6 decades, 75,000 miles: Naperville man celebrates daily habit of running and walking

There is discipline, and then there is Charles Wilcox discipline.

Since he logged his first daily run as a 24-year-old Naval officer on May 2, 1966, Wilcox has calculated that for nearly every day since, he has either run or walked a total of 75,000 miles — the equivalent of circumnavigating the globe three times.

“I kind of jokingly said I was going to do it the rest of my life, just between my friends, but as it turns out so far, I have,” said Wilcox, who turned 84 on April 28.

On Saturday, Wilcox, family and friends will celebrate his 60th perambulating anniversary with — shocker — a casual 3.5-mile walk, starting at the Fredenhagan Park Fountain in Naperville, traveling down both sides of the Riverwalk, and ending at The Lantern for refreshments.

People can’t believe he’s been doing this just about every day for 60 years.

“Literally, I never missed a week of not running in a year, and I’d say probably almost half the years I didn’t miss at all,” Wilcox said.

Wilcox figures he averaged about three days off annually, mainly while on one of the long car trips he takes with his wife, Ruth Anne. Twelve-hour car rides are not conducive to exercise.

An Oklahoma native who moved to Naperville in 1971 with his wife, Wilcox drew early inspiration from the legendary former University of Oklahoma football coach, Bud Wilkinson, appointed by John F. Kennedy to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness, and the “father of aerobics,” Dr. Kenneth Cooper.

“I wanted to run and generate good heart muscle,” Wilcox said with good reason, for his father had a heart attack at 60 and died of another at 70.

After getting his wind by following one of Cooper’s routines while on a 6-month deployment during the Vietnam War, Wilcox ran at least 3 miles a day for 33 years. During that time, he retired as a Navy commander after five years of active duty and spent 18 years as a reservist while working finance jobs in Chicago.

Conceding to nagging injuries, Wilcox switched to walking 4 miles a day in 1999.

“I always ran through aches and pains, and still do, but they stopped coming nearly as often when I started walking. They kind of went away,” said Wilcox, also influenced by Al Carius, the late North Central College track and cross country coach.

When it gets too cold, he takes it indoors to the Fort Hill Activity Center in Naperville, nine laps for a mile. Otherwise, Wilcox walks through Naperville’s downtown and neighborhoods, the Riverwalk, and the McDowell Grove Forest Preserve. He’s been bitten by a dog only once.

Running or walking in about 40 states and 15 foreign countries due to business travel, tourism and even when he was in the Navy, Wilcox estimates he’s run about 36,000 miles and walked some 39,000 miles.

His wife — “the one person that can attest to my craziness” — is not surprised by his mileage. (Incidentally, Ruth Anne Wilcox is not a walker. She likes Zumba classes.)

“I knew he was going to do this the day I met him,” said Ruth Anne Wilcox, who will be married to her husband 58 years on June 6.

“I don’t know him any other way. He just does exercise every day, no matter what — except when he was in the hospital or something. That was very, very, very, rare.”

There was a spell in 2009 when Wilcox experienced shortness of breath three times over a week. His wife, a retired nurse, recommended he get it looked at, and indeed Wilcox had plaque buildup in a major artery. Doctors inserted a stent, and, after a few days of downtime, like the Energizer Bunny, he just kept on going.

After the Wilcoxes had their two daughters, Hilary and Susie, in the mid-1970s, they needed to reassess priorities.

“The only time it was ever a minor inconvenience to the rest of the family,” Ruth Anne Wilcox said. “It was taken care of very fast.”

One can imagine.

Charles Wilcox expects a decent crowd of supporters at Saturday’s celebration, planned in part by friend Jenny Wachter.

“I’m not too much of a self-promoter, although I am proud of this accomplishment,” Wilcox said. “I’m happy to share it with others as maybe an inspiration.”