Great Great Grandmother Celebrates 101st Birthday Paragliding

Most people don't live to see 100. Those that do can barely walk, let alone handle any strenuous activities. A few however, seem to be like the Energizer bunny - They keep going and going! First there was 100-year old marathon runner Fauja Singh and now, this 101-year old great great grandmother who seems to thrive on thrills.

Utahresident Mary Hardison believes that people should always be cheerful and more importantly, take on all kinds of adventures while they physically still can. So, instead of celebrating her 101st birthday with a lame party, she decided to go Paragliding - An idea she got from her 75-year old son who recently took it up as a hobby.

So on September 1st, 2011, cheered on by four generations of her family, the daredevil strapped on in tandem with expert instructor Kevin Hintze, and leaped down fearlessly from the skies near her home in Ogden, Utah. And, it was not just a lame jump either. According to Kevin, the grandmother encouraged him to loop and spin around, as they made their way down.

This is not the first time that Mary has done something 'wild' and 'crazy'. For her 90th birthday she rode all the adult rides at Disneyland. And, she is not done yet - For her 102nd birthday she hopes to go down the 3,000 foot Alpine Slide at Utah's Park City Mountain Resort!

Not surprisingly, this feat has resulted in a lot of fame for Mary and also earned her a spot in the Guinness World Records where she replaced a 2007 record set by a 100-year old British woman. Pretty amazing!

Resources: msnbc.msn.com, telegraph.co.uk