My name
is Caity, and I am a run-aholic.
I wasn't always addicted to running. In fact, there was a time when I hated it, back when it was something I HAD to do during sports practices. But when I got to college, I wanted to fill the void left by those sports practices. So, I started running. I started out with a couple of miles every few days. Slowly but surely I built up my mileage, and with it I found a whole new level of strength and confidence. It wasn't long before running became one of my greatest passions.
So how did I get the idea to run a marathon in every state? Fast forward to my first semester of graduate school
when things looked pretty bleak. I would look at the weeks ahead and all
I could see was an endless blur of exams and homework. Then I would look at the years
ahead and see an endless blur of lab experiments and living in a
boring, backward state. The only place I found refuge from it all was when I
was running. While running, I didn't have to think about bessel functions or fugacity. I didn't have to worry about whether I was smart enough to be getting a PhD. While running, all my self-doubt melted away and I just... existed. An extension of
the ground and of the air. All I had to think about was landing one foot
in front of the other, and watching the miles trickle away behind me.
It was this refuge that made me think back on my first marathon which I had run in Baltimore as an undergrad. I should run another one. I started looking up cool and exciting marathons around the country, and I realized, I wanted to do them all! I was talking to my boyfriend Jin on skype at the time when I suddenly exclaimed, "I want to run a marathon in every state before I die!" And there it was. Once it was said, it couldn't be unsaid. The words were out there, and because of that, I HAD to fulfill them.
It was this refuge that made me think back on my first marathon which I had run in Baltimore as an undergrad. I should run another one. I started looking up cool and exciting marathons around the country, and I realized, I wanted to do them all! I was talking to my boyfriend Jin on skype at the time when I suddenly exclaimed, "I want to run a marathon in every state before I die!" And there it was. Once it was said, it couldn't be unsaid. The words were out there, and because of that, I HAD to fulfill them.
I started
researching like a crazy person. Instead of studying for my all-too-soon exam, I would research
marathons. To say I became a little obsessed, is an understatement. Don't
worry, my grades didn't suffer. If anything, they improved because I had
something to focus on that I was excited about. Before
long, I had created a monster spreadsheet of all the marathons I was
interested in running, sorted by state and including all the details like
the elevation range, the approximate date, and the link to its website. Oh, and
I color coded it too. Yeah... obsessed.
Did you
know that there are some marathons that were created JUST for people
who are completing the 50 states challenge? Someone created one in Idaho because runners were already going to be right next door in Utah that weekend
for another marathon. So, hey, why not knock 2
out in the same weekend, right? I don't know if I'll ever get to a point where I
can run 2 marathons in a weekend. I'm thinking more like 2 in a year. Of
course, anything is possible. Maybe I will become a superhuman runner like the
ultramarathoners. Who knows.
What I do
know is, no matter what stage in my life I'm at, running will always
provide that refuge. That place where I feel completely untouchable. And
what better way to honor the relationship I have with running
than to discover some new places and experience more of what this
beautiful country has to offer while I complete this challenge.
As of
now, my only rule is to complete at LEAST one full marathon in every state. I
can do more than one per state, or run the same one twice. Whatever. And I plan
to run halfs whenever I can as well. In other words, I don’t ever want to have to
pass up a running opportunity because ‘oh, I’ve already run a marathon in
that state.’ Nope. I hope there will be some spontaneous races, as well as ones
I’ve had planned for years.
Each marathon is an odyssey, full of battles, victories, and moments of self-discovery. I will be writing about all my running adventures throughout the years right here
in this blog. I'll start by going back in time to October 2010
and write everything I remember about the Baltimore marathon. Then, I'll recap each subsequent marathon as I run them. Between races, I'll share my thoughts on training and bits of knowledge that I gain along the way. Enjoy!
