This will be the 48th Chicago marathon that Henry Kozlowski runs in his high school gym shorts.The cotton shorts, issued by Lane Technical High School, as it was then named, in 1966, or possibly 1967, come out of the closet once a year."They're a little snug, not as comfy as they were when I was in high school, but they still work," said Kozlowski, 76, who hopes to finish 50 marathons before hanging them up for good."They'll wear out the same time I do," he said. "Maybe I'll have them bronzed." Henry Kozlowski featured as part of the chess team in Lane Tech’s 1966 year book Provided by the Lane Tech Alumni Association He's one of two runners who have finished every Chicago marathon since the race started in 1977. Randy Burt, 78, a retired corporate healthcare executive from Antioch, is the other.George Mueller, 78, a retired dentist who lives in the Loop, was part of the group, too, until last year, when, due to a heart issue, he ran only the first three miles of the race."We were a trio. But now Henry and Randy are the dynamic duo. I told them, 'You have to figure out who's Batman and who's Robin,'" Mueller said. Henry Kozlowski running the 2013 Chicago marathon.Provided by MarathonFoto Mueller, with a laugh, was quick to weigh in on his pal's gym shorts: "You can't un-see it once you see him in these shorts. It just doesn't go away. It's vivid in my mind right now."On a recent sunny day, Kozlowski posed for a photograph near his home in Wilmette but declined to model his shorts."I don't do catwalks or runways," he declared.He instead slipped them over his head like a beret."You’ve got to have a sense of humor in this life, otherwise you're screwed," he said.Kozlowski's best time came in 1981 when he finished in 3 hours and 50 minutes.He hopes to complete this year's race in under eight hours."It will be a very slow run. Kind of a controlled stagger, really," he said.Kozlowski, a retired computer systems analyst, will be the first to tell you, he doesn't even really like running. But the benefits are indisputable."It's kind of a pain in the butt, but the main thing is its a way every year to motivate myself and not become a couch potato," he said.Why his high school gym shorts?"They’re just the shorts I had. I wore them," he said.They're not sentimental. He got out of gym class his junior and senior year by volunteering to life guard at the school's swimming pool.A lot of his gymnasium memories are from school dances and decorating the gym for dances because he was on the social committee."I enjoyed asking girls to dance, especially the wall flowers, the girls no one asked to dance who were sitting there looking glum," he said. "I couldn't understand the guys standing around not asking them to dance. It's like, 'Why did you guys come to this dance?'"Kozlowski graduated from Lane Tech in 1969, two years before the all-boys school went co-ed.Right! Back to the shorts ... the answer is yes, he washes them after each use. ...read more read less