Larry Miller (center) with Fall Series winners Clare Bar and Robby Young.

For the record, Larry Miller says he volunteers 80 to 100 hours while producing the Pikes Peak Road Runners Fall Series.

Off the record - it's a lot more than that.

Miller began running as a school boy in Oregon in the 1960s. And running has been his life-long passion.

"The freedom of being outside, free to run as far as you want, or as slow or fast, with nobody telling you what to do  - I've always enjoyed that," he said.

At age 62, Miller has learned to pass along his love of running - and having fun. He has earned a reputation for sculpting events that runners never forget. His Fall Series races are famous along Colorado's Front Range.

"When you like to run, you like to see a race go off good," Miller said. "When you volunteer, you volunteer to make sure it's the best it can be. The awards come back when people thank you."

Miller is one of many people in the community who have dedicated a big portion of their lives to running. And this month, he becomes the first to be recognized in the Colorado Running Company's "In the Pack" feature, honoring those who work to make running great in the Pikes Peak Region. Miller and all of the future "In the Pack" community heroes will earn gift certificates from the Colorado Running Company and Roman Villa.

Miller takes great joy in designing his Fall Series race courses. The routes are never the same, and often include rope climbs, hay bales to jump, and his favorite, the run in Monument Creek. He says it's wise to wear old shoes because you'll never want to wear them again. The runners don't mind. In fact, the slog through the muddy creek water has become popular.

"One year it was cold and snowy, so I moved the course to the creek bank ... I was inundated with e-mails and phone calls from people who were upset that we didn't run in the water."

Two weeks before each race, Miller scouts the parks, laying a course that includes obstacles that runners normally avoid.

"People say to me, are you out of your tree? And I say, nah, I think this is what we're going to do."

It's common to see Miller, head down and plowing along the single track trails of Colorado Springs.

He often runs with the Incline Club on Sundays, and he'll jump into a race now and then. He runs almost every day, combining longer efforts with speed work, though he isn't as fast as he once was. In 1992 at age 41 he ran the Garden of the Gods 15K (now the 10 Mile) in 56 minutes and change. As a college distance runner at Southern Oregon, he ran a 2:22 marathon, a mark that, at the time, was believed to have been the fastest by a U.S. college athlete.

And he has to smile when he remembers his races against Steve Prefontaine, the most famous distance runner in U.S. history.

"We'd go up to the University of Oregon and run the two- and three-mile races," Miller said. "Going against Pre was like tying yourself to the back of a motorcycle and being dragged. The closest I ever got to him at the finish was 110 yards or so. He'd put on that kick and you just hold on as best you could. But he was a good-natured guy. He was tough, but he was a good guy."

He is a longtime member of the Pikes Peak Road Runners board of directors and has served as the group's president "off and on since 1990."

Looking ahead, he hopes to retire and may return home to Oregon to be closer to his mother and sister. And he has some running plans.

"I'd like to set up a Fall Series in every city I move to," he said.