Track and Field / John Ortega : Running Feud Between Friends Hits 20 Years

What began as a challenge between friends has developed into a lifelong obsession for distance runner Jon Sutherland of West Hills.

Sutherland, 38, had just finished his freshman season at Valley College in the summer of 1969 when teammate Mark Covert told him that he had not missed a day of running in a year.

Sutherland himself had not missed a day in more than two months so he figured that he too would try for a year.

“And once I hit a year, it wasn’t that hard, so I kept going,” he said.

He hasn’t stopped.

On May 26, Sutherland’s streak reached the 20-year milestone. There is apparently no record-keeping on such running streaks, but Sutherland trails at least two men. Covert is approaching 21 years and Ron Hill of Great Britain, a British Olympian in the 1960s and ‘70s, has a streak of more than 25 years.

According to Sutherland, a bona fide statistics freak who can recall Willie Mays’ career and season-by-season baseball stats on cue, he has averaged 16 miles a day and run more than 114,000 miles during the streak. He had a high of 45 miles (Aug. 31, 1969, in Las Vegas) and a low of 2 1/2 miles during the streak, and he has run as many as 219 miles and as few as 28 miles in a week during the streak.

Sutherland, a 1968 graduate of Granada Hills High, said that he has run despite two stress fractures in his right foot, a partially torn right Achilles’ tendon and an aggravated torn groin that resulted in a pelvic stress fracture during the streak. Not to mention cases of bronchitis, mononucleosis and the flu.

“People think I’m crazy,” said Sutherland, vice president of artist and media relations at Metal Blade Records in Sherman Oaks and a syndicated rock columnist in several European magazines. “I’ll cover a concert, go to a party afterward and these musicians can’t believe I’m leaving so I can get up early in the morning to run. . . . It’s an obsession I guess. You get sick on this stuff.”

Sutherland has done more than just log miles during the streak, however.

At one time he held Cal State Northridge records in the 3,000 meters, two mile, three mile, 5,000 meters, six mile and 10,000 meters.

But Sutherland is less concerned with racing these days than he is with continuing the streak--and passing Covert. “I figure if I outlive Mark, my streak will be longer than his,” Sutherland said. “Besides, I saw him a little while ago and his feet don’t look too good.”

Rest and relaxation: Lolita Pile of Cal State Northridge concluded her season with a third-place effort in the women’s triple jump in the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational at UCLA on Saturday.

Pile, a junior who placed second in the NCAA Division II championships in Hampton, Va., last month, could have competed in the U. S. Olympic Festival in Norman, Okla., in July and in the Jack in the Box Invitational at UCLA in August, but Northridge assistant Tony Veney said that a hyper-extended right elbow forced Pile to curtail her season. “It’s not a serious injury, and we don’t want it to turn into a chronic one,” Veney said. “The best thing now is to let it heal and to let her rest.”