STATE NUMBER 50!!!! SUB 4 STATE NUMBER 50!!!! It was a double celebration and a day we had been dreaming about since we decided to embark on the 50 States quest all that time ago. We ran a strong 3:35 and Leah officially became the youngest female ever to run a marathon in all 50 States in under 4 hours each. Read about the completion of our 3 year goal here.
This was our last State to clean up before the big number 50. An oversight regarding the existence of different time zones and their boundaries made for a tense 7 hour drive out there. On the return journey our desire to get back home in time for dinner saw us miss the award ceremony and Leah’s trophy. However I did discover air-conditioned seating and now my life, and car experiences, will never be the same. Full write-up.
Marathon #77 & #67, and our 49th US State. Unfortunately we got rained on in this one! Not the funny, warm rain of Kentucky but the cold “I’m really freezing but still have 3 hours to go” rain of Tennessee. Despite this it was a good event run by a very friendly race director. We met some great runners to chat with while the miles went by and we got our 49th State completed. The write-up can be found here.
Where did that Personal Record come from?? Particularly being part of another consecutive streak of marathons in 2015, this time the 6th in 6 weeks. I came away with a new PR of 3:23:56 and Leah came away with $200 prize money for her placing. I guess we were both happy. I also got to meet and Leah got to see some of her extended family some of whom she hadn’t seen in years. Full race recap here.
You guessed it, another State repeat. In fact for this one it was our only exact race event repeat. For States we had to repeat we’ve always tried to choose a different race, but for North Dakota there aren’t a lot of options. We went back to Bismarck and tried to replicate our finishing picture exactly 1 year on.. but not replicate our last finishing time! Full details of how we got on are here.
After returning from a holiday/vacation the night before, we realised we could fit in a marathon the very next morning. So why not?! We signed up last minute for another repeat State. We ended up missing the start, running off into the mountains in the dark and we had our bag lost with our car keys. Drama from beginning to end but looking back on it we can laugh… now. Race report online here.
We did it !!!!!!!
On Sunday, October 18, 2015 we crossed the finish line at the Grand Rapids Marathon in Michigan in 3 hours 35 minutes to complete a double goal: running a full marathon in all 50 US States and also running them all in under 4 hours each. We joined the ranks of the 1,200 finishers in the 50 States Marathon Club and became only the 73rd and 74th people to manage to complete the challenge of running them each in under 4 hours, joining the finishers list in the 50 Sub 4 Marathon Club.
If that wasn’t amazing enough, Leah broke the record as the youngest female to run 50 sub 4!
Then on Sunday, November 15, 2015 we went on to complete the tough Myles Standish Marathon in Massachusetts, which was the only State we had run as part of our 50 sub 4 challenge prior to getting married. By repeating the State of Massachusetts we became the first ever married couple to run all 50 States in under 4 hours.
We’re over the moon and can’t quite believe we’ve achieved a goal that’s been set every day in our minds for the last 3 years, one which at times also seemed unreachable by the point at which we wanted to complete it. We still have a few more marathon race reports to upload to the site, but we are excited about sharing our experience on what it was like to finish the challenge when we upload the Grand Rapids write-up. Stay tuned and we’ll have it up as soon as we can.
We want to say a huge thanks to family, friends, random strangers we’ve met along the way, people who became friends in various marathons in different States and to everyone that reads our blog and posts comments either here or on Facebook. Your support has kept us going and your comments have driven us to keep trying to inspire. We’ve met some fantastic people on our journey and it wouldn’t have been the same without you.
We’ve been asked a lot, “what’s next?”. Well we have some ideas, so stay tuned for those too.. 🙂
We couldn’t go on holiday and not find a run to do! Not a marathon, but a nice 10k to start off the holiday, which is always good to use as an excuse to eat and drink as much of whatever you want from there on. There weren’t many tourists taking part but we managed to scoop a trophy each to take home with us. A small write-up can be found over here.
Marathon #73 was a repeat of Nebraska to try to get a sub-4 hour time. We ran through mists of 100% humidity, lost all the prize money to Kenyans, and caught up with some friends while also making some new ones. A successfully repeated State, full write-up is now here. It brings our totals to 48 States with 45 of those being sub-4 hour finishes. 2 new States and 3 repeats to go!
Of all the marathons we’ve done this is among the ones that I am the most proud of completing. The Pikes Peak Marathon is one of the toughest marathons in the world and quite honestly I was nervous every day from the moment we signed up to the day of the event. This is a long blog post, but it was a long marathon and a huge experience! If you’ve got the time, give it a read.