Putting His Best Foot Forward

Milo Lightfoot has little use for the channel behind his house that feeds into Winona Lake.

Or the small, portable black and white TV in the corner of his kitchen.

The lake? "I've lived here 20 years and caught only five fish," he says. "I either had the wrong bait or a lack of interest. You can cross fishing out. It's not a high priority."

The TV? "I watch it when I eat in the evenings," he says. "I'm not a TV bug."

By day, Lightfoot is an attorney at law. By night, he's an athlete.

When he walks out of his downtown office after an eight-hour workday at 4, he makes a quick stop at home before he heads to Warsaw's old high school. There he runs short distances, practices the shot put and throws the discus.

Then his day is done at 7, maybe 8.

Yes, 83-year-old Milo Lightfoot knows how to stay busy.

Take this summer. Lightfoot went to places like South Africa and San Jose, Calif., to compete in track and field.

The 12th World Veterans' Athletic Championships took place in Durban, South Africa, in late July. Nearly 3,000 athletes competed. Lightfoot took second in the pole vault, high jump and 400-meter dash and fourth in the 200 in the 80-84 age bracket.

Then in early August, he went to the 30th Annual USATF National Masters Track and Field Championships in California. He won the high jump and javelin throw, was second in the 400 and discus, and third in the 200.

Lightfoot ran his most recent 400 in 1:28.02, and his 200 times are in the mid-30s.

Lightfoot, who has been competing in at least 10 meets a year for 20 years, is asked just how many awards he's won.

"Boxes and boxes," he says.

He neither lies nor exaggerates. He goes to the trouble of rummaging through the house to dig out his awards. When he's finished, 15 cigar boxes and shoe boxes, a photo album and a case cover a twin bed.

Blue ribbons, red ribbons, gold medals, silver medals and bronze medals rest in each box. The glass-covered case contains countless more medals for eventual display. Thirty more medals sit in a case in another room. Four more cases full of medals and ribbons are displayed in his library. On top of his bookshelves are several trophies.

The track career almost came about by accident. Lightfoot used to jog long distances, until he chatted with Wayne Rapsavage.

Rapsavage has known Lightfoot for more than 40 years and helped him train for the last 15 years. If Lightfoot has a training problem or question, Rapsavage is who he talks to.

"I told him jogging makes joggers," he remembers saying to Lightfoot. "There's the saying that practice makes perfect. Hogwash. Proper practice makes perfect."

Lightfoot listened to Rapsavage and went from jogging long distances to running short sprints.

A track and field career was born, a career that has been so successful Lightfoot's name often appears in the National Masters News.

The Indiana Association of USA Track and Field's Men's Masters Athlete of the Year in 1992, 1994 and 1996?

Milo Lightfoot.

"It's fun and I found out I could do it," Lightfoot says. "I wasn't always the tail end in the meets. I started winning. I kept it up, and still do."

Lightfoot has competed in so many places he knows most if not all of his opponents, especially Payton Jordan and Bill Weinacht.

Payton Jordan was arguably the most famous Jordan before Michael came along. Now 80, Jordan competed in the Olympics 50 to 60 years ago, coached the U.S. track and field team in the 1968 Olympics and coached at Stanford.

"I've never beaten (Payton)," Lightfoot says. "The only thing I may beat him in is a fistfight."

"When you talk Payton," Rapsavage says, "there's a gap between Payton and everybody else."

When Lightfoot placed third in the 200 in San Jose, Jordan placed first. Jordan, for the most part, has retired. He competed in San Jose because it's his hometown.

"Bill Weinacht is next to Jordan as far as speed," Lightfoot says. "Whenever they were in a race, I knew where I was. Otherwise, I do beautifully."

His biggest boost, Lightfoot figures, is two years away. He turns 85 then. In track, that's big.

"Everyone tries to get real old real quick after you've been in the bracket a few years," Lightfoot says. "After next year, I'll be the young man in the 85 to 89 bracket."

The 83-year-old man lacks no energy. He works out almost everyday, meticulously jotting down on scratch paper his routine that will later be entered in a journal. When a reporter asked him about a basketball autographed by the Phoenix Suns sitting on top of his bookshelf, he eyed the rows of books as if he were ready to negotiate a climb up to pluck the ball down.

He didn't end up doing that. Running in the house, that's another story.

He will do that.

#When the weather's bad, Lightfoot chooses to work out at home rather than the YMCA. He'll run inside from one end of the house to another, from behind the pantry to the guest bedroom. This isn't a straight line. The path zigzags.

"I can do it at a pretty fair clip," he says. "It can be just like running outdoors. I'll run up one wall, across the ceiling and down the other wall."

He hasn't lost his wit, either.

The worst injury he's had running inside is a stubbed toe, which isn't too much worse than any injury he's ever had when working out.

Even after running in more than 200 meets, even after all the practices, he's had zero knee troubles. The worst leg problems are nagging things like hamstring pulls.

How long will he keep at it?

As long as he can. The guy who conducted his recent treadmill test told Lightfoot he was shocked how long he kept at it.

"It's enjoyable, I meet a lot of nice people, and it helps maintain my health," Lightfoot says. "I'm not the oldest runner. I knew one - he's gone now, he dropped dead on the track - who was 95. He didn't run as fast as I do, but I won't either, when I'm 95."

Only one time did Lightfoot consider cutting back.

A framed black and white picture of Virginia Goll, his wife of 23 years, sits on his desk at work. Lightfoot calls her one of his "biggest rooters."

She died last October.

"After she was gone, I wasn't going to go to South Africa," Lightfoot says. "People who knew me said she would want me to go. I ended up going."

And he keeps going, keeps working. "I enjoy work," he says. "I still have to have someplace to go, not necessarily Breading's. I don't play Dominoes too well."

Rapsavage doesn't see Lightfoot cutting back anytime soon.

"This is probably the most important thing in his life right now, to get down there and work out every day," he says. "It's a lifestyle for him.

"He'll probably be doing this when he's 95."

The only question is what will Lightfoot conquer next. This is a man who went from the trucking business to entering law school at age 54. He graduated from Indiana University's School of Law in 1971 at the age of 57. But that's a whole other story.

Now he's an athlete at 83. And yes, Lightfoot has always been his last name.

"I wouldn't say (life's) been long and boring," he says. "I've had a lot of experiences and survived them."

Next up is the Senior Olympics in Springfield, Ill., on Sept. 28.

"People tell me it's surprising I'm this active at my age," he says. "Hundreds of people out there could do this better than I, but they don't. People respect me because of what I can do. I'm just glad I can do it."

Then he pauses, puts his glasses in his lap and leans forward in his chair.

"Something about it," he says, "just gets in your blood."