I knew a distance coach named Bruce Sherman, a 2:34 marathoner at Boston in '84. He has run at least 1 mile a day for at least 39 years as of 2017 and is a member of the U.S. Running Streak Association. He's a masters-level runner.
(feel free to insert streaking jokes here).
https://www.runeveryday.com/news/archive/newsletterV17N2.pdf
Anyone familiar with this side of the arcane sport of distance running?
I have been fortunate to meet some of the top streakers of the past 20 years.
Streakers are amazing and dedicated runners. It’s an incredible accomplishment and a great feat of endurance which blurs the line between dedication and compulsion. I admire and fear them.
It’s probably not a super healthy approach to the sport, certainly sub optimal in terms of performance as it requires you to run at times when you obviously should not.
I look on it as unnecessarily risky in terms of health and avoid it. Unless you define your steak in terms of “healthy, injury free runs” in which case it is quite admirable, but not entirely in your control.
Streaking is good. Streaking for the sake of streaking is not so good.
It's not a good idea if you actually care about running fast. Your body needs the time off to build even stronger during the next training block. Just like you do a workout and an easy day afterwards, you do big blocks of training before a peak race, then the down time (time off) to completely recover, and then your next training cycle you build even stronger. People that have to keep their streak alive have something wrong in their head, it's either a pride thing or I don't even know what.
The team used to streak campus back in the day. Slowly died out as everyone got camera phones.
HRE will be here shortly to espouse the benefits of hobbling a mile a day for the last 40 years.
A runner will be much better off running in a productive manner.
I think it's dumb wrote:
People that have to keep their streak alive have something wrong in their head, it's either a pride thing or I don't even know what.
They pretend it's a quest, but really it's a compulsion.
The first image on the pdf that the OP posted...defines, for me, the very essence of these "streakers".
Congrats on being a "look at me" runner. Who actually wears a shirt that says "25+ Boston Marathon finishes" without being narcissistic? What a tool. This is the type of person that will tell you how much they love running and how they "do it for themselves" but then wear a shirt like this because they like the attention they get from others.
I've never seen a walking streaker, but during half-time of a football game, one ran down the length of the field. I wouldn't want to tackle a naked guy, but security cornered him and did just that. They cuffed him and made him do a naked perp walk in front of the stands.
It's probably like most other addictions. In reality you're a slave to the addiction. I'm surprised I didn't end up there. I was a slave to my running log. I hated to enter 'DNR.'
Oh Man said: This is the type of person that will tell you how much they love running and how they "do it for themselves" but then wear a shirt like this because they like the attention they get from others.
I never thought of it like that before. you've opened my eyes to the idea the a simple t-shirt might herald a whole philosophy of life.
cheers.
Definitely do not admire them. If you run your absolute best for a marathon, running the few days after it just to keep your streak alive is either a) foolish or b) means you didn't actually run all out
Easy Peasy wrote:
Definitely do not admire them. If you run your absolute best for a marathon, running the few days after it just to keep your streak alive is either a) foolish or b) means you didn't actually run all out
It may be foolish but not necessarily a bad thing.
I have a streak going. Never intended to go this far with it when it started but the fact is that it has kept me alive a couple of times. I have struggled for years with depression, suicidal thoughts (and one attempt) and almost without fail, after I run I feel a lot better.
Besides, I love running.
I am not using my registered handle here. I don't tell anyone about it. It's a personal thing.
The only people who know about my streak are my parents and my wife.
It is true that many people do such things for the attention. That's not a problem for me. If they are happy and not doing anyone any harm.
My PRs are nothing to write home about by LRC standards but I have PRed in the 10k and Marathon during the streak.
There's no training benefit. The streak is a thing unto itself. I think it's more of a compulsion than dedication. I can't imagine having such a limited, structured life where getting in a 3M every day was my biggest priority, but then it's what gets some people up in the AM.
It's something you could do with about anything. You could try to eat the same thing every day, or wear the same clothes, whatever.
quickndirty wrote:
It's something you could do with about anything. You could try to eat the same thing every day, or wear the same clothes, whatever.
OMG THAT'S ME! I confess I eat the same thing for breakfast every day.
I'm an oat streaker.
I have a streak that's been going on for over 3-years. Over that time I've trained for 5-marathons and countless other races. Sometimes there are days where I know rest would be better than getting one mile in, but over the course of my streak that may have happened 5 times. I disagree if you can run the day after a marathon you didn't give your all. Alternatively if you can't run the day after a marathon you weren't sufficiently trained to run that distance. I don't do it to show off to you or my running friends, it's for me and it's something I am proud of as much as a new PR. Not every day is a hard day and not every day is multiple miles. Rest days become active recovery with cross training.
If you can't find 7 minutes in a day to fit in a run, you need better time management.
I know 4 people on that list. They come in two types; the quiet ones that, unless you know them well, you would never guess they are streakers. And the type that wears their running streakers association singlets to group runs just like the douche canoes that wear their Boston jackets to the local turkey trot to impress the other hobby jobbers.
Easy days are easy so unless I was injured there was no reason not to run. For me, it was better to run everyday and not make a daily decision of whether or not to run.
I find long running race streaks to be really impressive, even if it's a local 5k. If someone has managed to line up for 20+ races, that's pretty cool.
As for running streaks in general, it's impressive if you're able to train through injuries, etc. and keep going without further harming yourself, but I find many streakers to be just plain obsessive. At some point you have to train through serious illness and injury. At that point I just don't get it.
Some of these streaks are impressive.
I always forced a day off on myself so I wouldn't get obsessed with keeping a streak going, because it isn't healthy to run just for the sake of it.