Harold Plaisier runs the Bayshore Marathon, his third of seven maratons in 2004.

Amid tsunamis, suicide bombers and pseudo-capers of Paris Hilton, the world may little note nor long remember that Harold Plaisier of Jenison turned 70 and completed seven marathons.

But he did.

Seven times 26.2 miles may not tilt the earth, dwarf the federal deficit or rival spam e-mails sent per eyeblink. But it does make you wonder why.

"I told one guy," Plaisier explains, "and he said I was out of my mind. I never said I was in it.

"Why do people assume these things?"

Plaisier (pronounced "pleasure") started running when he was 55, feeling awful.

"I had a bad shoulder, bad shoulder and water on the knee," he remembers. "When I was 22 I spent six months in bed with rheumatic fever, lost 40 pounds, had to learn how to walk again, then had a heart murmur. Now the murmur was coming back."

He tried walking for exercise, then thought "this takes too long," Plaisier says. "So I started running from mailbox to mailbox.

"My legs got hurting so bad I couldn't even walk downstairs," he goes on. "I backed backed down the stairs, so my wife, Arlene, wouldn't ask."

For support Plaisier headed to John Ball Park, just outside the zoo, where members of the Grand Rapids Track (now Running) Club meet for training.

"They actually looked to be normal people," Plaisier marvels. "I went in my $3 Little Red Shoehouse shoes and they said I should get some good shoes.

"I went to a running store, saw the price and said, 'Wow.' But I bought 'em. I really felt like a runner then."

His new friends weren't through with him. "I started running in February 1988," says Plaisier says. "The River Bank Run 25K was in May; they said I should try it. I had never run a 5K, much less a 15.5-mile race.

"I got my training runs up to three miles, five, eight, 12 ... and then it was race day. The course goes through John Ball Park around 12 miles, but my car wasn't there; it was at the finish.

"The last stretch was a revelation and education. It was brutal."

He has finished every RBR since, of course. "My times slip a little each year, but I'm out there," Plaisier says, spreading out a tableful of blue ribbons.

"There used to be 12 to 15 guys showing up in my age group for track club races," he recalls. "Now there's hardly any. That explains these ribbons. I'm biding time, waiting for the others to not show up."

Plaisier, self-employed in construction for close to 50 years, only runs twice weekly. "That's not much of a training base for marathons," he says. "But it works for me.

"When I started construction, we did everything: pour the basement floors, build kitchen cabinets ... and we still do. It's all physical. Which may be why I don't need to train as much.

"When I hit 69, I thought, 'Turning 70 is unusual,'" he continues. "That's when I decided to do seven marathons. I'd only run four before in my life.

"Setting goals keeps me motivated. It's not like I haven't done crazier things," he says.

Plaisier started in February 2004 with Clearwater, Fla.'s Gulf Beaches Marathon. Next came the Boston Marathon in April, run on the second- hottest day in the race's 108-year history.

"You talk about 'hitting the wall'?" Plaisier asks. "I noticed lots of walls after mile 18 in Boston, near 'Heartbreak Hill.' It was 90 degrees on the streets that day."

Plaisier won his age group at May's Bayshore Marathon in Traverse City and September's North Country Trail Run in the Manistee National Forest.

Then came the 43,000-plus-runner Chicago Marathon Oct. 10, the inaugural Grand Rapids Marathon three weeks later, and the Mountain Home Marathon in the Ozarks Nov. 20.

"Mountain Home was my third in 10 week," he says. "Then I was happy to not run marathons for a while."

Plaisier, a great-grandfather, still builds homes on a part-time basis. How has running affected him?

"I can work twice as long and hard since I started running," he says. I was a mess all my life; now I feel better.

"The big thing was daring to start, and then sticking with it," he continues. "It takes time to get healthy; the effort's ongoing. Things were bumpy for me at first.

"When I run I have miles to think; there's no hurry. I can build a house in my mind. I think of the world, of my friends and family, and feel thankful.

"As long as the Lord gives me breath, I will go," he says. MR