World Record For Consecutive Days Running

We have somebody on our staff that goes out for a run every day. I think he says he has a five-mile route he covers regardless of the weather. We did a remote near his home one morning and he didn’t even bother to stop in to say hello. He just ran on by. I’m not sure if he takes a break from his routine – maybe a day off on the weekend once in a while, but a guy by the name of Mark Covert never takes a day off from running. His streak is up to 16,081 days in a row – the number of consecutive days he’s run at least a mile. It’s the longest active streak ever recorded by the United States Running Streak Association. I’ll save you the math – 16,081 days is more than 44 years and counting.

Covert began his streak in July, 1968, as a high school senior. In 1970 he was named the NCAA individual cross country champion. In 1971 he was on the California State University, Fullerton cross country team that won the NCAA Division II championship. In 1972, he just missed out on a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

Covert is 61 years now and averages between 35 and 45 miles a week. He says it was in his freshman year in college when he realized he had gone 100 days without missing and he wondered if he could get to one year. Then it became a goal – two years, three years, four years. He says it’s something he enjoys, it’s part of his routine. It makes him feel better. He calls it therapeutic.

He runs between 50 and 60 minutes. Sometimes he’ll go 80 minutes.

He doesn’t eat anything before he runs, but has a regular breakfast when he comes back – oatmeal one day, toast with peanut butter and jelly another day, nothing special. A light lunch, then chicken, fish, a salad and vegetables for dinner. He eats want he wants but tries to keep it light.

His record was in jeopardy only twice – once when he had knee surgery, but he was able to put a mile in the next day. And another time when he hurt his back. He could hardly walk or bend to put on his running shoes. It was a challenge for a couple of days but managed to get thru it. He says he has doctors that understand his craziness.

SOURCE: cnn.com