Phil Cutrara isn't everything you don't expect. Just a lot of them.

Sixty-year olds aren't supposed to run ultra-marathons and "mere" marathons, kayak and windsurf, all under shoulder-length, jet-black hair and a walrus mustache.

Retired factory workers aren't gourmet cooks. Hardcore jocks paint garages and walls, not - good grief - paintings.

Cutrara, who took a painting course from a now-defunct Hudsonville art store, admits he's no Michelangelo. But when did Mike make a Michigan Running Calendar?

The compendium - which includes original paintings for each month, plus a grid of dates listing key state road races - can be viewed at the Striders running store in Grandville, asked about by e-mailing bobalou@cnonline.net ... or keep reading here.

Cutrara's grandparents, who "came on the boat" from Italy, had eight children.

"Grandpa died in his 40s. I never met him, but I look just like him," Cutrara says. "Grandma lived to 104. Dad's dead, but Mom is still going strong at 90.

"Dad worked in the Kelvinator factory, making refrigerators in Grand Rapids. My two brothers and I worked all our careers at Steelcase, making office furniture.

"I retired at 53 after 35 years of factory work. I hated it," Cutrara says. He was 31, working on the second of three marriages, with five children, when he joined what today is a long-gone health club.

"I smoked cigars, and my belly hung over my cowboy belt till it hurt," he says. "The club had a track; 14 laps to a mile. The first time I went, I couldn't even run a lap.

"I kept going back, each time adding a lap on the front and back, so I ran three, five, seven, nine laps and so on. After a while, some guys said I ought to train for the River Run. What was the River Run, I asked."

Grand Rapids was gearing for its second annual River Bank Run. Now the Fifth Third Bank River Bank Run is America's largest 25K road race. Its 29th annual running takes place May 13 this year.

"That was my first race, 15.5 miles," says Cutrara. "I didn't know at the time there were other - or shorter - races.

"Running was different then. During winter no one had tights. I wore dancing leotards; others wore long johns to keep their legs warm. I used to train lots with Roger Ritsema, who ran in a button-down sports shirt and pantyhose. We must have made quite a sight."

Cutrara ran with his brothers, August, who's eight years older, and Michael, two minutes younger. "Mike and I are twins, but we don't look anything like each other," Cutrara says. "I'm 5'4" and dark; Mike is big and light-haired.

"The three of us helped start the Steelcase Running Club. Gus and I ran at noon, during lunch hour, in our blue jeans. I'd come home at night and run five or six more miles more."

Running, kayaking, windsurfing ... all were outlets. Toil, repetition ... then liberation.

"I started running longer - marathons, ultras - as a reason to go on road trips with friends," says Cutrara. "I love running with other people.

He was, and still is, a fierce age-group competitor. He ran a 35:20 10K in his 40s, a 17:54 5K and 3:00:01 marathon in his 50s.

He bears down ... and then forgets it. "I've probably done 20 River Runs, more than 50 marathons, I don't know how many ultras," Cutrara says. "I enjoy the company, the scenery ..."

And the eating. "I eat enough for three guys with the running I do," he says.

"I've been cooking most of my life. I like to create with food, or with almost anything. When you cook for yourself, you know you will have something good to eat."

He met Barb Buchanan, single mother of three and a clinical coordinator for a nursing home, through a Holland running club.

"I began running to get into shape after having children," she says. "It's a stress-reliever.

"I started to run for the physical benefits; now it's mental ones," she says.

She and Cutrara were friends for years before marrying in 1997.

"Phil was always doodling," she remembers. "Funny pictures of friends of friends, or of scenery. When I heard of a nearby painting class, I encouraged him to sign up."

Cutrara has grown in the four years since then.

"I paint in the morning, go for a run, come home and start dinner, paint, do a second run with friends, finish dinner and sleep. I'm busier now than when I was working.

"I'm thinking of getting a job again, so I can take a break," he says.

He and Barb began putting together calendars, using his paintings, as gifts for family.

"The first one was three years ago," says Cutrara. "I'm improving, although it's still hard for me to make animals look like animals.

"I have plenty of room left for growth," he laughs.

That said, one can see his development year to year, even painting to painting. Details are sharper; his handling of color grows more assured.

Cutrara's Michigan Running Calendar scenes reflect this. Most show runners in nature, many on trails along a shoreline, or his running-shoe fetish. Each tells a story with sly humor, using colors that are exuberant.

"Barb assembles words, numbers, squares and races. I paint, print, cut and bind them," Cutrara says.

Is his outlet Sotheby's? The Louvre? Not exactly.

"Well, there's Striders," he says. "And me. I sold six this morning, to other Grand Rapids Running Club members, when we had brunch at Mr. Burger's, up the hill."

What's next?

"Lots of running," says Cutrara. "You'll find me on trails almost everywhere. And I've already started on next year's calendar.

"I've always been active with things I love. That's what keeps me young." MR