Don McNelly's children have their work cut out for them if they want to follow in their father's footsteps.
At 87, McNelly is hitting the pavement to compete in the Little Rock Marathon long after what is considered the prime age to do so.
On Sunday, he will have completed his 733rd race. So his oldest son only has 700 more to go to catch up with dear old dad.
2008 Marathon
Get more information about the Little Rock Marathon! See race maps, register, see past photos and videos. Submit YOUR race video or photos to be highlighted on Arkansas Online.
The Rochester, N.Y., native took up running in the late 1960s to get in better shape. He was 47 at the time.
"Nobody was running marathons then," he says, adding that it wasn't until the 1972 Olympics and Frank Shorter's televised run that the sport truly caught on. McNelly considers himself ahead of the curve.
Growing up, McNelly didn't play any sports. He was raised on a farm - "a genuine, 100-acre farm in Ohio" - and the workouts he did by working provided him enough background for running.
When McNelly began, he started small, adding step by step until a mile became two miles, two became eight and eight became 26.2.
He's never subscribed to a training regimen like elite marathoners do. He does so many races, he says, that each race becomes his "long run" in preparation for the next.
It must be said that McNelly doesn't have a need for speed. He considers his style more cruising than running nowadays.
"I'm a Mac truck, not a race car," he jokes. "I have terrible times - always have."
His personal record is somewhere around 3:51.
While he can't claim to be the fastest runner, he is in an elite group of competitors who have completed upwards of 700 races. Currently, he's No. 3 in North America for number of marathons completed. For McNelly, that even includes some Ultras (races of 30 miles or more).
He claims the world record for marathons completed by an octogenarian -166 since his 80th birthday. And he's showing no signs of letting up: He's run 43 of those since he turned 85.
To find that many races to participate in, McNelly travels the world over. He's run in every U.S. state. He's done marathons in Canada, Mt. Fuji in Japan, France and England, to name a few.
McNelly has the distinction of running in the northernmost and southernmost organized marathons.
At the first-ever marathon in Antarctica, he traveled south and took an ice pick.
"There were no paved roads, no real civilization there," he says. So they ran from research station to research station in the mud and up a glacier for three miles. It was a balmy 32 degrees.
"It was awful," McNelly admits. "But I'd do it again," he adds, not missing a beat.
On the opposite side of the world from Antarctica, he ran in Spitsbergen, the largest in a chain of Norwegian islands in the Arctic Ocean.
The climate never gets to him, he says. And he's never been sidelined with an injury, either. Attribute that to his motto - "You gotta show your body who's boss."
In 1988, after having surgery for prostate cancer, he did curtail his running a bit. While in recovery, he still competed in marathons, but began walking them.
These days, he walks every race. To the very end, with no shortcuts, no cheating (because you only cheat yourself, he says).
He'll receive a medal after Sunday's finish, adding it to his "bushels" of others won throughout the years.
And while he children think he may be a little crazy for running as much as he does, McNelly never tires of the run of his life. And so he'll keep going until he no longer can.
"I'm addicted," he says. "But it's a positive addiction."