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Longtime Time Runner Shumate Dies At Age 86

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By BILL WARD | TBO.com

Published: March 5, 2009

TAMPA - Millard Shumate, former president of Tampa's Bayshore Runners Club and a nationally competitive age-group runner, died Wednesday night at Memorial Hospital following a bout with pneumonia. He was 86.

Shumate is probably best known for the hundreds of local road races he directed or assisted with. He hosted a popular series of 5- and 10-kilometer races at Horizon Park (now Al Lopez Park) as well as half-marathons and a 15-kilometer Gasparilla warmup race on MacDill Air Force Base. For the past several years, a prep cross country meet with his name has been held each fall at Picnic Island.

Before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1998, Shumate was one of the country's top age-group runners at various distances. He had run the Boston Marathon three times and New York City twice. At age 64, Shumate won his age division at the Space Coast Marathon in Melbourne with a time of 3 hours, 34 minutes, 23 seconds.

Locally, Shumate was consistently the winner of the 60-and-older divisions at most major events, including the Gasparilla Distance Classic. Until his health problems, Shumate had run every Gasparilla from 1978 to 2002.

"In terms of road racing, Millard was the complete sportsman," said former University of South Florida track coach and local race director Bob Braman, who now coaches at Florida State University. "He would not only put on a race, he would jump in a lot of them, too.

"I remember him running close to 6-minute miles well into his 60s - and near to his 70s - and saying to myself, 'How on earth is he running that fast at that age?' "

Shumate's wife of 62 years, Rosalie, said her family is in the process of arranging a memorial service.

The Shumates moved to Tampa in 1976 after Millard retired as a former Air Force officer and, later, an air traffic controller.

Shumate was born in Sabine, W. Va.

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