Rogers has been running almost half his life -- he started at age 50

Orville Rogers started running when he was 50 years old, and he has been running competitively for 41 years.

Go right ahead, do the math. That's right. He is 91 years old.

A retired airline pilot, Rogers broke world records for his age group in both the mile and 800 meters at the USA Masters Indoor Track Championships in Boston in March. His time of 4:19.97 in the 800 was more than 30 seconds faster than the previous record, and his 9:56.58 mile beat the record by more than 1:27.

"I started looking up the records before the meet and said 'Hey, I can do that,' " Rogers said. "I always wanted to be on top in anything I did and I've tried to stay in shape my whole life, so I thought I could set records."

Rogers, who is from Dallas, worked on his pacing to set the records. "The objective was to go out slower, which I did," Rogers said, "and I slaughtered the records."

Rogers figures he has run 38,000 miles in his 41 years of running. He runs 12 to 14 miles a week and concentrates on the shorter distances. He played high school football and swam a lot as a teen-ager, and played racquetball and handball. Rogers said he still has 35 percent lung capacity, which keeps him fit.

Rogers wonders what his times would be like if he could actually have some competition. He watched the 400-meter race in his age group and the top runners in the race battled to the wire. "They ran neck and neck and I wish I could have competed like that," Rogers said. "That was tremendous to watch."

Now he wants to set some records when he turns 95 and ages up to another bracket. "Show up and suit up, that will be my goal," Rogers said.