Photo gallery: Mark Covert ends 16,437-day running streak
Jon Sutherland always envisioned Mark Covert would run forever.
Or at least that's what the Notre Dame cross country coach wished would be the legacy for his friend and former Valley College teammate.
Sutherland, 62, boasts the second-longest streak in U.S. history of running at least one mile each day, a span of more than 44 years.
After Tuesday, it will become the longest active stretch in the country when Covert, 62, ends his streak after 16,437 days, on the 45th anniversary of when it started.
"Nobody thinks they're going to run a year (consecutively), let alone 40 or 45," Covert said. "I never thought anything like this was going to happen, but I'm so thankful for all the support I've received. I never realized what an important thing this has been to so many people and what the streak has meant to them."
Covert, who has coached cross country and track and field at Antelope Valley College since 1990, will begin his daily workout at 7 a.m. on Tuesday running around Marauders stadium and plans to cover a little more than a mile to conclude the streak.
Then he will take a day off from running Wednesday for the first time since 1968.
"I have mixed emotions about it. We've been close friends for a long time. It's bittersweet for me," said Sutherland, whose streak trails Covert's record by 307 days.
"I'm happy for him that he can make this decision and be at peace with it. He seems really relaxed about it."
Covert's streak, which began with a 15-mile run the day after returning from a family vacation following his graduation from Burbank High in 1968, has survived several injuries and ailments, most notably enduring the required one mile in the days immediately after meniscus surgery a decade ago.
A mid-foot collapse ultimately forced Covert to reach the decision to conclude the streak on Tuesday, since his right foot doesn't allow him to run at his desired pace, instead hobbling through the miles most days during the past year.
"There's no rhythm to my running," Covert said in a recent interview with Competitor Magazine's Brian Metzler.
"What I do now is hobble around. I suppose I could continue doing this until I can't walk, but I don't see any point in doing that."
Covert is expected to have surgery later this year to repair the foot, but will continue to get his desired daily
exercise by riding a bicycle.Great Britain's Ron Hill is credited with the world's longest streak of running at least one mile each day, having done so since December 20, 1964, although he, like Covert, has endured his share of obstacles by completing a mile on crutches wearing a plaster cast and a specially adapted shoe the day after bunion surgery, in addition to overcoming a broken sternum the day after a car accident.
Sutherland's streak has also survived a few close calls, including running for nearly nine months while rehabilitating a broken hip.
Sutherland credits Covert's toughness and resolve for helping him persevere to remain among the active list of eight Americans who have run at least one mile each day for more than 40 years.
"Mark was always a leader. He was a visionary, a pioneer. He wasn't the rah-rah guy, he just led by example," Sutherland said. "When he says something, people listen. I can't think of another person in my life that I like as much and respect as much as Mark."
Even in the days before the streak concluded, Covert took time in his daily video diaries at markcovertnevermiss.com to thank Burbank High coach Frank Kallem and Valley College coach Laszlo Tabori for inspiring him to become such a determined runner and competitor and develop into a state and national champion who earned All-America honors seven times at the
Mark Covert runs at Antelope Valley College, Monday, July 22, 2013. Covert is the U.S. record holder and No. 2 in the world for the longest streak of consecutive days having run at least 1 mile. Covert will end the streak Tuesday, July 23, at Antelope Valley College on the 45th anniversary of when it started. (Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News) (null)
NCAA Division I and II levels."They taught me the value of discipline and sticking with things, and I've tried to pass that along to my runners," said Covert, who has also coached at Glendale, L.A. Trade Tech and Valley colleges before arriving at AVC.
"I have to stress to my runners, this isn't something you're doing, this is a lifestyle. They have to commit to it. This is something I want to do, not that I have to do. You have to make it important to yourself."
Chris Covert, formerly the women's cross country and track and field coach at Southern Connecticut State University, calls his father "the toughest man alive."
Debi Covert, Mark's wife whom he first met while teaching a running class, has been instrumental in preserving the streak on several occasions, even completing simple acts like helping her husband put on his shoes when a nagging back injury prevented him from doing so.
"There is a saying in the running world that there's tough and then there's 'Covert tough,'" Debi Covert said. "A lot of people around this country go by 'Covert tough.'"
The same toughness is alive today in Covert that was present in 1968, when he accomplished the longest run during the streak by covering 52 miles in 7 hours, 35 minutes with a group of friends.
He has carried that determination with him as an athlete at Cal State Fullerton, as well as during the 1972 Olympic Trials, when he became the first athlete to cross the finish line in a pair of Nike waffle-soled shoes by placing seventh in the marathon.
"Nobody in the Valley had ever done what he did," Sutherland said. "He was our version of (Steve) Prefontaine and (David) Bedford, just without the flashy personality. He would throw those crazy times out there and everybody had to try to chase them."
And Sutherland, along with every other American, will continue to chase Covert's remarkable standard of longevity by running a mile each day.
Covert said he will still run, just not with the frequency he once did. But he hasn't lost his passion for a challenging workout, even if it will be with more regularity on his bicycle than on the AVC track.
"At five years it was a monster. I don't know what you'd call it now, but it's fun to sit back and think about all the different guys and different personalities who have passed through (during the streak)," Covert said. "I just wanted to put my shoes on every morning and go out and run. It's something I've always looked forward to. Getting to 45 years was significant to me, so that's why I'm carrying on to this point. But I'm not retiring, I'm not dying. Now I'm just going to get on my bike and ride every day."
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