World's longest running streak - running streak that started in 1969 - comes to an end

Well, with 78 miles a week, you are crushing it. With that mileage you've earned the right to do whatever you want to do! Nice work.

But would you take a guy seriously who ran like 12 miles a week for three straight years? If the guy was just running 1-3 miles a day the whole time? That would not be very impressive...

What if you start up, feeling sick and miserable (flu, covid, fever, etc.) and you are half a block down the street "jogging" like 18 minute pace and you decided to walk a bit. Does run-walk-run-walk count?

What are the "rules" on this kind of thing?

p.s. I have been a streak runner before (nothing like this of course), but if I got a serious sickness (usually anything with a fever or in the lungs), I would pull the plug. That was sort of the "common sense" deal I made with the wife and family. I run through coughs and colds but not fevers. How do these guys stay totally free of illness the whole time?

That's good to know.

Again, this is something where the rules are your own, though there is something called something like the US Streak Runners Association that maintains a list of running streaks and they do have criteria for what they'll count. But it's up to the individual as to whether they want to have their personal streak on that list.

I don't know if they'd count "run/walk" or not. I believe they do count that guy in Florida who has run the same stretch of Daytona Beach, originally eight miles but now down to five, every single day for the past fifty years. There was a thread about him here very recently. He dropped from eight miles to five because it was taking him something like four hours to finish his eight miles. At one point a reporter interviewing him walked along side him as he was running. Two miles an hour, is that really running? But if the guy doing it counts it as running who is anyone to correct him even if that anyone doesn't consider it running.

A run is seven miles. A long run is anything over 14 miles. Anything under 7 doesn't count as a run. And everything should be no slower than 7 minutes per mile.

Not my rules. These are Jerry's rules. The rule of sevens.

That is brutal. When my normal, after-work loop started taking one full hour, I was like "damn, this is taking too much time out of my day," so I can't imagine what a four hour 8-miler would be like. That is nuts.

Not really a set distance, so much. I just made a commitment to myself when I was 12(Sept 1985) that I would never miss another day of running. There been times that I basically just ran down the road a little ways and came back. I just made a commitment at a young age that never was going to say to myself,"I'm just going to take this day off, go to bed, wake up in the morning, go about my business knowing I totally took that day off without trying to run at all at least something to count for that day". I've had times I really shouldn't have run all, personal issues in my life that I had no business running during that time, sickness , or so on , it's just a thing I do. I never sought any personal recognition for this. It's just a thing I did and I'll continue to do.

Wow. I never really thought a streak was a good for me, but an early professional and also running mentor had quite a stretch going as well. It lasted until a tree fell on him. He lived but curtailed his running for a few weeks.

RT: I think genetics and just plain 'good luck' are large contributors to not getting sick and being able to prolong a streak.

And I believe one sets their own rules. I remember an older All-American distance runner that I ran with in college in the 1970s who said; "If you don't go at least three miles a day, it does not count. So don't log it." I have been using that advice for the past 50 years or so.

I had to use a calculator here, but I am at 11,836 days (32 year plus and counting) of at least three miles a day. In 2024 averaged just seven miles and some years as high as 11-12. Nothing slower than around 9:00 these days. However, today it is 4 degree w/c and a bit like an ice rink in places out there, so I was probably closer to 9:15s.

I have been very fortunate to stay injury and 'sick' free. For most of my life. I went through four years of high school without taking a sick day.

And when I retired had multiple years in my sick bank. Would have been higher but I donated some big chunks (max allowable amounts) to some folks as part of leave share program that was implemented by my employer late in my career.

Before this latest streak got going there were two incidents that messed me up or it would of or could of been longer. One was having to work straight through a 24 hour shift (there was a major criminal case we were working on and processing and booking in the 13 arrestees was a nightmare). The other was a severe case of food poisoning from some oysters gone bad. Actually, thought I was going to maybe die.

I will add that 'jogging' three to four miles the day after a tough marathon or ultra (1/2 Marys these days) probably didn't really contribute to anything other than continuing the streak. Nor running four miles at 3:30 in the morning before flying back from China.

When it ends, it end. Until then, every race and every run is a blessing.

I put all running in my running log.

While I have a similar minimum run to you and rarely run for less than 30 minutes, if for some reason I ran only a mile it would probably be well worth nothing and discussing with my coach!

Smegma!

I've always prioritized running my best, so I maintain streaks only to the extent that they help me improve. I take breaks to heal injuries that are not improving and to recover at the end of the training year when I'm stagnating or declining. But I admire these guys with the decades long streaks because they require remarkable discipline and focus.

I guess you have to admire the consistency. but it also seems to suffer a reverse racewalker problem...how do you track what counts as a "run" and quite frankly does it even matter

I always found that I got over injuries and sickness better when I did a short and easy run than if I didn't run at all.

great story which never happened

My take is similar. A running streak is better than a non-running streak! Everyone needs their own personal incentive to run and if a streak is the incentive, then that's great.

However, streaks eventually violate a key axiom of running.

You don't get faster WHEN you run. You get faster by building muscle, improved circulation, and so on during RECOVERY. If you don't optimize recovery, you're not going to become the very best runner you can be. With advancing age, recovery becomes even more important.

Of course, the vast majority of runners aren't trying to be the best runner that they can be and that's perfectly okay. Life happens and everyone adjusts their time and priorities accordingly.

I used to go streaking on my runs, but I could never could get more than a few days in a row. Something always came up, like police harassment, tickets, jail time, frostbite, being tackled, family disapproval, etc. I don’t know how these guys did it for years in a row.

my god you sound boring as fk