LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) -- Two of the top age-group runners in the country came to the sport from different backgrounds but usually end up in the same place -- within a few seconds of each other.
Paul Heitzman and Dick Wilson -- both nationally ranked among runners over 60 -- have been carrying on a friendly duel for more than four years.
"We both like to win," Heitzman said. "When we race each other, it's a war."
In the process, they've set a variety of state and national records and recorded top U.S. finishes in world and national competition.
Heitzman, of Eudora, has the state's four fastest times in the two-mile run for the age group 60-64, including the state record of 11 minutes, 44 seconds.
Wilson, of Lawrence, and Heitzman both have six of the 20 fastest state times in the 5K run. Wilson holds the state record at 18:27, which broke Heitzman's record of 18:30. Wilson also was the first U.S. finisher last year in the World Cross Country championship in Buffalo, N.Y.
Though both run races of all distances, Heitzman specializes in shorter races, from 400 meters to 1,500 meters on the track and road races up to about four miles. Wilson prefers the longer races and holds age-group records at 8K, 10K, 10 miles and the half-marathon.
It's unusual to have two national-class runners who live so close together.
There are two top over-60 runners in Central Florida, said Ryan Lamppa, a statistician with the Road Running Information Center in Santa Barbara, Calif. Those runners have a larger age gap and live about 60 miles from one another, so don't face each other as often.
It's also unusual to find a sport where the athletes look forward to getting older.
But Heitzman turned 65 in February and is doing his best to take advantage of it by trying for as many Kansas and Missouri records in the 65-69 age-group as he can. Already he has run more than a dozen races this year, setting a record in most of them.
"I feel like I have a one-year window of opportunity to do well," Heitzman said. That's because Wilson turns 65 in December.
The two men came to masters running from much different backgrounds.
Wilson ran track and cross-country at the University of Kansas from 1950 to 1954 on an athletic scholarship. He was a member of the national championship cross-country team in 1953 that featured Kansas mile great Wes Santee and was conference champion in the 2-mile run. He quit running after college and didn't start again until 1978.
"A neighbor of mine who was overweight asked me to start jogging with him, and I said sure," he said. "After six months, I entered a 3-mile road race. I finished fifth overall and got the bug."
Wilson retired from the insurance business and moved from Indianapolis to Lawrence in May 1992. He continues to work part-time at a Lawrence store that specializes in -- what else? -- running shoes.
"It's enjoyable and I meet a lot of the running community," he said.
Heitzman taught American history at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School in Shawnee, Kan., until he retired in 1991. Since then he has continued to work as a substitute teacher and raise cattle at his rural Eudora home, about 10 miles from Lawrence.
He had no athletic experience until he tried running at age 58.
"I tried to play basketball but got cut from the team," he recalls of his athletic endeavors at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kan.
And his first effort at running didn't go very well.
"I had heard about Wes Santee and Jim Ryun," he said. "I thought you just went out and ran a mile as hard as you could. I did, and it just about killed me. The next summer I tried again after somebody told me you don't do it that way."
He began running longer distances, and ran his first race at age 59 1/2 -- finishing last. But he kept running, found he had a talent for it, and won several national championships in the 60-64 age group.
Wilson and Heitzman differ physically and in their running style.
Wilson is 6-foot-2 and has trouble keeping his weight above 140 pounds. Heitzman is 5-9 and 155, chunky for a distance runner.
"We look like Mutt and Jeff," Heitzman said. "Very few as heavy as I am do well in road racing."
Heitzman usually blasts out with the leaders at the start of a race, but Wilson prefers to start slower and pick up the pace.
Heitzman's goal this year is to rank first nationally in the 65-69 age group. In June he ran 1:32.01 to win Kansas City's challenging -- that means brutal hills -- Trinity Hospital Hill half-marathon, and in April he ran 11:06 to break the Kansas age-group 2-mile record by more than two minutes.
He also has set national indoor records in the mile and 3K run.
Wilson is at the top of the 60-64 age group and is mostly preparing for next year. He's experimenting with weight training and swimming to see if they help him maintain weight and improve performance.
His goal for next year? "I would like to establish as many state records as I can," Wilson said. He's also planning to run in the National Senior Olympics and perhaps the World Championship Cross-Country meet, scheduled for South Africa.
As intent on setting records as Heitzman and Wilson are, both know they might be short-lived. They're aware of younger runners headed for their age division, particularly a Baptist minister in Pennsylvania named Norm Green.
"He's pretty near untouchable," Heitzman said.
Copyright 1996 By The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.