Herb Miller Isn’t the Retiring Type : Track: But 76-year-old hurdler from Westminster plans to hang up his track shoes and spend more time on the dance floor.

Overcoming hurdles has never been much of a problem for Herb Miller. On the track, the 76-year-old track and field whiz has set several national age-group records in the event.

But Miller now faces a different sort of barrier, one that will undoubtedly test his spirit and determination like never before.

Herb Miller is going to retire. Or attempt to, anyway. After winning three gold medals and a silver at The Athletics Congress/USA National Masters Championships at Spokane, Wash., two weeks ago, Miller, a Westminster resident, decided to call it quits.

“Age creeps up on you,” he said.

You might think this is easy, giving up daily training sessions, the risk of injury, the pressure (self-induced, mostly) to win . . .

Not so. According to his Corona del Mar Track Club teammates, Miller is a man so wrapped up in his sport you’d think he was vacuum-packed to the track.

Most days, his routine consisted of a 3 1/2-mile bicycle ride from his home to the Golden West College track, a one- or two-hour workout, lunch at a nearby senior citizen center, a bike ride home, then a shower, Jacuzzi and a nap before dinner.

“His retiring doesn’t surprise me, but he also has a way of changing his mind,” says teammate/decathlete Gary Miller (no relation). “Herb’s so involved with it you wonder if there’s anything else in his life.”

Ah, but there is. Herb Miller works two days a week--6 a.m. to 2 p.m.--as a security guard in Costa Mesa. He has a passion for ballroom dancing--you can see him strut his stuff at the senior citizen center most Saturday nights--and likes to do the environment and his savings account a favor by collecting and recycling aluminum cans he finds around the neighborhood.

“I ride my bike around the street looking for them,” Miller says. “I squash ‘em myself, too.”

And if that doesn’t give him enough to do, Ann, his wife of 45 years, usually has a list of chores for his reading pleasure.

Of course, none of this compares with the thrill of blasting out of the blocks and hurdling your way toward an American age-group record--something Miller estimates he’s done at least a dozen times--or parading into some foreign stadium with thousands of athletes from every corner of the planet.

Last year, Miller was one of about 13,000 athletes--ages 30 to 99--to compete the World Veterans Games at Turku, Finland. In years past, he’s traveled to meets in Australia, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the Soviet Union.

Miller first got involved in masters competition in 1980. He was working in the athletic equipment room at Chapman University. A masters track meet was scheduled, and he went out to set up the hurdles. It got him thinking.

“I signed up, ran the hurdles and won,” he said.

In the 12 years since, he estimates he’s won nearly 300 races. He keeps his medals in boxes underneath his stairs. Last time he displayed them--during a group breakfast at his mobile home park--the medals filled three tables.

Most of Miller’s success has come in the hurdles. In 1987, he set the current record for 71-year-olds in the 80-meter hurdles--14.60 seconds--at the World Championships at Melbourne, Australia. He also holds the record for age 72 (14.78) and 73 (14.5) in the event.

In Spokane, Miller won the 80 hurdles in 15.44 and took second in the 300s in 1:11.86--more than 15 seconds behind Dan Buckley of Phoenix, Ore., who finished first in a world-record 56.50.

Miller says he would’ve had a world record at that meet, too, in the triple jump, had it not been for a technicality. His leap of 29 feet 9 inches would have broken the existing record by nearly two feet, but meet officials rejected the mark.

“They said I jumped out of turn,” Miller said.

Instead, he won the gold medal in 26-4 1/2--seven feet ahead of the second-place finisher. With a mark of 12-7 1/2, Miller took the gold in the long jump as well.

So how does he bid track goodby?

“My wife says I’m lucky I got this far without being hurt and injured,” Miller said. “I put all my (track) shoes away. . . . I guess I’ll have more time for dancing.”