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Married to the Marathon
(51 Marathons in 1997)
by Tony Lopetrone and Nancy Broadbridge
I will try to explain why my wife and I set out to run a marathon in every state in one calendar year and, for good measure, the District of Columbia.
We are in our mid 40’s, love running marathons, traveling and meeting people with similar interests. We chose this particular goal because we relished the challenge to accomplish what had never been done before, to push ourselves to the edge and dispel the belief that one should not run more than two or three marathons a year.
In November, 1996, at Rhode Island’s only marathon, we met several seasoned runners, some who were in the process of running marathons in all 50 states, and one who had completed the circuit twice. They said, “You can’t run a marathon in every state in one year. You can’t schedule it.” That pushed one on my buttons right there. So I said, “OK, I’m gonna see if I can do it.”
The trick is not being able to run a marathon every week or even an occasional two per weekend. Others have done this. The record number of marathons for a year is over 80, and the record for consecutive weekly marathons is 74. The real challenge is to schedule one in every state, which is not even possible some years when there may be a state without a marathon, such as Delaware in 1996. Also, conflicts might occur between states with only one or two marathons.
All of our races met the following criteria:
(1) The race is published as a marathon (26.2 miles) with a race director or running club supervising and certifying the event.
(2) Races published as other distances would not qualify.
(3) To count for a state, the entire marathon distance must be run in that state.
I searched for marathons on the Internet, in Runner’s World, Running Times, and from friends, and compiled a list of about 250. I placed them in a database and sorted them every which way I could, chronologically, by state, by number of marathons in the state, and by weekday versus weekend. The first step was to schedule the five states with only one marathon. Had there been a conflict, the game would be over. Next, I scheduled the 34 states with two marathons. Some of these dates conflicted with the one-marathon states, but at least one marathon in each state could be scheduled without conflicts. I continued in this manner with three-marathon states, four-marathon states, etc. I also scheduled the three marathons that occurred on weekdays: Salt Lake City and Atlanta on Thursdays, and Boston on Monday. Scheduling a marathon on a weekday is a big advantage because you can still run one on the weekend, thus covering two states in one week. Running marathons separated by two or three days is a whole lot easier than the three times we had to run on consecutive days.
After two and a half weeks of wracking our brains, we found that, logistically, the feat was possible. Except for one problem—Delaware didn’t have a marathon scheduled. I was in contact with the race director, and he said he was working on it. They were trying to get a sponsor. We decided to go forward with our plan and eventually, Delaware came through.
Our marathon madness began on January 4, 1997, at a race in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ended on December 21 in Olympia, Washington, at the Christmas Marathon. That’s 51 marathons in 51 weeks.
To get to and from our destinations, we logged over 70,000 air miles and drove to marathons in ten states. We also made a 960 mile round-trip drive from Utah to Colorado. The weather conditions during our runs varied wildly from delightful to rain, 50-mph winds, scorching heat and humidity, dense fog, sleet, snow and freezing temperatures. We ran on steep and rocky trails, and at altitudes as high as 14,000 feet. We traveled to places in our country we never heard of before, like Seaside Oregon, Lake Geneva Wisconsin, Kingfield Maine, Goodland Kansas, Okoboji Iowa, Middletown Delaware, South Hero Vermont, the Washoe Valley in Nevada, and Mt. Evans in Colorado.
We repeated marathons we had done before, such as Houston, Toledo, Boston, Grandma's in Duluth, San Francisco, and Ocean State in Rhode Island.
We ran along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the rivers Boise, Missouri, Arkansas, Carrabassett, Maumee, Potomac and Kanawha. We also ran along Lake Ponchartrain, Lake Michigan, Geneva Lake, Lake Superior, West Okoboji Lake, Crystal Lake, Lake Erie, Newfound Lake and Lake Champlain.
The best part of our adventure was becoming good friends with a wonderful, hardy bunch of people from all over the country.
Normally capable of sub three-hour marathons (pr: 2:48), I started out planning to run all the races in a Boston qualifying time of 3:25 or less. I quickly realized that I was dreaming and lowered my expectations to an average of 3:25. Then after our first double marathon weekend in June, I could see that I had better concentrate more on the main goal of finishing all the states and slow down a bit in order to recover for the following week. I ended up with 27 Boston qualifying times, and an average marathon time of 3:37. Nancy, being a 4:15 marathoner (pr: 3:42) had no particular time goals in mind. Her average for the year was 4:57.
Without a doubt, the #1 obstacle facing us throughout the year was simply getting to the marathon on time. Bad weather almost canceled Nebraska, and a car accident almost caused us to miss our plane from Vermont to Atlantic City. Leg cramps threatened my Maui, Grandma’s, and Taos marathons. In September, plantar fasciitis put Nancy on crutches a few days before our race in Erie, Pa., causing her to think, “This is the end for me.” But she got well just in time. The pain reappeared the morning of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., causing her to run a half-hour slower.
Getting from one marathon to the next was not always easy. For instance, in June we had to run in Helena, Mont., and again the next day in Taos, N.M. It required a plane change in Salt Lake City to Albuquerque and then a three-hour drive to Taos from Albuquerque. We got in bed after 11 p.m. and the race started at 6 a.m. Both marathons were at over 6,000 feet. We woke up stiff and sore from a lot of hills in Helena. It was raining hard, cold and windy the first hour in Taos and my muscles couldn't warm up. I was running 9:30/min miles to start out, just to try to loosen up, and I was getting tighter and tighter. Had it stayed cold, I don’t think I could have finished because my legs were cramping up just walking. That was my worst experience. Nancy passed me at mile 21 and beat me by six minutes. I recall thinking, "I never saw anyone run so slowly, and I can't catch her!"
Nancy’s worst experience was at the Sky Marathon (which was actually 29 miles) on Mount Evans in Colorado. This was our most difficult marathon course, but also the most scenic. We ran on the highest paved road in North America in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The out-and-back course started at an elevation of 10,500 feet and climbed to the summit at 14,250 feet. On the way down, Nancy began feeling dizzy and light-headed. Altitude sickness caused her to go down the mountain slower than she went up. But although she was last out of 11 finishers, she won $50 as the first female lowlander. And I was the third male, winning $100. Oh well, there goes our amateur status!
Another difficult race was the Wyoming Marathon on May 25. Starting in Laramie, the point-to-point course ran on nine miles of jeep trail. It was often rocky and involved climbing over 1,800 feet to an elevation of 9,000 feet. The marathon had no mile markers and no aid stations. We were lucky, though, to have good weather; the year before was run in a blizzard.
The Maui Marathon will be remembered as one of the most beautiful courses, with constant views of mountains and ocean, and humpback whales off the coast. Also, the Green Mountain Marathon in Vermont was delightful with fall colors at their peak.
We ran in dense fog in Tallahassee and Tulsa, terrible heat and humidity in New York, Iowa, and Tupelo, cold and high winds in Omaha, chilly rain and wind in Atlantic City and Rhode Island, freezing rain in Houston, and zero degree wind chill in Kentucky. We experienced the worst weather at the Trail's End Marathon in Seaside, Oregon. It was 47 degrees with driving rain and winds with 50-mph gusts. I opened my jacket to show my number, and I couldn't get the zipper back up. So for the last quarter mile I was like a parachute!
In order to recover as quickly as possible between marathons, especially those on consecutive days, we used Powergel during the race and drank Ensure before and immediately after, and ate lots of PowerBars.
Running so many marathons actually resulted in fewer injuries. This may be due to the fact that we ran slower and our average weekly mileage was less than 40. At the beginning of the year I thought I could develop a training strategy to maintain my fitness and subsequently run the marathons without much stiffness afterward. Instead, lower mileage and slower running had actually reduced my fitness level. I tried to adjust for this in the middle of the year by alternating slow (4-hour) marathons with faster ones (sub-3:25). This allowed me to run more during the week and to add speed workouts. This was working to some extent, but I just couldn’t control myself and usually ended up running too fast in the marathons.
Nancy, on the other hand, did more consistent running and training, and had fewer injuries. She kept the races fun by slowing down the pace, doing some walking, and stopping frequently to take pictures of friends and scenery along the way.
We are extremely happy that we accomplished our goal, and also feel a sense of tremendous relief. This year (1998) we plan to take it easy—no more than 10 or 12 marathons.
The following chart lists our 1997 Marathon results.
You can contact Tony or Nancy at tony@lopetrone.com
We are in our mid 40’s, love running marathons, traveling and meeting people with similar interests. We chose this particular goal because we relished the challenge to accomplish what had never been done before, to push ourselves to the edge and dispel the belief that one should not run more than two or three marathons a year.
In November, 1996, at Rhode Island’s only marathon, we met several seasoned runners, some who were in the process of running marathons in all 50 states, and one who had completed the circuit twice. They said, “You can’t run a marathon in every state in one year. You can’t schedule it.” That pushed one on my buttons right there. So I said, “OK, I’m gonna see if I can do it.”
The trick is not being able to run a marathon every week or even an occasional two per weekend. Others have done this. The record number of marathons for a year is over 80, and the record for consecutive weekly marathons is 74. The real challenge is to schedule one in every state, which is not even possible some years when there may be a state without a marathon, such as Delaware in 1996. Also, conflicts might occur between states with only one or two marathons.
All of our races met the following criteria:
(1) The race is published as a marathon (26.2 miles) with a race director or running club supervising and certifying the event.
(2) Races published as other distances would not qualify.
(3) To count for a state, the entire marathon distance must be run in that state.
I searched for marathons on the Internet, in Runner’s World, Running Times, and from friends, and compiled a list of about 250. I placed them in a database and sorted them every which way I could, chronologically, by state, by number of marathons in the state, and by weekday versus weekend. The first step was to schedule the five states with only one marathon. Had there been a conflict, the game would be over. Next, I scheduled the 34 states with two marathons. Some of these dates conflicted with the one-marathon states, but at least one marathon in each state could be scheduled without conflicts. I continued in this manner with three-marathon states, four-marathon states, etc. I also scheduled the three marathons that occurred on weekdays: Salt Lake City and Atlanta on Thursdays, and Boston on Monday. Scheduling a marathon on a weekday is a big advantage because you can still run one on the weekend, thus covering two states in one week. Running marathons separated by two or three days is a whole lot easier than the three times we had to run on consecutive days.
After two and a half weeks of wracking our brains, we found that, logistically, the feat was possible. Except for one problem—Delaware didn’t have a marathon scheduled. I was in contact with the race director, and he said he was working on it. They were trying to get a sponsor. We decided to go forward with our plan and eventually, Delaware came through.
Our marathon madness began on January 4, 1997, at a race in Charlotte, North Carolina, and ended on December 21 in Olympia, Washington, at the Christmas Marathon. That’s 51 marathons in 51 weeks.
To get to and from our destinations, we logged over 70,000 air miles and drove to marathons in ten states. We also made a 960 mile round-trip drive from Utah to Colorado. The weather conditions during our runs varied wildly from delightful to rain, 50-mph winds, scorching heat and humidity, dense fog, sleet, snow and freezing temperatures. We ran on steep and rocky trails, and at altitudes as high as 14,000 feet. We traveled to places in our country we never heard of before, like Seaside Oregon, Lake Geneva Wisconsin, Kingfield Maine, Goodland Kansas, Okoboji Iowa, Middletown Delaware, South Hero Vermont, the Washoe Valley in Nevada, and Mt. Evans in Colorado.
We repeated marathons we had done before, such as Houston, Toledo, Boston, Grandma's in Duluth, San Francisco, and Ocean State in Rhode Island.
We ran along the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the rivers Boise, Missouri, Arkansas, Carrabassett, Maumee, Potomac and Kanawha. We also ran along Lake Ponchartrain, Lake Michigan, Geneva Lake, Lake Superior, West Okoboji Lake, Crystal Lake, Lake Erie, Newfound Lake and Lake Champlain.
The best part of our adventure was becoming good friends with a wonderful, hardy bunch of people from all over the country.
Normally capable of sub three-hour marathons (pr: 2:48), I started out planning to run all the races in a Boston qualifying time of 3:25 or less. I quickly realized that I was dreaming and lowered my expectations to an average of 3:25. Then after our first double marathon weekend in June, I could see that I had better concentrate more on the main goal of finishing all the states and slow down a bit in order to recover for the following week. I ended up with 27 Boston qualifying times, and an average marathon time of 3:37. Nancy, being a 4:15 marathoner (pr: 3:42) had no particular time goals in mind. Her average for the year was 4:57.
Without a doubt, the #1 obstacle facing us throughout the year was simply getting to the marathon on time. Bad weather almost canceled Nebraska, and a car accident almost caused us to miss our plane from Vermont to Atlantic City. Leg cramps threatened my Maui, Grandma’s, and Taos marathons. In September, plantar fasciitis put Nancy on crutches a few days before our race in Erie, Pa., causing her to think, “This is the end for me.” But she got well just in time. The pain reappeared the morning of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., causing her to run a half-hour slower.
Getting from one marathon to the next was not always easy. For instance, in June we had to run in Helena, Mont., and again the next day in Taos, N.M. It required a plane change in Salt Lake City to Albuquerque and then a three-hour drive to Taos from Albuquerque. We got in bed after 11 p.m. and the race started at 6 a.m. Both marathons were at over 6,000 feet. We woke up stiff and sore from a lot of hills in Helena. It was raining hard, cold and windy the first hour in Taos and my muscles couldn't warm up. I was running 9:30/min miles to start out, just to try to loosen up, and I was getting tighter and tighter. Had it stayed cold, I don’t think I could have finished because my legs were cramping up just walking. That was my worst experience. Nancy passed me at mile 21 and beat me by six minutes. I recall thinking, "I never saw anyone run so slowly, and I can't catch her!"
Nancy’s worst experience was at the Sky Marathon (which was actually 29 miles) on Mount Evans in Colorado. This was our most difficult marathon course, but also the most scenic. We ran on the highest paved road in North America in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. The out-and-back course started at an elevation of 10,500 feet and climbed to the summit at 14,250 feet. On the way down, Nancy began feeling dizzy and light-headed. Altitude sickness caused her to go down the mountain slower than she went up. But although she was last out of 11 finishers, she won $50 as the first female lowlander. And I was the third male, winning $100. Oh well, there goes our amateur status!
Another difficult race was the Wyoming Marathon on May 25. Starting in Laramie, the point-to-point course ran on nine miles of jeep trail. It was often rocky and involved climbing over 1,800 feet to an elevation of 9,000 feet. The marathon had no mile markers and no aid stations. We were lucky, though, to have good weather; the year before was run in a blizzard.
The Maui Marathon will be remembered as one of the most beautiful courses, with constant views of mountains and ocean, and humpback whales off the coast. Also, the Green Mountain Marathon in Vermont was delightful with fall colors at their peak.
We ran in dense fog in Tallahassee and Tulsa, terrible heat and humidity in New York, Iowa, and Tupelo, cold and high winds in Omaha, chilly rain and wind in Atlantic City and Rhode Island, freezing rain in Houston, and zero degree wind chill in Kentucky. We experienced the worst weather at the Trail's End Marathon in Seaside, Oregon. It was 47 degrees with driving rain and winds with 50-mph gusts. I opened my jacket to show my number, and I couldn't get the zipper back up. So for the last quarter mile I was like a parachute!
In order to recover as quickly as possible between marathons, especially those on consecutive days, we used Powergel during the race and drank Ensure before and immediately after, and ate lots of PowerBars.
Running so many marathons actually resulted in fewer injuries. This may be due to the fact that we ran slower and our average weekly mileage was less than 40. At the beginning of the year I thought I could develop a training strategy to maintain my fitness and subsequently run the marathons without much stiffness afterward. Instead, lower mileage and slower running had actually reduced my fitness level. I tried to adjust for this in the middle of the year by alternating slow (4-hour) marathons with faster ones (sub-3:25). This allowed me to run more during the week and to add speed workouts. This was working to some extent, but I just couldn’t control myself and usually ended up running too fast in the marathons.
Nancy, on the other hand, did more consistent running and training, and had fewer injuries. She kept the races fun by slowing down the pace, doing some walking, and stopping frequently to take pictures of friends and scenery along the way.
We are extremely happy that we accomplished our goal, and also feel a sense of tremendous relief. This year (1998) we plan to take it easy—no more than 10 or 12 marathons.
The following chart lists our 1997 Marathon results.
You can contact Tony or Nancy at tony@lopetrone.com
