John Watts wanted to sneak in a quick two-mile run before driving his pregnant wife to the hospital.

He was worried her labor might last more than 24 hours — and he just had to keep the streak alive.

Even though her water had already broken and the couple’s first child, daughter Kelsey, was soon to be born, expectant mother Helen Watts finally relented and agreed to one mile.

“It’s crazy to not take a day off,” Helen says, remembering that day some 22 years ago.

Several years later, John got some strange looks as he ran through Ken-nedy Airport in New York. No, he wasn’t late for a flight — he just had to keep the streak alive.

“I got four miles in,” says Watts of his 1992 run through the airport, when he was on his way to Jerusalem. “The airplane schedule was such, if I was going to run it had to be in JFK Airport.”

Those were two of the closest calls of Watts’ nearly 10,000-day, nearly 28-year running streak. He has run every day, at least one mile, since Oct. 4, 1980.

The 52-year-old Bend resident has managed foul weather, sickness, injuries, busy schedules — and yes, the births of his three children — to maintain his streak. He wakes up nearly every morning at 5 o’clock, getting his daily run out of the way early so he can get on with his day.

As an admittedly obsessive runner, Watts is not alone. The United States Running Streak Association (USRSA) chronicles the streaks of runners throughout the country (www.runeveryday .com). Of 161 runners currently on the active list, Watts ranks 49th. The leading streaker, 57-year-old Mark Covert, of Lancaster, Calif., has run every day since July 23, 1968, for a streak of more than 14,000 days.

On its Web site, the USRSA defines a running streak as “running at least one continuous mile within each calendar day under one’s own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices).” Use of a treadmill is allowed.

Records are kept by the runners themselves using the honor system, but USRSA officials can ask to see running logs.

For Watts, a pastor and a superintendent for the United Methodist Church in Oregon and Idaho, running time is a sacred time.

“It’s almost like prayer time,” he says. “I very rarely have anything to listen to (while running). It’s just time to be alone … just time to think and pray. When I had a church, I’d think about sermons.”

Running and physical fitness have always been part of Watts’ life. Growing up in Madras, he climbed nearly every major Oregon peak with his father and with his younger brother, Alan Watts, who went on to become a pioneering rock climber at Smith Rock State Park.

John stuck with running. He was a track and cross-country star at Madras High School — part of a team that won four consecutive state cross-country championships from 1969 to 1972 — and at Willamette University in Salem. He fondly recalls the day he trained with running icon Steve Prefontaine in Madras just a few months before the legendary “Pre” died in an auto accident in 1975.

Watts has finished 27 marathons in his lifetime, including Boston and New York. He ran his best marathon time ever — 2 hours, 29 minutes, 9 seconds — in 1984 at the Avenue of the Giants Marathon in Northern California. He now says he is finished with marathons, but certainly not with running.

Currently, Watts says he is averaging about six miles per day, running between seven- and eight-minute miles.

Watts, who has lived in Bend for four years, cannot pinpoint exactly how his streak began. He does know that he was 24 years old in seminary in Denver when he realized he had run every day for a month.

“It’s kind of self-perpetuating,” says the trim, fit Watts, who appears younger than his 52 years. “I didn’t really think ahead to 28 years later. You think you’ll have an injury, or something will come up beyond your control.”

Watts was already accustomed to running streaks. Between October 1973 and July 1974, he ran on 301 consecutive days.

But his current streak dwarfs that. There are many ways to describe how much time has passed since Watts missed a daily run.

“More than half my life I’ve been running every day,” he says by way of putting his amazing streak in perspective. “The last time I didn’t run, Jimmy Carter was our president.”

Just how does Watts maintain his impressive routine despite his demanding job — he oversees 41 churches, driving about 30,000 miles each year throughout Or-egon and Idaho — and his responsibilities to his family?

“At first, it was really hard to get used to when we were first married,” says Helen, who married John a little more than a year before his running streak began. “Now it’s just something he does, and I’m really proud of him for sticking with it. It seems a little crazy, but he works it out so it doesn’t conflict with family or work.”

“Getting used to the smelly laundry is the worst of it,” she adds, laughing.

The Watts kids — in addition to Kelsey there’s Heather, 16, and Collin, 11 — have never known their father to skip a day of running.

On Christmas Day last month, some last-minute gift wrapping caused Watts to miss his early-morning run, and by evening, he still had yet to go. But he had some encouragement.

“The kids told me I had to run,” Watts says, smiling.

Watts does not advocate starting a running streak. Everyone’s body is different, but most need a day of rest once in a while, he says. Watts will limit himself to the minimum mile run if he is sick or injured.

“I’m not sure if it’s something I should be proud of or embarrassed about,” Watts admits. “It’s a little obsessive. It’s not something I’d recommend. The sensible thing is to listen to your body and rest. So far I’ve gotten the rest I need by just running a mile.”

And then there is the weather. While running on a treadmill is allowed by the USRSA, Watts says he has never done so during the streak. He’s run through some harsh weather, including this last week in Bend. But a couple of runs in Idaho, where he once lived, were the worst he could recall.

On one outing he slipped and fell on ice twice and was forced to finish his run inside a church gym. Another time, he battled temperatures as low as minus 10 and 30-mph winds.

“Running into that wind, you could feel the frostbite starting on your nose,” Watts recalls. “I got some weird looks.

“Here in Bend, you’ll always see people out running.”

This week, Watts has made good use of his Yaktrax, snow and ice traction devices designed for shoes. This time of year, Watts’ 5 a.m. runs must be done in the dark. And his options for trail running, which he enjoys in the warmer months, are limited. He usually runs various loops from his home in northeast Bend.

For most of the past 28 years, Watts has run free from injury and pain. That’s not so for the only other Oregonian on the USRSA list. David Hamilton, 53, of Portland, has run every day since Aug. 14, 1972, good for eighth place on the active list.

“It’s a physical ordeal for him,” Watts says of Hamilton. “Some of these guys, they’re going to have to die before they quit. I tell myself, if it ever becomes a burden I hope I have the sense to stop.”

But that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. Watts speaks of running 100,000 miles in his lifetime, or about four times around Earth. He has already run 67,000 miles, or 2.69 times around the planet.

“I’d have to be incredibly healthy to get there, but that’d be nice,” Watts says of reaching 100,000 miles.

His wife thinks he can do it, but she adds: “He’d probably be due for an oil change before that, though.”

“The day he can’t do it (run one mile), it will be a huge blow,” she predicts. “It will be sad for him, and it will be due to something way beyond his control. That will be sad for all of us.”

John, interestingly, doesn’t think ending the streak will be that difficult.

“I actually don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal,” he says. “I don’t think it’s going to be hard.”

Some may have trouble understanding why Watts and other streak runners would continue to pound the pavement or trails day after day — why they commit so much of their lives to a daily ritual.

For Watts, it’s not so much about reaching a goal. It’s just part of his lifestyle.

“Running’s always been a very important part of my life,” he explains. “I want to run as long as I am able to. If I were to miss a day, I’d miss a week, and probably a month.

“I like being in shape. Running every day is enough that you’re never out of shape. I like the pattern and the predictability. So much in life is not stable or predictable. I love being outdoors. It’s nice to be out at least once a day.”

Once a day, every day, for nearly 28 years.

And counting.

JOHN WATTS’ long RUNNING STREAK

10,000

Consecutive running days, which Watts will reach on Feb. 19e_SClB4.85

Miles per day averaged during the streake_SClB67,000

Total miles he has run in his lifetime

e_SClB2.69

Times around the Earth to which his lifetime running distance equates