One runner is legally blind. Another has run about 30,000 miles in 24 years. Still another once finished a race after falling and breaking both arms. One runs a minute for every year of his life to celebrate his birthday.

        Among the record 9,000 runners in Thursday's 92nd annual Thanksgiving Day 10K race were four who distinguished themselves from the pack by their bonds of friendship — and their age.

        Don Wahle, Jerry Hoffman, Bill Workman and Byron White range in age from 70 to 80. They've known each other for years, which adds to the joy of running.

        “The big thing is the camaraderie,” said Mr. White, an 80-year-old retired lawyer from Mount Washington and the oldest runner in Thursday's race. ""I've gotten to know a whole set of people whom I probably wouldn't have met in the course of daily life and whom I value.”

        They run some races together, including the Flying Pig Marathon. Every Christmas season, 12 runners and former runners gather at the Montgomery Inn for lunch.

        “You congregate together,” Mr. Hoffman said. “The older ones certainly get to know one another because there are not that many of us that run.”

        Mr. White started running in 1975. When he turned 65, to celebrate his birthday, he ran one minute for each year of his life. He calls it his “Celebrate Life Run.” The event grows every year. Fifty family and friends, including Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Workman, joined him for an 80-minute run to celebrate his 80th birthday July 8.

        His friends razzed him after the run on the hot, humid day.

        “Hey, Byron,” they said, “I hope you don't live to be 100.”

        Mr. Workman, 72, of Sharonville figures running saved his life. He started 12 years ago and changed his diet because he was overweight. “It turned my whole life around,” said the retired Ford Motor Co. skilled tradesman.

        At a 24-hour run in Sylvania in September, he won his age group, 70-74, running 85.5 miles in 24 hours.

        He's still working his way back since he fell during a 50-mile race in Hagerstown, Md., in 1999. Running on the Appalachian Trail, he fell and broke both arms. He walked 40 miles to finish.

        Camaraderie is part of his regimen, too. Mr. Workman took Mr. Wahle, who has only peripheral vision, over the Thanksgiving Day Race course Tuesday so he could familiarize himself with it.

        “Runners are a tight group,” Mr. Workman said. “When they're in the race, they're going to outrun everybody they can, but after that, they become great friends. You don't get upset if you get outrun.”

        That's true for 71-year-old Mr. Hoffman. who doesn't hold a grudge about all those times Mr. Workman beat him.

        “When Bill Workman was in his prime, we always fed upon one another. He would start out fast, and I would catch up with him,” the Montgomery insurance agent said. “About one mile from the finish he would be right behind me. Then the last 50 yards, he would sprint across and always beat me.”

        Mr. Hoffman figures he's run about 30,000 miles since he started 24 years ago when he had gained weight.

        At 70, Mr. Wahle is the youngest of the group, but he's been a competitive runner for about 56 years. The Montgomery man, who worked in a printing company office, established two records when he ran cross country and track at the University of Cincinnati.

        He's determined to keep running. “I hope to run someday in the 100th Thanksgiving Day race.”

        The Cincinnati Enquirer/TONY JONES Byron White, (left), Jerry Hoffman, Bill Workman and Don Wahle warm up along Third Street before the start of the 92nd annual Thanksgiving Day race.

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