National Half Marathon Running Tour: Volume 49; 2nd Edition

Spearfish South Dakota. 2014 2:03 — in United States.

Today, I am mentally preparing to run a half marathon in state number 49. A long time coming, for my national half marathon running tour! This is the story of how I got here.

This is a long story -- reflecting back on the running tour. You may choose to get a cup of tea or coffee take a few sips, then read a small clip, stop — put it away and bring it out again another day—then read a little more. There’s a lot to digest and take in.

Sit back and enjoy!

The secret to running isn’t speed or stamina. It’s progression. Whether you’re starting out or training for a new distance, the important matrix isn’t time or pace, but improving. Even if you’re just goofing off and having fun, running for no one but yourself, even if you don’t care about results, if you pay attention, if you stay devoted, you’ll see improvements.

Reflecting back, reviewing journals I wrote earlier on. The idea didn’t start until 2007, I already had a few states completed, I officially started in 2005, but the idea wasn’t until 2 years later. I already had 15 lifetime half marathons under my belt. I ran 1 full marathon and 2-sprint distance Triathlons, and biked 45 miles a few times that summer.

These are chronological details about my half marathon journey.

I formally started running my first 13.1 mile run in 2001 at the Waukesha Trailbreaker, way before I had this crazy idea to run across the state border in all 50 states.

What started as a girls weekend road trip, turned into a National running Quest. The idea came to me in April 2007 when I took a road trip with two high school friends who said, “Did you hear about the Half2run series, you set a goal to run 25 half marathons in 25 states."

I already was traveling for work, so, I figured why not? I thought it was a crazy idea, so I called myself “Crazyrunninggal” As a hash tag and even created a blog with that name so I could write my story as I journeyed on this Quest.

The first ideas was to run 25 half marathons in 25 states. I ran some half marathons in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida, Nevada, Indiana, (signed up for Ohio and Texas, but didn’t make those due to injury) and even ran the San Francisco in California with Leon. I also ran the big Chicago marathon “The infamous heat stroke marathon of 2007” (refer to Chicago marathon archives for devastating stories). I did it again in the freezing cold in 2008 the next year.

Medals as of 25 states complete

While I did this, Staci and I did a road trip to Rhode Island and New Brunswick, I ran a few half marathons then (New Brunswick was my first out of country half), we also traveled to Germany to visit Deike and her family. This was while I studied and received my second master’s degree in August 2007.

Next year, I traveled to Spain, 2008, to visit Staci--she lived in Madrid— we traveled together in Greece, Ireland and Spain. And this year, I ran Arizona, Oklahoma, and Georgia with Leon, Colorado, Washington, and Illinois.

I picked it up a notch in 2009, traveled to run in a state each week. I started this in February of that year, with my first run in New Orleans—As I did this, I would drive, fly and sometimes crawl to the start. I met people who I keep in touch with today, over 10 years later. I ran all 25 states by April, 2009. These states included Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, California, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Florida, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Colorado, Washington, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, New York, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Vermont, Missouri, Kentucky, and Nebraska.

Center of the Nation Back-to-Back Running Tour

2011-2013 was a downturn for my running. I tore my ACL skiing and of course, was out for almost the entire year healing from the surgery. It took me over 6 months to get back on my feet again, literally, to walk each day was a significant feat. This is where I discovered yoga as a healing practice. I traveled more to volunteer, work and spread the word and volunteered producing some plays, films and lead some keynotes in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and abroad to Africa. To be honest I can’t remember the running part much during these years--because I couldn’t get my head back into the running game. The years seemed to fly by way too fast. I did, however, publish over 7 kid’s books and a Win by leading book. Now that was fun!

I started getting my Juju back in 2014, and decided to complete running in all 50 states. At the time my average out-of-state travel cost for runs was $118.70 for a run because I found the 5-day running series that allows me to share boarding costs, food and gas with other runners I met. Running these half marathons within a 5-day back-to-back stretch. I ran in Calhoun County West Virginia, Bluefield South Virginia, North Carolina, and Seneca South Carolina. By the end of this year, I only had 12 more states to go: Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Utah, Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska.

In 2015, I ran the Detroit marathon with my friend, and completed 7 additional states, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.

By 2016, I had traveled to every state, (lifetime travel); either because of work, personal road-trips (with Staci or Leon) or through my national half marathon running tour. The only state I haven’t been to yet was Hawaii. This year, I ran the New York Marathon—it was cool! They shut down the entire city. I’m not kidding! I also ran 2 more of the states: Utah and Oregon. Utah was crazy; I ran in the dark and crossed the finish line at midnight.

Kentucky. 1:52 2009 — in United States.

The next year, I took a BIG U-TURN, a fork in the road. 2017 was a MAJOR Lifetime milestone. I finished the IRONMAN Wisconsin— I beat my swim time by 40 minutes and have unforgettable story. “So many large accomplishments in one year, and really just small baby steps to a much larger journey.”

I traveled to the Netherlands in 2018, so this took me away from my running. That’s okay, it just happened this way for me. I ran some shorter 5K fun runs, did a few local half marathons and hit my 100th lifetime half marathon that year.

So, here I am, it’s May 2019, the only states left are Hawaii and Alaska, planned to run in that order. I am on my way to Honolulu to run my next state -- ready to run the along the Waikiki ocean--set to be some rough mountainous elevations and lava-filled sites. It is surreal, and real at the same time. More pictures to come, my next Chapter is here — stay tuned.