Senior athlete sets records of his own

At 82, triathlon relay runner Bob Gralley can run circles around many half his age

By Tanika White | Sun reporter

May 5, 2008

On less-than-perfect days, Bob Gralley runs on the treadmill at Oak Crest Village, where he and his wife live. (Sun photo by Barbara Haddock Taylor / April 1, 2008)

Bob Gralley's heart belongs to his wife, Betty, whom he has loved for 60 years. But on this day, it's a petite 29-year-old blonde who makes his heart race. Literally.

Attached with tubes and straps to a monitor that will take a snapshot of his heart and lung health, Gralley runs on a treadmill, as his young trainer methodically increases the speed. Faster, faster, faster, faster, Gralley's New Balance running shoes pound the mat of the whirring machine.

The trainer, Krista Schultz, had predicted Gralley's heart would max out at about 138 beats per minute, but at the end of a 12-minute run, she had logged his highest rate at 157 beats.

This would be a fine maximum for a man of 63.

But Bob Gralley is 82 - and in two weeks, he will run in the Columbia Triathlon as the last leg of a relay team. He'll run about six miles after a teammate bikes about 25 miles and another swims about a mile.

"There are people half his age who can't run in a triathlon, much less people who are his age," said Dr. Shannon Winakur, a cardiologist with Mid-Atlantic Cardiovascular Associates and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. "It's certainly not the norm for an 82-year-old, but it is truly inspirational."

In fact, Gralley's teammates on the Erickson Retirement Communities-sponsored team are half his age, and he will be the oldest person ever to compete in the annual event, which is May 18 at Centennial Park, between Ellicott City and Columbia.

"That kind of drive is unbelievable," said Lee Corrigan, executive director of the Under Armour Baltimore Marathon, which Gralley has run.

But Gralley shrugs off the awestruck reaction his fitness level garners.

"My heart goes up when I'm near pretty girls," he said, by way of explanation, as Schultz blushes.

Comely trainers notwithstanding, the truth is that Gralley has been working on his heart, without even knowing it, for more than 35 years.

When he was in his mid-40s, living in Westport, Conn., as an executive with Mutual of New York, Gralley noticed he was putting on a few pounds too many.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream was the culprit, and - aside from some sailing and the occasional tennis game - inactivity.

So he started to jog, tentatively at first, a few times a week, around the neighborhood.

"In those days jogging was not in," Gralley said. "If someone would run down the street in a pair of shorts, it'd be well, 'What's the matter with that guy?'"

Soon, Gralley discovered he loved running - the freedom, the wind, the sweat and the scenery.

And after a while, Gralley - leaner, healthier, happier - was addicted.

He started running with a group of guys. They'd gather in the basement, run, and come back for iced tea. Some remain friends.

"We would do two or three miles. Then we'd say, 'Oh, I'll try five miles.' And then after awhile, five miles doesn't seem so bad. So, [you say] 'Let's try a 10K,'" he said.

In 1981, Gralley signed up for a marathon in Yonkers, N.Y. He was in his 50s.

"I got teary-eyed that first time," he said.

Nearly 30 years later, Gralley has run in 41 marathons, including races in London and Hawaii. He ran his best time twice - 3 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds - at age 55, in the Boston and New York marathons.

"I don't know how I was able to do that," Gralley said.

In 2007, there were 412,000 finishers in marathons in this country, said Ryan Lamppa, a researcher for Running USA, a nonprofit association. Of that, about 1,700 of the finishers - or just under a half-percent - were men over age 70.

Since beginning his running tour, Gralley has logged, in a black three-ring binder, that he's run more than 47,000 miles.

"That's twice around the world," said Kerry Jones, senior vice president of corporate operations for Erickson Retirement Communities, and the biking leg of the team's relay team.

It's not quite twice around the world; not yet, at least. Gralley has more than 2,700 miles to go to hit that mark. But he isn't close to stopping anytime soon.

Gralley - who lives at Oak Crest Retirement Community in Parkville, one of Erickson's senior communities - runs five days a week (and bikes 25 miles with one of his two sons on Saturdays).

On Mondays he runs six miles; Tuesdays, four miles; and the rest of the week, three, three and three. On good days, he runs outdoors; in inclement weather, he uses the health center at Oak Crest, giving him an opportunity to pump some iron, too.

With all that daily training, the Columbia Triathlon should seem like a snap. After all, his portion of the relay is only about six miles. But the course is hilly, so Gralley has been increasing the incline on the health center's treadmill in preparation.

Jessica Shaffer, the wellness manager at Oak Crest's health center, is used to working with elderly people in relatively good shape.

But she said even she was amazed at Gralley's abilities.

"He was really just above and beyond where most of our clients come in," Shaffer, 30, said. "He comes in excellent shape and does an amazing amount of chair stands and arm curls. He just kind of blew us away."

Again, Gralley is humble about the shape he's in.

"For some reason," he said with a laugh, "the older I get, the slower I get."

He's told this joke a hundred times, but Betty Gralley, his college sweetheart and mother of their three children, still laughs at it. "He's very easy to get along with," she said.

Their courtship began, fittingly, in an athletic way.

The two met at the University of Maryland, where both were students, and he played on the basketball team. They sat next to each other in class and he happened to mention his love of badminton.

"And I said, 'Well, I'll take you on some time,'" Betty Gralley said. "And it just went on from there."

They were married in June 1949, in a United Methodist Church on Edmondson Avenue, when they were 23 years old - too young to imagine still being alive, much less being healthy, active and still in love, almost 60 years later.

"In those days, if you got to 50, you were up there toward middle age, or old age even," Bob Gralley said.

But here they are, retired at Oak Crest to be nearer to their children and grandchildren. Betty Gralley enjoys walking, and working in the Oak Crest Treasure Chest, which resells items to raise money for charity.

The two belong to two different bridge groups, they play double dominoes with a group of friends, and they have a little garden plot that they tend on the Oak Crest grounds.

With all that togetherness, it's no wonder Betty doesn't begrudge Bob's daily fitness jaunts. His alone time with the open road is good for him, he said.

"It helps you not only physically, but mentally, feeling better about yourself," Gralley said. "It's an enjoyment in life that a lot of people don't have. Especially as you get older, you need something like that."

And, Betty Gralley said, it's good for their marriage too.

"We've managed to stay friendly for 59 years," she said.

And if you combine the marathons, triathlons, trophies, medals and all those thousands of miles logged around the world - you probably won't find a better reason to exercise than that.

tanika.white@baltsun.com