ORONO – Kathy Martin remembers the first time she decided to accompany her husband on his customary five-mile run … the one he always took right after a gobbling down a hearty pasta dinner.

“One night I said, ‘I can do that,'” Martin said. “And I couldn’t run a mile. I laid down in the middle of the road. I remember him standing over me, going, ‘Get up, a car’s gonna hit you.'”

Her reaction will be familiar to anyone who’s attempted to get back into shape after years away from physical activity.

“[I said], ‘Good. I hope it does.'”

On Sunday’s final day of the USA Track & Field National Masters Championships, the Northport, N.Y., woman showed how far she’s come in the 20 years since her first post-pasta waddle: She lopped five seconds off the existing American record in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4 minutes, 52.55 seconds.

Martin, a 50-year-old with dual American and Canadian citizenship, competes in the 50-54 age group.

She also won the 800 (in an American record 2:25.00) and 5,000 (setting a Canadian record) during the four-day meet, which was held at the University of Maine’s Clarence Beckett Family Track Complex.

Not bad for a woman whose entire high school athletic career consisted of donning sweaty hockey equipment abandoned by the boys team after games and playing scrimmages with the other girls.

Martin was especially pleased with her evenly paced race in the 1,500.

“I was trying to make even splits, after yesterday, when I exploded and then died,” she said, referring to the 800. “I just took it out too fast in the first quarter and then the bear jumped on my back in the second.”

More than 1,000 athletes traveled to Orono from all over the world. But the meet’s undisputed star was 55-year-old Phil Raschker of Marietta, Ga., who destroyed two more world age-group records on Sunday. She also set an American record in the triple jump, adding more than 11/2 meters onto the existing mark.

Raschker’s highlights on Sunday: She dropped the world 300 hurdles mark down to 49.14 (from 52.11) and followed that with a speedy 27.39 into a headwind in the 200. The existing 200 record was 28.48. She also set world records in the 80 hurdles and 100 on Saturday.

After running the 300 hurdles (and chopping a gaudy nine seconds off the American record in the process), Raschker summed up the effort with the same words other people used to describe her performances all weekend long.

“I didn’t think that was possible,” she said.

Raschker credited a fast track, a fast competitor, and a tactical change for her hurdles mark.

“I went out harder, and secondly, I told myself the only way I can break that time was if I alternate [lead legs],” she said.

For Jeanne and Bill Daprano of Atlanta, the meet offered the chance to excel … as a couple.

The Dapranos, who met at the world championships in Gateshead, England, in 1999, took turns winning events all weekend long.

Bill, 75, captured victories in the long jump and javelin, while Jeanne, 65, showed her versatility by winning the 800, 400 and 200.

She set a world mark in the 800 on Saturday, then shocked a field of sprint specialists by winning Sunday’s 200 final.

“No fair, a distance runner with all this speed,” fellow competitor Audrey Lary said after the race.

Bill Daprano said marrying Jeanne has made a big difference in his life … and his diet. After meeting the way they did, he should have expected as much.

“You know those long English breakfast buffets, with all the sausage – they call them ‘bangers?” Bill Daprano asked. “I’m loading up with all that high cholesterol stuff, and I get about halfway down … and this lady’s got a mason jar full of grains, telling the cook how she wanted them prepared.”

That woman was Jeanne. And three years later, her effect is obvious.

“She’s taught me. I eat the granola. I’m on the wheat grass and tofu casserole,” Bill Daprano joked.

Another weekend star was Tony Young of Redmond, Wash., a 40-year-old who returned to serious running a year ago after finding that his 30-mile-per-week running habit wasn’t enough to let him crack 15 minutes for 5,000 meters.

It had been for years … ever since he’d established a mile best of 4:00.8 at California State University at Los Angeles.

“I was like, ‘uh oh. Time to get in shape,'” Young said.

On Sunday, Young – who has run a 4:09 mile already this season – ran a comfortable 1,500 and won by almost 100 meters.

“It was real comfortable. I didn’t press,” Young said, saying he often starts his workouts with a 1,500 in around 4 minutes. He clocked a 3:59.34 on Sunday.

Young said he’s looking forward to taking on some college-age competition, where he thinks he can run much faster.

“If you get sixth in a big-boy race, you run a fast time and you don’t even do anything,” he said. “You just hang on. That’s where it’s easy to do.”

In the time since he’s returned to racing, Young sheepishly admits he’s been saddled with a nickname.

“The Great” Tony Young, some call him.

“That’s what they’ve been saying,” Young said, shaking his head. “But don’t tell my wife. She’ll burst that bubble real quick.”