SEQUIM — Running 78.6 miles in 20 hours, 5 minutes over three days was a piece of cake for Chuck Milliman.
After all, Monday was his 78th birthday and a group of more than 20 well-wishers showed up to cheer him on at Anytime Fitness, sharing their elation, some birthday cake, a big card and singing “Happy Birthday” to the mature marathon man whom many called “amazing.”
To raise at least $1,300 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, Milliman ran a 26.2-mile marathon each day beginning Friday to match his number of years on Earth.
He finished up his final three miles on a treadmill at his sponsor club, Anytime Fitness off Old Olympic Highway and Sequim-Dungeness Way, after running mostly around Sequim in wet, cool autumn weather.
“It’s been a good day,” Milliman understated while he jogged his final mile, smiling, joking and barely sweating.
“I didn’t hit any barriers or walls or anything.”
He said he ran math problems through his head to keep his mind as well as his body alert during his three consecutive days of marathons.
Riding the natural endorphin high of extreme exercise, Milliman, who underwent double-bypass heart surgery in 2001 but immediately started walking and running to get back into shape, didn’t even sit down after finishing Monday.
Other than a little tightness in his quadriceps, he was already thinking about the half-marathon he will run Jan. 2 in Mount Vernon.
“I’m just amazed how I feel,” Milliman said. “I can’t get over it.”
The retired minister was handed a coffee immediately off the treadmill and several people embraced him in congratulations.
As the time ran down to the finish, a jubilant, giddy Milliman straddled the treadmill and punched his arm into the air, letting out a victory yell, while his fans loudly applauded and cheered.
His sons, Phil and Bruce, were there to chronicle Milliman’s long haul, shooting photos and video for the memories.
Phil said his father, who has ran 57 marathons since he was 38, ran only 20 minutes less than his normal times for three marathons.
“If he hadn’t stopped at Hurricane Coffee,” Phil Milliman said, his father might have ran under his normal marathon time.
The senior Milliman, according to his son Phil, ran his first marathon Saturday in 6 hours, 37 minutes, Sunday in 6 hours, 35 minutes, and Monday in 6 hours, 53 minutes.
Nadine Ganz of Sequim was so impressed with seeing Milliman finish, she was off to the side writing a check out to him for $78 as her $1-a-mile pledge to the Boys & Girls Clubs.
“You look pretty good for 27,” Sequim resident Dick Hahn quipped to Milliman for a laugh, later saying he saw the mature runner’s feat as “truly amazing.”
Susan Tonini, who helped promote Milliman’s marathons, said she met him through the Hurricane Coffee Book Club.
“We have a lot of senior citizens in Sequim who need that extra push” to get out and exercise, she said, adding that Milliman’s effort might just do that for others his age.
Milliman said a 65-year-old friend introduced and inspired him to run a Trail’s End marathon in Seaside, Ore., 40 years ago. He then ran that marathon for 25 consecutive years.
During all those years, he remembers only one knee injury that set him back a month; otherwise, not even a foot blister.
When he lived in Oregon City, Ore., he ran 51 miles for his 51st birthday without stopping, taking him 10 hours and 36 minutes.
A minister since 1967, Milliman moved to Sequim with his wife, Shirley, in 1991, serving as pastor at Church of God at Fir Street and Brown Road until his retirement in 1999. They came to Sequim from Oregon City.
He completed his most recent distance run last year, the Olympic Discovery Marathon, on the Olympic Discovery Trail between Sequim and Port Angeles, finishing in 5 hours, 33 minutes.
He competed in August in the Olympic Peninsula Senior Games, where he took first place in six events, including the pole vault, long jump, high jump and 50-, 100- and 400-meter dashes.
He has also competed in the World Masters Track and Field championships where he placed second in pole vault.
Milliman also tried bungee jumping at age 69.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or jeff.chew@ peninsuladailynews.com.