Image courtesy of Steve DeBoer
By now drivers in Rochester, Minnesota, are used to the sight of a shirtless man jogging down the road. Locals may wave at Steve DeBoer out getting his daily miles, but they may not realize his status in the world of running. DeBoer, a member of Trinity Presbyterian Church (PCA), is one of the most accomplished runners in the whole world.
Starting the Streak
Born in South Dakota in 1955, DeBoer grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he has lived for most of his life. A self-described “scrawny kid,” in seventh grade he began a regimen of calisthenics, pushups, and running to prepare for his school’s basketball tryouts. He did not make the team that year, but he kept up his training and earned a spot the following year.
“As a kid, I liked to be consistent,” DeBoer said. “I was always keeping track of different things.”
That consistency led him to continue his training, and beginning on June 7, 1971—he can pinpoint the day it officially began—he committed to daily running, thereby joining the ranks of a select cadre of athletes known as streak runners: runners who have kept up a streak of running a mile or more every day without fail.
Since that moment more than 54 years ago, DeBoer has logged almost 20,000 consecutive days of runs, totaling over 189,000 miles on the road, enough to make him one of the most prolific streak runners on the planet. According to Streak Runners International, DeBoer has the second-longest active running streak in the world. (He has also logged an average of 100 pushups a day in that same time period, racking up approximately two million pushups, but that’s a different story.)
Keeping the Streak
Every runner has a preferred route to get their miles. On a normal day, DeBoer chooses from one of his two favorite nine-mile routes. About once a week he goes on a long run of 15 to 20 miles, and even at age 70, still runs three marathons a year. His neighborhood in Rochester has some elevation to it, and DeBoer usually begins by running downhill before returning home with an uphill climb.
“I should probably reverse that one day,” he laughs.
Streak runners must be undaunted by rain, sleet, and snow (of which there is plenty in Minnesota), but every athlete knows that travel complicates a fitness regimen. DeBoer moved to North Carolina for his graduate work (he is a retired registered dietician) and later to Ecuador to serve in the Peace Corps, but in the years when he has had to move around, he has always found a way to keep his streak alive. Even after overnight or international flights, when all the other passengers are groggy, DeBoer has his shoes laced up and ready to go.
Streak running is a risky business—technically, a single missed day will end the streak—and different illnesses and injuries over the years have threatened to end it all. In years past DeBoer has run with kidney stones, with foot fractures (jogging in an orthopedic boot), and even, after one particularly nasty bout with pneumonia, ran laps around his hospital bed, to the astonishment of his physicians.
“I just scaled the distance back,” he shrugged. “After enough laps, I made my mile.”
Recording the Streak
Once an individual hobby, with the advent of technology, streak running has become more professionalized. In the 1990s runners began to organize, and the United States Streak Running Association was formed in 2000. In 2013, the global community consolidated to form Streak Runners International, which now boasts about 5,000 members worldwide and about 3,000 in the United States.
The criteria for membership are simple: a streak begins after one calendar year of a daily minimum distance of one mile, no matter the means used to achieve it (on the road, on a treadmill, or on a track). Called Neophytes, runners who achieve this first feat can submit their streak to the SRI, and begin the journey toward achieving higher and higher titles, from Dominators (25+ years) to Legends (40+) to Hills (50+).
While running official races certainly count toward the goal, recording a streak is largely held on the honor system, with many of the higher-end streak runners continuing to cheer for each other. Currently the top spot is held by Jim Pearson, 81, the only “Double Nickel” in the world, who has logged 20,294 consecutive days of running. At the moment, DeBoer trails him by about 500 days.
An earthly-minded athlete might see this gap and seek pridefully to close it, but DeBoer counts Pearson as a friend. After all, the true competition, DeBoer attests, is with no one but yourself.
Honoring the Streak
Speaking to DeBoer today, you would never know he holds such a lofty title. He stays grounded in humility and gratitude thanks to the support of his family (his father and brother are also runners) and his faith. Born into a family with deep roots in the Dutch Reformed church, he first attended a Congregational church before landing at Trinity PCA with his wife.
Initially active in supporting Trinity’s missions work, he was subsequently asked to be a deacon, which he views in much the same stead: “Serving your congregation is like being a missionary at home,” he says.
Scripture contains several memorable passages pertaining not just to athletics and strength, but to running in particular. DeBoer’s favorite passage by far, and the one that serves as the subtitle to his memoir, is from the opening of Hebrews 12, where believers are urged to “run with endurance the race that is before us.”
That verse, DeBoer says, has stuck with him for decades. Asked how his faith has informed his pursuit, he says that he often prays while running, and he is careful not to make an idol of it; if one day his streak ends, he won’t be crushed. Rather, he sees running both as a way to glorify God for the wondrous design of the human body and to achieve more practical ends, too.
“If you stay healthy,” DeBoer says, donning his deacon hat, “You can serve better. It’s as simple as that.”
Finishing the Streak
A running streak means that each new day requires lacing up the shoes one more time. (DeBoer eschews any one brand but rotates between 30 different pairs of shoes to avoid injury; he keeps one sentimental pair that has about 7,000 miles on it.)
He does have one larger goal in sight, however: with 189,000 miles under his belt, in the next 10 years DeBoer hopes to notch another 27,000 miles or so to make 216,000, the approximate distance from here to our nearest neighbor.
No, not Minneapolis. By the time he turns 80, DeBoer hopes to have run the distance from the earth to the moon. At that point, he jokes, he might start to think about retiring.
But for DeBoer, the earthly accomplishment has never been the goal. All crowns fade, and even if he does overtake Jim Pearson one day in the top slot, he knows that this honor will be his for only so long. Rather, throughout his life DeBoer has sought to “press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).
In the meantime, he asks anyone who sees him pounding the ground in Rochester to wave as they pass by—for he knows to whom he is running, and running with joy.
A regular contributor to byFaith, Benjamin Morris is a third-year student (and weekly – not daily – runner) at Reformed Theological Seminary Jackson.