The Fall and
Rise and Fall and Rise…
Of Tundra Traversing in
We left off this intriguing
tale of
However, as you may suspect by the title of
this article, that was soon to change. During the year, Pat Foley, Jon Freeman*, Brad Kautz, and John
Magnuson, all ended daily tundra traversing. While MN retired 4 streaks, John Roemer III
made it to 6 months of a new streak in February. So with 14 in the active
category, MD became the highest streak rate state in January 1992 for one
month, when Foley brought MN back to 14 active.
MD took over again in December with the end of Ross Hamernik’s streak,
due to hernia surgery, and held it for 2 years, the state’s longest reign at
the top. With the end of Ed Hewitt’s*
streak in November 1994,
The rest of the 1990s proved
fairly uneventful, as the active MN streakers kept getting their runs in
daily. By 1998, their number was back up
to 17, with the additions of Steve Moosebrugger, Scott Fodstad, and Thomas
Welch, as well as a second streak by Jon Freeman*. But then the millenium changed, the US
Running Streak Association formed, Sherry Case ended her second streak, and,
since Moser* and Freeman* never certified their streaks, they were dropped from
the active list. Until Sherry’s streak
ended, MN had also had the highest rate of female streakers, though it wasn’t
until Diane Shumway of Utah, reached 1 year daily running May 2001, that MN
lost its lead among women. MD dropped to
10 in 2000, as Hage*, Kroemer*, and McDermott* did not certify their
streaks. Thus, MN remained on top entering the 21st
century, surpassing their previous record time of 5 ˝ years in the lead,
lasting 15 years, until 2010.
Fortunately, Steve DeBoer ran the day he had
kidney stone surgery to reach 30 years of daily runs in 2001, leading the
14-member MN contingent. Steve Gathje
made it to 30 years 15 months later, making MN the 3rd state with
two 30-year streakers, after
Over the next 9 years, here
are additional changes to MN and MD active lists:
MN MD
2001 Moosbrugger to
King to
2002/3 Dave Emmans start (12) Eileen
Dibler start & stop; Field stop (10)
2005 Gensler to AZ; Moosbrugger from IL (12) Ray stop; Lorden stop (8)
2006 Mike McAvoy from WI; Pete Gilman start;
Moosbrugger stop (hip) (13)
2007 McAvoy stop; Aby stop; Kautz restart;
Al Gilman start (13 – 5 in
2008 Gathje from KS; Al Gilman stop (13) Bonarrigo
stop (7)
2009 Carlson stop – heart surgery (12);
Christian injury(11)
Susan Schultz start; Strumsky stop
(7)
Then, from November of 2009 to
June 2010, there was an even more rapid spread of streakends throughout the
state. Though Jacob Yurek reached the
one year mark on December 31st, Brad Kautz (H1N1 virus) and Scott
Fodstad (surgery) had already broken their streaks, followed by Wendell DeBoer
in February (compression fracture in back), Pat Foley in March (colon cancer
surgery), Brian Short (knee surgery) and Steve Morrow (family emergency) in
May. This left MN with only 7 runners
doing it daily (lowest number since 1983), having fallen to 6th place
for the first time since the tracking of streak running rates began in 1971,
just ahead of MD.
Montana (MT) had added a
second streak runner, Erin Stevens, their first female, getting to one year on
January 1, 2010, the same day that Wendell DeBoer’s 4th streak
reached 1 year. That brought MN’s rate
to 2.07 and MT to 2.01. When Pat
Foley’s streak ended on March 14th, MT took the streak lead. When Brian Short stopped his daily runs on
May 27th, MN’s rate had dropped to 1.32, below the rates of NE (1.64),
VA (1.62) IN (1.54), MA (1.52), and MO (1.50)
But Minnesotans are a hardy
bunch, and the state made an impressive resurgence. Roger Carlson passed 12 months of a new
streak on June 5th at age 65. So after 8
days in 7th place, MN climbed to 5th (1.51). Jeff Judd (July 1st) put MN back in 2nd
25 days later. Paul Christian reached
365 days for his second streak later in July, and Paul Case (November) made it
to the year mark of his only certified streak, to give MN the lead back at
2.07. Brad Kautz reached 363 days later
in November but had to stop after his daughter was hit by a car. Steve Morrow’s second streak was certified in
May 2011. Pat Foley (4th
streak) was added in October, bringing the MN contingent back up to 13, a few
months after Steve DeBoer celebrated his
40 years of daily runs, longest by a runner east of the Rockies.
MT held on to second place,
the only other state with a rate higher than 2 per million. Missouri became the 12th state to
have 10 active streak runners (MI, MA, and VA reached 10 earlier that year) in
October 2010, moving them into 4th place, as Dave DeBoer, reached the 1 year
mark of his 2nd streak, 32 years after his first one ended in
Minnesota. This is believed to be a
record time between one year running streaks.
MD, after having been in the
top 5 since July 1977, slid to #9 in January, 2010, with a rate of 1.2 streak
runners per million population. A few months later John Watts moved to ID,
giving that state 2 streakers and a rate of 1.27, so MD went down another
notch. By fall 2011, MD’s rate ranked
15th.
MN now has had at least 31
residents who have traversed at least 1 mile daily for a minimum of 365 days
since 1971. This includes the most from
a state who have run 100,000 miles, tying CA (6). The first 20 were listed in Part One of this
article in the Fall 2011 issue of the Streak
Registry.
21. John King Jan 1977- 2001 then to
Chicago and NJ
22. Steve Moosebrugger Dec 94-Jun 2001; Jul 2005-Dec 2006 (
23. Scott Fodstad Apr
95-Dec 2009
24. Thomas Welch Jan 98-
25. Dave Emmans Jun 2002-
26. Pete Gilman Nov 2005 –
27. Mike McAvoy Jan 2006-Jan 2007 (May 81-Dec 2005 WI)
28. Al Gilman ** Sep 2006- Mar 2008
29. Jacob Yurek Dec 2008-
30. Jeff Judd Jul 2009-
31. Paul Case *** Nov 2009 -
A few of the state’s
noteworthy achievements include:
4th State to Have a streak runner (SR) of 1 year or longer (Bruce
Mortenson January 1971)
2nd State to Have a female SR of 1 year or longer (Julie Maxwell July 1979) &
longest female streak ever
State with highest rate of SRs
ever (3.89 per
million population 1991)
Most Time with highest rate of
SRs ( 31 ľ
years)
Most Time with highest rate of
female SRs – 22 years+
Highest rate of SRs with
100,000 miles lifetime – 1.13 per million (6)
First 50, 60 and 85 year old
SR (Wendell DeBoer – 1978, 1984, and 2010)
First related SRs (Steve and
Dave DeBoer – 1973)
First 3 related SRs (Steve,
Dave and Wendell DeBoer – 1978)
First 3 active SRs in same
city (Steve & Dave DeBoer; John Magnuson – 1977)
First 4 active SRs in same
city –
Second 4 active SRs in same
city –
First 5 active SRs in same
city –
State with Highest Rate of
Active Daily Runners (1991-2011)
Jan 91 – Dec 91 MN
Jan 92 MD
Feb 92 – Nov 92 MN
Dec 92 – Nov 94 MD
Dec 94 – 3/13/2010 MN
3/14/2010 – 11/3/2010 MT
11/4/2010 - MN
Top States
Dec 1991 Dec 1996 Dec 2001 Dec 2006
Dec 2011
(# states with
37 39 36+ 37+ 45 &
Streak runners)
(Streakers per MN
3.20 MN 3.45 MN 2.84 MN 2.73 MN 2.45
Million) MD
2.93 MD 2.58 WY 2.02 MD 1.44 MT 2.01
WY 2.20 WY
2.11 MD 1.51 CT
1.43 VA 1.87
ND 1.57 ND 1.56 CT 1.47 IN 1.43 MO 1.83
CT 1.52 CT 1.49 DE 1.27 DE 1.19 IN 1.69
DE 1.50 DE 1.38 NE 1.17 NE 1.13 MA 1.68
VT 1.59
WI 1.58
* streak
never certified ** father of
Pete Gilman *** brother of Sherry
Case + all certified
Postscript: Ken Young contacted me that he didn’t
become a California resident until 1994, so CA did not become the first state
with ten active streak runners until April 1980 (vs. Jan 1980 reported in last
issue of the Streak Registry). Also,
through Facebook, another pre-1980 female streaker has been found. Eileen Rountree began her first daily streak
October 1, 1977, which predates Julie Maxwell’s streak by 9 months.
Steve DeBoer ran his 47th marathon (50th
race of 20 miles or longer) at the Twin Cities Marathon October 2, 2011, 40
years after completing his first marathon during high school cross country,
October 10, 1971 at City of Lakes Marathon (precursor to Twin Cities). He drank
no fluids that first marathon, running the second half 40 minutes slower than
the first half, with a time of 3:29:40.
He did drink fluid before and during his 47th marathon,
running the second half only 2 minutes slower than the first half, with a time
of 3:29:40. However, he had to stop at 6 miles for over 1 minute this time, due
to overhydration, so his running
time was faster this year. He passed 92 runners the last 2.2 miles, to reach
his goal to be in the top 1000 ( 998th of
8533 finishers). His finish in 1971 – 27th
of 51!