Friday, May 01, 2009

50/50/50

Have had this idea in my head for several years now, just never really talked about it.  Most people are aware of the 50 States Marathon Club.  Though I don't think I'll actually pay the dues to join the club it is a goal which I'll pursue over the rest of my life.  I have a few under my belt already:

Pennsylvania (Chambersburg 1992, Pittsburgh 1997, Philly 1997)
Texas (Austin '05 and '09, Rocky Trails '05)
Wyoming (Rocky Mountain '07)
Colorado (Salida '06 thru '09, Pikes Peak '06)

Luckily the 50 Club allows ultramarathons to count, so I have adopted that rule as well.  

Of course, since I always love piling lots of crap onto my road trips, on top of running at least a marathon in each state, I plan to bag that state highpoint and hash in the state as well.

I only have two state highpoints on my peak list, Mt. Elbert in Colorado and Guadalupe Peak in Texas.  I could have many more here, but I didn't catch the mountain climbing bug until I moved to CO.

Next up on the state highpoint list will be Mt. Davis in Pennsylvania.  Not a hard hike, which will be nice since I'll be going there right after the Oil Creek 100 in October.  Of course, I'll hit Mt. Greylock when I run (and hash!) Boston next April.

I'm much further along with my state hashing goal.  The very first thing I do when I find out I get to travel is look up the local hash.  Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, South Dakota, and North Carolina (the Army had a lot of help with those travels).  Some of these states will require a return trip for the marathon/high point goals, and of course the hash will be revisited!

Nothing to do with this post, but since I have the list out, here's my current lifetime count for marathon and beyond races:

marathon - 12
50K - 6
50 miles - 8 (and one this weekend!)
100K - 1 (sure wish there were more of these out there)
100 miles - 2 (3 attempts)

2 comments:

MW said...

No offense to anyone that has accomplished it, or is working towards it, because yes, it's quite the acomplishment, i guess. But I just don't see what's exciting about being able to say you've run a marathon in each state. Just sounds kind of childlike to me. Like people who collect frogs, or whatever.
I think it's more impressive to say you've run a marathon in 5 different countries.
I like your peak thing. Some day I hope to climb 1 peak, but I don't think I ever will. I'm just not as bad ass as you are. ha!

brownie said...

For me it's more about the journey than the actual finishing of a marathon. I'm not a tourist kind of guy, but running a marathon, getting to the state's highest point, and hashing are great ways to see new places that are a bit off the beaten path.

True, you're not (and never will be!) as bad ass as me, but you could easily do Guadalupe Peak or even Mt. Elbert. The only state highpoint that requires actual mountaineering is McKinley in Alaska.