Wright's running streak comes to an end surrounded by Baldwin champions

For 29 straight years, Rich Wright kept running — 55,901 miles, 10,736 days.

The minimum? One mile a day. But often he did far more.

It didn’t matter if he was laying in the hospital or headed on vacation, he still found a way to get a run in every day.

“I always enjoyed it. I enjoyed running long,” said Wright, 68, of Baldwin Borough.

Wright’s run streak, that ranked him 67th the nation with the Streak Runners International, United States Streak Association, ultimately came to an end on Christmas Eve. He was diagnosed with foot drop in December 2019 and was in a great deal of pain and needed surgery. According to the Mayo Clinic, foot drop is a “general term for difficulty lifting the front part of the foot.” It is also sometimes called drop foot.

The longtime Baldwin cross country coach took his final run of the streak at noon on Dec. 24, surrounded by roughly 200 of his friends and former students. Together, they ran one final lap around the Baldwin High School track.

“It was like double emotion. I knew now it was over, there would be no more running. But I was so happy to be around all of the people that were there,” Wright said. “All of my former state champions were there.”

Even his best friend, Jim Rohm, who ran alongside him on Aug. 2, 1990, the first day of the streak, came to run the last.

Wright’s love for running started in high school at Keystone Oaks where he ran track. After graduating, he gave up the sport for a while, yet found himself gaining weight.

That was an incentive to get back to running.

However, he was in a car accident that ended all of that for the time being.

When his children Richard Jr. and James were young, they started running, so he joined them. But, he found himself often running for one week straight, then taking several days off, only to start again.

He knew several people were doing these things called “run streaks.” He asked for the details and decided to give it a try.

In January 1990, he started running. He kept up the streak through July, until he was sucker-punched in the face by a member of an opposing softball team that was refusing to play or forfeit the game.

He headed to the hospital, but first, stopped at Century III Mall “like an idiot,” he laughed, and ran three miles around the parking lot. When he arrived at the hospital he was told that he shouldn’t be moving, as the bone was nearly protruding into his eye.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh brother, if they knew that I just got done running before I got here,’” he said with a chuckle. Wright went into surgery almost immediately and that ended his first run streak.

On Aug. 2, 1990, he started his streak again, doing the cooldown and warm up at a half marathon in Mercer alongside friends.

Wright only planned to run for a year straight. But his friends would encourage him to keep going.

The streak helped him to stay disciplined and train to run a marathon under 3 hours. He ultimately accomplished that, running a marathon in 2 hours and 57 minutes. His fastest half marathon time is 1 hour and 23 minutes and his fastest 5K is 17 minutes and 3 seconds.

Wright got his miles in daily everywhere from running up the street — where he knew the exact place to stop for one mile — to inside Baldwin High School. He even ran at the Fitzgerald Field House at Pitt.

Wright kept a journal of every run that he took.

He always made sure to run a little farther than his Garmin watch told him that he had to, because he didn’t trust that it was accurate and he never wanted to cheat and run less than he said.

No matter what happened in life, Wright made sure to get in a run every day.

Even when he was headed to Jefferson Hospital for kidney stones, he stopped on the way and ran behind the Jefferson Medical Building to make sure he got in his run.

“I said, ‘You know if I go over there and they put me in an operation, it’s going to last until midnight and the streak’s going to be over,” he said.

His wife Kathy said, “No you’re not!”

But he did anyway.

He overheard the nurses when he arrived talking about what a terrible condition he was in because he was dripping with sweat. He didn’t want to tell them what he had done.

Another fond memory is when Bunny Schmidt, who coached cross country at Baldwin with Wright for many years, helped to disconnect his IV while he was in the hospital for kidney stones, he said, just so he could get in a run.

He’s always held that over her head.

There also was the day Wright and wife Kathy were all packed up in the car and ready to drive to Hilton Head when they got to Route 51 and he realized he hadn’t run yet.

So he pulled up the street to Baldwin High School, got in a few miles on the track, then the two were off to their destination.

Wright always used his streak as motivation for students on Baldwin’s track and cross-country teams.

“I tell the kids all the time, ‘Listen, I’m an old man that can go out every day and run no matter what the conditions are, no matter what’s going on. You know that I’m going to go run,” he said. “I always use that. There’s no excuse that you can’t go out and put some effort in.”

For the last few weeks of the streak, running was tough.

But he pushed through.

On Dec. 30, Wright had surgery and still struggles to fully move his foot.

He hopes to be well enough to coach outdoor track at Baldwin in March.

Schmidt, who always bought Wright a running planner for Christmas, still got him one for 2020.

He promises there will be at least one run listed in there.

Kathy just hopes he doesn’t start another streak. “It was challenging to see him run when he was injured,” she said.