Ross said he worked three months, combing through possible runners who could set the world records with him. All they needed to do was walk the distance, he told them, but many were too scared to try. When you’re 90, a fall during a race could mean disaster.

Englert, who was the deputy general counsel at the Treasury Department before leaving in 1996, was the first to say yes.

At both of his homes — in a retirement community here and in his former family home nearby — his medals are everywhere. Hanging from doorknobs. Tucked into drawers. Balled up into boxes. That’s what happens when you win nearly every race you run. But Englert, who is slightly built and about 5-foot-7, says he doesn’t run for the medals. In fact, he rushed out of the nationals on Sunday so quickly that he didn’t even pick up the ones he won in the relays. He had driven to North Carolina by himself, and needed to hop back into his maroon Lincoln for the five-hour trip back.

“Oh, those world records were kind of a stunt, just a gimmick,” he said.

Don’t believe him. Englert, who also broke a 25-year-old American age-group record in the 5,000 meters last weekend, has played down big events before. When asked about going ashore at Normandy on D-Day when he served in the Navy, he said it didn’t frighten him, even though his ship crossed the English Channel seven times, carrying prisoners and wounded. He said he just remembered watching in awe as the battleships behind him lobbed shells onto the beach.

“You’re young and invincible,” he said, adding that, yes, he still feels kind of invincible.

Englert, like most of his relay teammates, hadn’t been much of an athlete when he was younger. He picked up running in his late 50s and started competing at 60. He liked it because it kept him fit and enabled him to travel around the country with his wife, Helen, for races.