HARTFORD, Conn. >> At age 99, Marion “Mic” Roberts completed her first road race.

That was last September, at the Haddam Neck Fair 5K, where she finished the 3.1-mile race in 56 minutes.

More recently this fall, a week after celebrating her 100th birthday, she was back at the starting line. She finished the 5K — walking with her son, Chuck Roberts, and daughter-in-law, Donna Roberts, listening to a little Frank Sinatra — in 1 hour, 31 seconds.

“She’s 40 years older than I am and she doesn’t slow down,” Donna Roberts said. “She sets the pace, and we follow her.”

Mic Roberts won her age group — 80-plus — and was presented a medal by the race organizers, while the other runners cheered. Afterward, some of them asked to have their picture taken with her.

“I thought it sounded like fun,” said Roberts, who remembered going to the fair as a child with her grandparents. The fair started in 1909.

“I just thought I’d do it and come at the tail end and go home. I didn’t expect all this.”

Roberts is a walker who treks over 2 miles a day. She also plays bocce and occasionally stays up until 11 p.m. playing bridge at her senior living facility.

Her grandchildren, Chuck Roberts’ kids, were runners at East Hampton High School. They all ran the Haddam Neck Fair race several times, and their grandmother was always there to watch them.

Last year, on a whim, her son asked her if she wanted to do the race herself.

“She goes, ‘OK, I’ll try it,’” Chuck Roberts said. “So here we are, the second year.

“We might retire after this year. Well, maybe I will,” he said with a laugh.

Mic Roberts has always been active. In her younger years she taught dance lessons. She skied. She golfed until a shoulder injury at age 80 forced her to stop. But she kept walking. Her husband, Cullen, whom she met while teaching dance, died in 1999. Two of her three sons passed away.

“She takes one pill a day,” Donna Roberts said. “She’s completely healthy. It’s her attitude. She’s overcome a lot of obstacles and kept going.”

Mic Roberts broke her pelvis two years ago, then contracted COVID-19. She got through that— and kept going.

On race day, she dressed in a blouse and slacks. The year before, said her daughter-in-law, she wore pearls with her outfit.

Just as the race started, the sun came out and it was hot and fairly humid. There was a short steep hill at the start of mile 3. The Roberts clan stopped a few times on the hill. Mic Roberts called it “a beaut.”

But as the clock clicked just over an hour, there she was, not a hair out of place, walking purposefully through the finish line chute. People cheered and snapped pictures.

As they were leaving last year’s race, Mic Roberts was stopped multiple times. “What’s your secret?” people asked.

“These were people in their 50s and 60s, saying, ‘I want to be able to do this 30 years from now,’” said her son.

But Mic Roberts said there is no secret.

“I just live day to day,” she said. “And if someone says, ‘Let’s do something,’ I say, ‘Sure.’”