By Ed Hardee

Experienced runners will tell you that it’s good to have a goal. But few goals are as remarkable as Joe Connolly’s -- a goal of running 1,000 races.

And even more remarkable – he did it. The 86-year-old retired railroad man reached that ambitious milestone Saturday afternoon at the McKenzie’s Run 5K in Jacksonville. Wearing Bib No. 1000, he crossed the finish line in 44:24.

“George Sheehan said that every race is an adventure,” Joe observed this week. “I’ve had a lot of adventures.”

Joe is a fixture at races around North Florida, and has run in several Amelia Island Runners events. He started doing races in the early 1970s, and kept most of his race bibs. But not all of them: “Sometimes they didn’t give out bibs in my early days of racing. Do you remember the days when they used to give out ice cream sticks at the end?” Then came numbered cards for scoring: “Not very electronic.”

Joe would write his time and the race date on the back of the bibs. “Every race that runners run, they go home and think, ‘Something happened in that race, something unusual,’” he says. Sometimes he’d write those down too. For instance, a Sunday race outside Louisville in the late 1970s, when “a lady came out with a Bible and started reading Scripture to us. Running a race on a Sunday was sacrilege.”

He’s seen a lot of changes in running, such as clothing – “When I started, guys were wearing argyle socks” – and the sport’s increased popularity among women. “Fields usually have more ladies now than men, some of them aren’t as swift, and that helps me way back in the back.”

Joe has had some “roadblocks” along the way, including prostate cancer, and a heart attack – about a half-mile from the finish of the 2006 Gate River Run. “I blacked out,” he said. “Coming down the (Hart Bridge) ramp, I could see all the free beer down there, then I hit the concrete and was out like a light. I fractured the bones on the right side of my face.”

But just a few months later, with his doctors’ blessing, he was run-walking. And the following year, he confronted the River Run again, and finished with a flourish, second in his age group. “My biggest thrill was passing over that spot where I’d had the heart attack. I stomped on it real hard.”

Just in case you’re wondering -- since he didn’t cross the finish line in the 2006 Gate, he didn’t count it on his quest for 1,000.

“You find out a lot about yourself” after such a health crisis, Joe says. “No matter how much you train and take care of yourself, that’s only 50 percent -- the other 50 percent is what your mom and dad give you, your genes, your arteries.” Two of his were 85 percent blocked.

“I wear two stints now, and keep my heart rate under 130,” he said. He also uses the run-walk method.

But despite the health setbacks, and the thousands of miles through the decades, “I’ve never had a broken bone. I’ve had tendonitis in the knee, like arthritis, but I’ve never had any serious problems with my knees.”

Cross-training has helped – he’s played golf, professional ice hockey, and was once a ranked tennis player. Another secret of his running longevity: “I don’t believe in running 100-mile weeks! Even when I was healthy and training for marathons, I did 45 at most. The guys who were doing 90 or 100 miles, they’re no longer running now.”

Joe says he does 15-minute miles (versus 6:30 in those earlier days), and has other hobbies, such as playing piano “all over town.”

“I’ve outlived two wives, which is sad. I’ve been living by myself now for 5 years.” But he gets plenty of support from his friends in the running community – “They’re wonderful, a great bunch. I have more support from them than from my doctors!”

And after completing Race No. 1,000, after such an amazing accomplishment -- what goal could possibly be next?

Joe’s is to keep on running.

“I’m going to cut back just a hair, just do the races I know will have a lot of walkers. I’m comfortable back there with them,” he said. “I plan on just going on, but I’m not going to be driving someplace every Saturday out of the city just to run a race, which is what I’ve been doing lately. I’ve been running against the odds, to meet the goal before something happens to me.”

We’re happy to say that he does still plan on doing some out of town races – including ours!

“You’ve got a great club at Amelia Island, I’ll probably do the Reindeer Run,” Joe says. “I’ll be up there.”