Audio of Roy Pirrung by Growing Bolder, at growingbolder.com

Caption: Roy Pirrung

Posted: 12/31/1969 7:00pm

All he wanted to do was lose a little weight and quit smoking. On his 32nd birthday, Roy Pirrung started running.

Ten months later, he ran his first race, and 27 years later, he's still running.

At first, the former two-pack-a-day smoker says he couldn't even run two blocks. But he kept trying, and less than a year later, he not only ran his first race, he ran a marathon.

"I figured if I could run a marathon, the entire 26.2 miles of it, then I would be able to do anything," he says.

Since then, he has raced in several events around the world, including the Boston Marathon, the 50-mile race on the Ice Age Trail in the Kettle Moraine State Forest and the 155-mile "Original Ultramarathon" in Greece.

Along the way, he has shattered records and pushed himself to new limits.

He a member of the USA Track and Field Masters Hall of Fame, and he was the captain of the 2003 and 2004 American National Team to the World 24-Hour Run Championship.

To read more about his running milestones, visit his Web site.