Durability apparently plays at least a partial role when it comes to winning prizes.

Paul Heitzman, for example, was stunned when he learned this week that USA Track and Field, the national governing body of the sport, had selected him its track athlete of the year in the 70-74 age group.

“Every year the competition thins out a little more,” said Heitzman, who lives in rural Eudora. “Partly, I guess I’ve outlasted them.”

Heitzman, 71, probably won the award based on his performance in distance events at the USAT&F Indoor championships last March in Boston.

“I didn’t break any records, but I came within a tenth of a second of setting one,” Heitzman said. “But I didn’t go to the summer nationals because of the cost factor — they were in Maine — and that’s why it really surprised me.”

Heitzman was named the ages 70-74 distance runner of the year for the fifth straight time, but the athlete of the year award was his first.

“Another reason I was surprised is I ran only 27 races this year,” he said. “I’ve been averaging 34, 35 a year.”

Heitzman is an anomaly in the running world. He wasn’t a runner in high school. He didn’t compete in track in college. In fact, he didn’t start running until he retired as a history teacher at Shawnee Mission Northwest High.

“I taught all my life and did construction work in the summer,” Heitzman said. “Then in 1991 I thought I was getting out of shape so I tried running. I had no idea I’d be good at it.”

For the next 10 years, he trained five and six days a week and competed, as he said, about 35 times a year.

“People kept telling me to take a break, but I thought if I did I’d get out of shape,” he said. “Then in November I finally did take a break, the first one since I started running.”

For a month, Heitzman stopped running. Then he resumed training earlier this week.

“I thought I’d be out of shape, but everything appears to be OK,” he said. “I cut several cords of wood for the farm while I wasn’t running and that probably helped.”

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Heitzman’s late arrival into distance running has been his ability to avoid injuries. During more than a decade of training and competition, Heitzman has suffered nothing more serious than a hamstring knot.

Heitzman plans to resume competition on Jan. 18 in Tulsa, Okla., and run about 30 races again in 2003.

“I don’t have any plans to quit,” he said.