Ron Hill Streaks Toward 150,000 Miles

On December 20, 1964, the Beatles "I Feel Fine" was in its third week at the top of the pop charts. Winston Churchill and T.S. Eliot were both still alive. And Ron Hill went for a run.

The Fab Four disbanded in the early 70's, and Churchill and Eliot have long since belonged to history, but Ron Hill is still running. At 69, Hill's streak of running at least a mile every day is approaching 43 years. if all goes well, he will reach the milestone on Thursday, and will run his 150,000th mile on Saturday. That's 150,000 miles in 15,705 days, or an average of 9.5 miles a day for 43 years.

It is a streak that includes a Commonwealth Games victory in the Marathon, a 7th place finish in the 1968 Olympic 10,000m, and another 7th place finish in the Munich Olympics in the marathon. It includes a week of one-mile runs following a head-on car crash that broke his sternum, runs in a foot cast after an operation to remove a bunion, runs in airports, races in 98 countries...

It includes victory at the Boston Marathon in 1970 in an icy rain that fell throughout the race.

One can certainly argue that "streaking" is at times, counter-productive to the aims of training, but one can't help admire Hill and the perseverance and positive attitude that is still there as he approaches these milestones.

Here are two articles about Hill and the 150K milestone:

Marathon Man (The Independent)

Run Hill Set for Landmark Run at Stanley

And here's a link to Ron Hill's blog. (You will notice that it hasn't been updated since August, 2007. this should tell you how hard it is to keep a blog going when Ron Hill, who hasn't missed a run in 43 years, has trouble keeping his blog up-to-date.)