in San Diego, Little says there's much more trash in the city than when she moved here 14 months ago. “When we first came here, everything was so clean. There was no trash lying around. That's not the case anymore. It's kind of horrifying.”

Fact facts: Little finished second in her age group at last spring's Carlsbad 5000 in 24 minutes, 8 seconds, a 7:46-per-mile pace. She ran a 1:54 half-marathon in 2005. She runs 25-30 miles a week and cross-trains by lifting weights and doing core exercises three times a week.

– DON NORCROSS