Stephen Reed is running his 27th consecutive Boston Marathon on Monday and, in another two months, his streak of running every day will reach 40 years. His twin accomplishments, though, are jeopardized by osteoarthritis in his left hip.

“I’ve been trying to keep these two streaks going,” said Reed, 68, a retired doctor from Wiscasset, Maine.

Reed is among 86 members of the Quarter Century Club signed up for the Boston Marathon, marathon spokesman Marc Davis said.

On June 16, Reed will mark his 40th year of running at least a mile every day, as recorded by the U.S. Running Streak Association. Reed said he accepts that hip replacement surgery is inevitable, though it would mean the end of his daily running streak. He was limited to six-mile training runs this winter.

“It’s just a question of when,” Reed said.

With a hip replacement, Reed hopes to continue his Boston Marathon streak into his 70s, “contrary to what my orthopedic surgeon wants,” he said. “He doesn’t want me to go out there and ruin the prosthesis prematurely.”

First, Reed needs to make it to Monday’s finish line in time.

Under a new policy, Quarter Century Club members have a six-hour cutoff to continue their streaks and maintain guaranteed entry status. Reed was running Boston faster than 3 hours into his early 50s, and he ran 3:26 in 2010 at age 62, but he struggled to a 6:45 finish in 2015.

Reed and 80 other club members are getting an additional window by starting in the second wave, Davis said. The second wave departs 50 minutes ahead of the fourth and final wave.

The other five club members are in the first wave.

“I’m going to get myself into some kind of a groove,” Reed said, adding that he expects to walk at times.

Reed said he might opt for surgery as soon as this summer, unless he falls short in Boston.

“I know I’m not going to be giving up both streaks at the same time. That would be emotionally very difficult,” Reed said.

Reed returned home to Maine on Monday afternoon following a four-day, 1,700-mile drive from Fort Myers, Florida, where he spent the winter. In Florida, Reed was running about six miles every day, typically at a 12- to 13-minute mile pace, often in 80-degree heat.

Tuesday Reed got a pre-marathon cortisone shot, “not that it’s going to do a whole lot of good,” he said.

Otherwise injury-free, Reed said he was diagnosed three years ago with hip osteoarthritis.

“I’ve been around the globe four times on these legs of mine,” he said. “Something was bound to happen.”

Reed said his doctor is wary of his continued exploits, but “actually does understand where I’m coming from.”

Reed will spend the night before the marathon at a hotel in Danvers and drive into the city to catch a shuttle bus to the start, where he plans to be wearing an updated version of the “25 in a row!” shirt he wore in 2014 and 2015. The new version reads, “27 in a row!”

“I had no idea it would be such a crowd-pleaser,” he said of the reaction he has received the past two years.

However it goes Monday, Reed said he will be at peace.

“I’ll accept whatever is handed out,” he said.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io