WHITEFISH BAY — Imagine doing something for four decades, every day. A Whitefish Bay man has done that, and met with friends at the high school track to celebrate it.
"It's 14,610 days," John Chandler says.
Even Chandler calls it the silly streak. But for 40 years, he's gone running at least a mile every day.
"I was on the phone with my friend's grandma in the car on the way here, I got he's an addict. So that was a new one. And my college friends always think he runs naked," Jennifer Chandler says.
Maybe he is a little crazy. Even at far less than 100 percent.
"The kidney stones was a little bit daunting, because I was actually in the hospital and they capped off the IV and checked me out to the custody of my then fiancee, now wife," John Chandler says. "So she knew about this, before we become betrothed. The broken ankle was very tough, not very much fun. That was the first time I ever didn't run my previous minimum of 2 miles a day. I brought it down to 1 mile a day when I had the broken ankle. And the TIA's were a little bit disturbing, not so much, I don't know. It's hard because you start thinking that you're dealing with more than just maybe the streak ending. It's like, maybe other things are ending."
One of his best stories revolves around keeping the streak alive when his son Jack was born.
"When Mary starts having pains, you got to go out and run, right away, because you never know how the day is going to turn out!" John Chandler says. "And so when Mary told me, I'm having some labor pains. I laid there for a minute with my eyes wide open at 2 in the morning. And then I turned to her and said, um, what do you think of me maybe going for a run right now? And there was a, um hum, pregnant pause. And she said, I think that would be a great idea. And every time I came by, it was like, nope, no light yet. I guess I'm OK. And about 3 in the morning, we headed down to the hospital and my son Jack was born."
A story even son Jack didn't know.
"If I did one, no lights. Another one, no lights, because the two mile minimum was in force back then," John Chandler says.
Lance Allan of TMJ4 Sports: "So now what do you think? And then you were born like a short time later!
"I mean I'm standing here right now, I guess that's all that matters!" Jack Chandler says.
John says set a goal, and do what you want to do. But he does feel the streak will probably end soon.
