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By Scott Cacciola, The Wall Street Journal

Barring a catastrophe on the order of the Earth spinning off its axis Tuesday, Jon Simpson will rise at dawn and do something he has done every single day since Aug. 30, 1971: He will go for a jog.

This will take place without fanfare at a quiet pumping station adjacent to Simpson's home in Memphis, where he lives with his wife Caroline. A retired dentist, Simpson will cover four loops in 33 minutes on the same well-worn path. When he's finished, he'll become only the sixth person in the U.S. who has ever jogged at least one mile, every day, for 40 years.

In a nation that likes to glorify sports benchmarks—3,000 hits, 1,000 yards, 56 games—it's hard to know what to make of Simpson. A soft-spoken septuagenarian with a bit of a paunch, he doesn't look like anyone's image of an elite athlete. He's not in this for the attention. "I live a pretty mundane life," he said.

The only thing dazzling about his achievement is the almost unfathomable force of discipline that has driven it. "I'm just glad to get my first 40 under my belt," he joked.

According to the U.S. Running Streak Association, which began to chart running streaks in 2001, there are 286 registrants on its books who have run every day for at least one year. But before Tuesday there were only five people, all men, who'd run every day for more than 40 years.

Read more about Simpson's running streak - and what drives him, and others, to run despite the weather, pain, illness, other commitments - in the Wall Street Journal.

PHOTO:  On Tuesday, Jon Simpson, a retired dentist from Memphis, Tenn., will have run at least a mile every day for 40 years. He joins five other Americans who have accomplished the feat.  Lance Murphey for The Wall Street Journal

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