JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – According to Gate River Run officials, 13,500 runners registered for the 46th annual Gate River Run.
But only 20 of them -- known affectionately as “Streakers” -- can say they’ve run them all.
John Thrush, 72, admitted during the Expo this week that he’s not very fast anymore, but he’s proud to have run every River Run.
“It’s something that you have that nobody can take it away from you. It’s an accomplishment that very few people have. They keep dropping out a little at a time. It’s probably the only thing I do that makes me have to go train,” Thrush said. “I mean, I don’t train hard. I don’t go far. I don’t go hard. I’m just lucky to finish. But it gives me a reason to keep it up.”
In the early years, the field wasn’t nearly as big and there was plenty of work to do to get ready for the race. Thrush said he would help race director Doug Alred get things ready. Alred celebrated his 40th year at the helm of the race this year.
Thrush said he wasn’t much of a runner before the River Run, but a friend got him going in his late 20s.
“One foot in front of the other and repeat as necessary,” Thrush said with a smile.
Thrush said that he learned that, like life, you get out of running what you put into it, and his advice for someone who thinks they might want to get started on their own streak is to just train.
“It doesn’t have to be hard. It doesn’t have to be long,” Thrush said. “To be successful at it, you have to work at it. I’m not successful anymore because I don’t work hard enough.”
That’s if you’re measuring success by speed, that is. Thrush succeeded in another way: he kept his streak going for 46 years. He finished this year’s race with a time of 2:46:00.
Thrush said the closest he came to having his streak snapped was the year he forgot his race number on the morning of the race. He said it paid off that he knew the race director from his years of helping out -- Alred got him a new number and he kept his streak alive.