Episode 21: Twenty-Four Years

Run streakers people committed to running at least a mile every day. There are now Facebook groups filled with run streakers and a national organization. But before any of that, Brent Burmaster decided that he would run at least 5k, or 3.1 miles every day for the rest of his life. That was in 1993. More than 8,800 days later, Burmaster is still at it. But in the twenty-four years between then and now, his life took a dramatic turn. Burmaster had always been a heavy drinker, but his big nights out were mostly confined to the weekends. However, when his first marriage fell apart, he plunged into alcoholism, going to bars every night. Was running holding his life together or enabling his addiction? Keeping him healthy or keeping him trapped in another addiction? That’s our story this week. Additional Resources: 2017 Runner’s World Summer Running Streak Soul’s Harbor Alcoholics Anonymous Host: Rachel Swaby Producer: Rachel SwabyFeedback from: Brian Dalek, Sylvia Ryerson Special thanks to Hollis Karoly, a doctoral student at the University of Colorado Boulder, for help with the science of alcoholism and exercise. Theme music: Danny Cocke Human Race editor in chief: David Willey Human Race is a proud part of Panoply. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You can listen to Episode 21: Twenty-Four Years online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Episode 21: Twenty-Four Years is an episode from Human Race by Runner's World / Panoply.

This episode is 47:41 long.

This episode was published on May 23, 2017.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Human Race when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.