Mark Coogan Brings 29-Year Sreak To An End

Lesson learned: when failing, do so with a sense of humor

July 19, 2010

Former Olymipan and current Tufts University assistant cross country coach Mark Coogan is best known for his marathoning exploits. Lesser known is that he was the first Massachusetts native to run a sub-4:00 mile. Yet nothing quite captures the range of his devotion to the sport as The Streak: for 29 consecutive calendar years, from the time he ran a 4:58 mile as a high school freshman through 2008, Coogan ran at least one sub-5:00 mile Once retired from competitive running, Coogan often tried to knock it out on the morning of his birthday on May 1. But as the years passed, he found the real difficulty in sustaining such feats: "It hurts much worse to run hard when you're out of shape than to run a great performance when you're in shape," he says. Blitzing a fast mile in his prime required digging in for that final quarter. A sub-5 off the couch? An absolute suffer-fest.

As the fall of 2009 came to a close, Coogan's harriers, aware of his streak, started razzing him for not knocking out the sub-5. By early December, the big 30 was positively in peril.

Under the gun, Coogan did a few strides one day after practice, then got psyched up and spiked up. With coaches and athletes cheering him on, he set out on Tufts' 200m indoor oval. He hit the 800m in 2:24, went through the three-quarter mark in 3:36 and then, at the start of his final lap, his Achilles tendon popped and he crumpled to the track.

In an instant, the streak was over. Unable to bear any weight on his torn Achilles, a disheartened Coogan hopped back to the start line, his charges in stunned silence.

Junior Jeff Ragazzini broke the ice: "Look at it this way, Coach, that's 30 consecutive years of sub-2:30 800s!"