During the fourth week of September, 81-year-old Jim Pearson established the world record for longest running streak that includes all active and retired runners who have logged streaks of running at least a mile a day.

Pearson, a Western Washington University cross country and track and field athlete in the 1960s, on Sept. 24 completed a mile or more for 20,310 straight days, or 55.62 years. The streak began on Feb. 16, 1970.

On that date, Pearson, who keeps meticulous journals of his running, had run 183,830.7 miles (add 2.8 miles for each day since then). That equates to 7.3 times around Earth's circumference or 65.6 times across the longest straight line in the United States (Ocean Creek, Washington, to Jupiter, Florida).

Inducted into the WWU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015, Pearson has run in over 40 states, four Canadian provinces and 15 countries.

Pearson, who currently resides in Marysville, broke the mark of 20,309 days (55.60 years) set by retired Jon Sutherland (May 26, 1969 to Dec. 31, 2024). The streaks are certified by the United States Running Streak Association, Inc.

Now in second place among active runners is Steve DeBoer (Age 70, 19,842 days, 54.32 years) and third is Alex T. Galbraith (Age 74, 19,644 days, 53.78 years).

On Feb. 15, 1970, Pearson, who lived at Birch Bay, was battling the flu while moving across Whatcom County to his new residence on the Hannegan Road. With the illness and packing, driving and unpacking, he did not run.

The next day, on a chilly afternoon, he ran and has continued to do so for well over a half century.

For many years, Pearson didn't give the streak much thought.

"The only reason it came to mind is that after competing in an event, I was talking with someone (about the streak) who got it printed in a magazine," he said. "Then it was picked up by the Seattle Times and later appeared on Channel 13 (Seattle/Tacoma) news. But for so much of it, I wasn't trying to keep the streak alive. I always want to run one day at a time, so there's no stress."

There have been three times when Pearson's streak was in real jeopardy, one in particular about 10 years ago when he found himself in the hospital with what turned out to be blood clots.

"Having driven to the hospital, and having an IV put in my arm, I was disappointed," recalled Pearson. "Then I called home."
His two sons and daughter made their way to the hospital with Hopper pacing off a course in the hallway and Joel bringing his dad's running gear.

"I walked by the nurses with my gown on, walked to the vacant hallway we had measured, dropped the gown, put on a long-sleeve shirt so no one could identify me as a patient from the hospital bracelets on my wrist, and ran my 1.1 (miles) at 11 o'clock at night."

"The next day was actually worse because I was running in the snow. I had gotten permission to go home after Joel volunteered to give me the needed shots."

Later, Pearson injured his knee helping to get a stage ready for a play in which his daughter was to perform. A few years after that, he was told that he couldn't run anymore, "but I'd run 4-1/2 miles already that morning, so I knew that wasn't true," he said.

Since his early 20s, Pearson has devoted himself to distance and ultra-distance running, both as a participant and coach.

In 1975 at Seattle, Pearson was the U.S. champion in the 50-mile run, setting an American record with a time of 5:12:40.1. He also was a national champion in 1988 in the Masters 50-mile run.

Pearson qualified for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 1972 and 1976. He competed in four world championships, including the World Masters 25-kilometers at Bruges, Belgium, in 1985; World Masters marathon in 1985 and 1986 at Rome, Italy, and Richmond, B.C., respectively; and the World Masters 10-kilometers at Eugene, Ore., in 1989.

Pearson placed among the top five at the U.S. national championships seven times. Besides winning the Amateur Athletics Union 50-mile run in 1975, he was second in the 50K in 1976 and 100K in 1979, third in the 50 miles in 1979 and 100K in 1980, and fifth in the 50K in 1974 and 50 miles in 1980.

There was an 11-1/2 year stretch where Pearson averaged over 100 miles per week. His longest streak of consecutive 100-mile or more weeks was 78, exactly a year and a half.

Pearson's highest weekly mileage was 182, and he had months of 729 and 719. He ran 6,174 miles in 1975 and 6,028 in 1978.

This type of mileage allowed Pearson to run a personal-best 2:22:32 marathon just 35 days after taking the 50-mile national title.

The bulk of his training that year came while completing graduate school at WWU.

Pearson won the Seattle, Portland (Ore.) and Victoria (B.C.) marathons and was a 16-time champion at the Birch Bay marathon, which he founded. He has run the marathon in under three hours 69 times, 27 of them under 2:36 and 14 under 2:30.

Pearson coached high school and collegiate cross country and track for nearly 50 years, including 35 at Ferndale (Wash.) High School. Seven of his athletes qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials and another seven for World Championship meets. He has coached 55 national qualifiers and 30 All-Americans.

Besides founding the Birch Bay Marathon in 1969, Pearson began the Ferndale Track Club in 1970, co-founded the Snohomish Track Club in 1968 and the Freedom Flower Road Runners in 1976. He also is a past president of the Greater Bellingham Running Club, the Snohomish Track Club and the Freedom Flower Road Runners.

Pearson was once referred to by Runner's World as an "Ultra Running King," He has appeared in that magazine as well as Track and Field News, Ultra Running, and Northwest Runner. He also has appeared in books, including The Running Mind by Jim Lillefors, On the Road: The Marathon by Jim Shapiro, Why We Run by Bernd Heinrich, Racing the Antelope by Heinrich, Ultra-Marathoning by Tom Osler, Ultramarathon by Shapiro, Serious Runner's Handbook by Osler and Running Around Puget Sound by Peter Holman Smith.

Pearson and wife Barbie have three grown children. Besides sons Hopper and Joel, they have a daughter, Paige. Pearson also has an older son, Rob, by a previous marriage.

All three of the younger siblings had running streaks of a mile or more a day, one being the current mark of 31.10 years or 11,360 days (Oct. 8) by Joel, which ranks No. 57 on the USRSA list.

A 1962 graduate of Lake Stevens High School, Pearson is a member of that school's Purple and Gold Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2013. Besides Western's Hall of Fame, he also is a member of the Snohomish County Sports Hall of Fame.

As a student at WWU, Pearson was a member of the cross country team that won a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) District 1 championship in 1963. He earned a bachelor's degree in English at Western in 1966 and completed his master's degree in 1975.

During his early days as a Viking track athlete, Pearson competed in the long and triple jumps. However, two other jumpers enrolled around that time, Dick Preferment and John Hunt. Both possessed the talent to reach the NAIA national championships, Hunt placing second at nationals in the long jump in 1966 and Preferment finishing sixth in the triple jump in 1967.

"That pretty much ended my jumping career," said Pearson. "If you're only the third best on your team, that doesn't say much."

So, as a junior and senior at WWU, Pearson concentrated on the two mile run.

"Keith Gilbertson, Sr. (Snohomish), my summer coach, always told me that I should be running distances," said Pearson. "He finally got me to do that, and then one day (late in 1968), he said, `Jimmy, you've got to get more consistent.' And so I did."

Certainly, one of the great understatements of all time.