What Counts as a Running Streak?

I am in the midst of a personal running streak.  I have now run for 17 days straight.  Not exactly a long streak, but good for me.  I rarely run an entire week without a day off.  I started on Thanksgiving Day and hope to continue through the rest of 2010 and all of 2011. When does a consecutive streak of running actually count as a streak?  One week seems too short.  One month?  Six months?  One full year? According to the United States Running Streak Association (USRSA), a running streak can be certified and listed after one full year. There are requirements that need to be met to have a running streak.  You can't just run to the end of your driveway and call that a "day of running."  According to USRSA:

One must "run 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). Running under one's own body power can occur on either the roads, a track, over hill and dale, or on a treadmill. Running cannot occur through the use of canes, crutches or banisters, or reliance on pools or aquatic devices to create artificial buoyancy."

Sounds good.  My current rule has been to run at least 2 miles each day, but I suppose 1 mile is a reasonable minimum.  Easy, eh?  Who can't run one mile every day.  Every single day.  For at least a year.  Thanksgiving Day (November 25, 2010) marks the beginning of my personal running streak.  Thanksgiving seemed like an appropriate day to begin--what better way to "give thanks" for my ability to run?  I appreciate my general good health.  Why not run every day to celebrate my health and fitness?  Care to join me?  You can start your streak today!

Here are two interesting runners with long streaks:

Robert "Raven" Kraft (8 miles/day for more than 35 years)

Barefoot Rick Roeber (3+ years barefoot running every day)

The longest current American running streak is Mark Covert who started on July 23, 1968.  Yes, that is 1968.  Mark likely owns the record for the world's longest current streak too, but Ron Hill of Great Britain supposedly has run every day since December 1964--but with looser criteria, including the use of crutches.