Kerry Little and Lee-Ann Graham. Photo courtesy of Kerry Little.
Kerry Little and Lee-Ann Graham are streakers.
Several years ago, each of them decided they were going to run at least a mile every day.
Little, who has lived in East Dallas since 1983, is up to about 1,170 days. Graham, a Lake Highlands resident for nearly 20 years, is around 1,370.
They met through Luke’s Locker, where Little has worked for about 13 years. Little was in charge of training programs there, and Graham’s husband was a coach.
In 2019, Little finished the marathon program and started running every day. Then the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, and Little kept running every day.
“Here I am, still running, but it’s mainly because I’m not competing anymore. I’m not racing,” Little said. “I’m just running for health reasons, and running is just the easiest way to get my day going. It’s kind of meditative for me, kind of sets the day. It’s something I can do mindlessly.”
Graham started a running program with Runner’s World in May 2019, running every day until July 4. And then she set smaller goals to keep running — the number of days equal to her age, then going up to 100 consecutive days.
“You just have a day to run one mile,” Graham said. “And you can figure out if you succeed or not by if you do it. It just seemed doable and kept me moving.”
Little and Graham didn’t actually realize they were both streaking until Graham saw Little running around White Rock Lake quite a bit. At the time, both of them had been streaking for hundreds of days. They’re both listed on Streak Runners International’s list of active streakers; to date, the longest active streak for women is held by 86-year-old Lois Bastein of Florida, who has run every day for over 15,650 days.
White Rock Lake is a favorite place to run for both women, along with their respective neighborhoods. Little also likes to run down the Swiss Avenue Linear Park.
The Dallas climate means Graham and Little don’t have to worry too much about extreme weather events. The last time the city was covered in snow and ice, Graham and her husband took their four-wheel drive truck to the lake, and Graham just ran slowly. When they left town to go skiing, Graham ran in her snow boots and goggles.
Little deals with icy conditions with trail shoes that have grittier bottoms and trying to stay on the grass, which she said typically has better traction than a paved surface.
“When it first snows, I can’t describe it. It’s so quiet and so peaceful,” Little said. “You’re out there, and everybody else is kind of bundled up. It’s just a neat, quiet experience.”
Graham said the experience is like a puzzle for her, figuring out how she can fit at least a mile run into every day. But she said she’s incorporated it into her routine, and it’s become habit.
She said she has been having issues with her knee but wants to keep up her streak at least until Memorial Day.
“It’s a really cool thing because it gets you up and out, and you get to see things, a lot of really pretty sunrises,” Graham said.
Little just wants to see how long she can go.
“It’s not hard for me to do this anymore because I’ve been doing it for years and years,” Little said. “Running is just part of my DNA.”
