MARATHON MAN Courtney keeps going and going and...

The Grove City runner hasn't missed a day of running in the past 25 years.
GROVE CITY, Pa. (AP) -- Mark Courtney doesn't recommend that you follow his fitness example.
Sunday, the Grove City resident will reach a milestone not often achieved: 25 years of having run seven days per week, 365 days per year, without missing a day.
Courtney, 48, one of the leading master's division runners in the state, is known in the Alle-Kiski Valley for his Runner's High Race Management and Timing Services, which has timed more than 260 races in 2004, and more than 2,000 events since it began 1982.
He is 39th on a list of running streaks compiled by the United States Running Streak Association Inc.
Only two runners in America in front of him are younger.
Bob Ray, 63, of Baltimore tops the list with 36 years of consecutive running.
Miles are piling up
When Courtney completes his 121st marathon Sunday (the Jacksonville, Fla., Marathon), he will have logged 73,450 career miles -- 70,325 of them in this streak.
He has competed in 67 races of varying distances this year, winning seven and placing in the top five 23 times.
Courtney has completed 25 consecutive Boston Marathons, with an average time of 2 hours and 45 minutes -- a Boston record. His wife, Debbie, has run 11 consecutive Boston Marathons, with a best of 3:19. She also times area foot races and fitness events for Runner's High.
Still, "I don't recommend streaking," said Courtney, a physician's assistant who is on the board of directors of the American Medical Athletic Association. "Most bodies can't take it."
Knowing when to ease up
He knows he has been fortunate with his health and longevity. He started running at 22 and began his streak at 23. He turns 49 in January.
"Luck and good fortune come into play. I listen to my body," he said. Courtney said that after 25 years, he knows how every step feels.
"I know how hard I can push in a race," he said. "I know when an ache is more than just an ache. A few short days usually is all it takes me to allow the body to mend itself."
If you push too long and too far, the little aches and pains turn to into big ones, he added. "That's where the wisdom of 25 years come out," he said.
Courtney said he, like many other runners, is a "Type A" personality. Running has given him a great release for his excess energy.
"Even with an hour on the road everyday, I still get more done in a day than most people," he said.
Courtney said his average of 50 miles per week has kept him healthy and still able to race competitively.
Staying focused
Discipline is important to achieve Courtney's milestone.
"It's easy to rationalize and make excuses on 'Why I shouldn't run today,' " he said. "I've had many days where I didn't want to run and many days that I shouldn't have run because of weather, time constraints, illness, etc."
Once a streak is broken, though, it will become easier to take an occasional day off, he said.
Through the years, Courtney has had some close calls.
He's had four kidney stones, and during the pain of the stones moving, he says he could not have run.
"Fortunately, the colic is short-lived as the stone moves, and the day is 24 hours long," he explained.
Running the day after a biopsy for a questionable growth was definitely his closest call, he said.
One of the days he almost missed was memorable because he was having a beer with American Olympic marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter in a little bar in Erie.
"I just about blew it that night. Back at my hotel, at 11:45 p.m., it struck me and I disappeared down the street in jeans for a 2-mile run," Courtney said.
What makes Mark Courtney run?
That's easy, he replied, "Beer and ice cream, but never at the same time."