Les Shoop, right, with his daughter Lindsay Shoop-DeFelice. Shoop has run at least 1 mile every day since April 28, 1980. Butler Eagle file photo

JEFFERSON TWP — Retired Knoch boys basketball coach Les Shoop knows all about hitting the road.

He does it literally, running at least a mile each day, every day.

“It doesn’t matter what the weather’s like or what’s going on his life,” Shoop’s son, Knoch athletic director Josh Shoop, said. “He’s like the postman. He’s dependable. Nothing stops him.”

Shoop, 77, has run at least a mile every day since April 28, 1980. That’s 16,338 consecutive days spanning 44.73 years. His daily streak of mile running is 22nd longest in the United States, according to statistics kept by the U.S. Running Streak Association.

The longest active streak in the country belongs to Jim Pearson, 80, of Marysville, Wash., who is at 20,063 days, or 54.93 years.

Shoop, who was inducted into the Knoch High School Sports Hall of Fame in December, does not expect to threaten those numbers.

“I don’t expect to carry this too much longer,” he said. “I stopped playing competitive basketball around age 40 because I felt my caliber of play then was beginning to disgrace the sport. I run so slow now that I feel like I’m disgracing running.

“My running style now is more like a combination of walking and jogging. I call it wogging. But I’m still out there. I’d like to get to 45 years. At that point, I’ll probably stop.”

While a streak such as this can continue if a mile is run on a treadmill, Shoop has never done so. He runs outdoors, usually at 5:30 a.m. before going off to work at his full-time job at Lexus of North Hills, a car dealership. If he misses his morning run, he’ll bring a change of clothes to work with him and run during his lunch break.

His first wife died of cancer at age 37. Shoop ran that day in the hospital’s parking garage.

“It does relieve stress. It’s a time of meditating and thinking,” he said of running. “I like the peacefulness of it. That’s why I like to run early in the morning.”

The fact he runs so early in the morning has caused Shoop to be chased by dogs at times. He said a neighbor’s dog bit him on the leg during a run.

“I still have the scar,” Shoop said. “I carry mace with me whenever I run now, just to keep the animals away. I’ve had to use it at times.”

He said the oddest place he’s ever extended the streak was on the deck of a cruise ship.

“It was 42 laps around the boat,” Shoop said. “I figured it out.”

A former high school basketball coach at Punxsutawney and Knoch, Shoop accumulated 511 wins in his career, 299 of those victories coming with the Knights. Besides running and working, he now keeps the scorebook at the table during Knoch boys basketball games.

“I think he’s crazy,” Josh said of his father’s ongoing running streak. “But he’s not gonna quit. He’s a man of routine, a creature of habit. When he does something, he is all in. I think that’s what made him such a good basketball coach.”

Shoop admitted he started the streak “because I knew I would commit to it. If I stopped running one day, I’m not sure I’d go out the next. It was a health thing, and it was important to me.”

While he has hit the road with the flu or some other illness, Shoop has never undergone a surgery or medical procedure that may have stopped the streak. He admits he’s had sore calves and Achilles at times, but he keeps going.

He estimates running approximately 900 to 1,000 miles a year now. He ran 2,100 miles in a year a decade ago.

“My knees have been good, but I’ve kept my weight down, which has helped in that regard,” Shoop said.

When the streak does end, his family won’t be all that upset.

“In a way, we wish he’d get off that list,” Jodh said. “You move up on it when something bad happens to somebody, whether a person passes away, has a knee or hip replacement. ... Nobody wishes that on anyone.

“At the same time, we’re proud of him. When that man sets his mind to something, there’s no stopping him.”