Tim Ensign has been running for a long time.

And he's specifically been running a mile in a short time for a long time.

Sunday morning at the Girls Preparatory School track, the 1981 City High School graduate and 1985 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga grad ran a witnessed mile in 4 minutes, 59.91 seconds.

That gave him 40 years in a row of running a sub-five-minute mile.

Paced by "track training pal" Joseph Goetz, the long-ago All-Southern Conference runner kept his streak alive in his fourth try in six weeks.

His first attempt on March 4 was 5:02. On March 19 he ran a 5:01 and said then, "I'll keep trying."

The third attempt was 5:04.

The 54-year-old father of five daughters and longtime IBM communications specialist has found the "Ensign Memorial Mile" to require a "few attempts" more than once in recent years. The 10-time winner of the Wauhatchie Trail Run, which is handicapped for age as well as gender, remembers doing a 4:45 mile at the age of 47.

"Now I need the planets to align in old runners' formation," Ensign quipped.

They aligned Sunday — just long enough for him to make it.

Ensign stumbled across the finish line and fell hard, fracturing his left elbow.

"No running for a while," he bemoaned. "However many people have broken five minutes for a mile for the 40th year, I'm probably the only who broke his arm at the same time. But at least I did it. I didn't break my elbow doing a 5:01."

"I wasn't sure if it was a dive or a collapse or a lack of coordination — probably all three," said Goetz, who's been pacing the Ensign miles for "seven or eight years now." He said the key to Sunday's successful run was more rest leading up to it — Ensign was on a business trip and didn't run for a few days — and going a couple of seconds slower for the first lap, saving energy for the end.

But what about the streak? Should Ensign try for a 41st consecutive year of sub-five miles next spring?

"I think he should wrap it up. Forty-one, I don't think it's worth it," said Goetz, who's into golf now and admitted the Ensign attempts were cutting into his course time.

Ensign sounded Monday as if he agrees.

"I really wanted to make 40, and I did that. I think this will be a fitting end to the streak," he said. "But ask me again in 2018."

Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.