Soon, Gralley discovered he loved running - the freedom, the wind, the sweat and the scenery.
And after a while, Gralley - leaner, healthier, happier - was addicted.
He started running with a group of guys. They'd gather in the basement, run, and come back for iced tea. Some remain friends.
"We would do two or three miles. Then we'd say, `Oh, I'll try five miles.' And then after awhile, five miles doesn't seem so bad. So, [you say] `Let's try a 10K,'" he said.
In 1981, Gralley signed up for a marathon in Yonkers, N.Y. He was in his 50s.
"I got teary-eyed that first time," he said.
Nearly 30 years later, Gralley has run in 41 marathons, including races in London and Hawaii. He ran his best time twice - 3 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds - at age 55, in the Boston and New York marathons.
"I don't know how I was able to do that," Gralley said.
In 2007, there were 412,000 finishers in marathons in this country, said Ryan Lamppa, a researcher for Running USA, a nonprofit association. Of that, about 1,700 of the finishers - or just under a half-percent - were men over age 70.
Since beginning his running tour, Gralley has logged, in a black three-ring binder, that he's run more than 47,000 miles.
"That's twice around the world," said Kerry Jones, senior vice president of corporate operations for Erickson Retirement Communities, and the biking leg of the team's relay team.
It's not quite twice around the world; not yet, at least. Gralley has more than 2,700 miles to go to hit that mark. But he isn't close to stopping anytime soon.
Gralley - who lives at Oak Crest Retirement Community in Parkville, one of Erickson's senior communities - runs five days a week (and bikes 25 miles with one of his two sons on Saturdays).
On Mondays he runs six miles; Tuesdays, four miles; and the rest of the week, three, three and three. On good days, he runs outdoors; in inclement weather, he uses the health center at Oak Crest, giving him an opportunity to pump some iron, too.
With all that daily training, the Columbia Triathlon should seem like a snap. After all, his portion of the relay is only about six miles. But the course is hilly, so Gralley has been increasing the incline on the health center's treadmill in preparation.
Jessica Shaffer, the wellness manager at Oak Crest's health center, is used to working with elderly people in relatively good shape.
But she said even she was amazed at Gralley's abilities.
