A Third Circuit of 50 States May Also Be Inevitable

Last November I observed that I was almost done with a second circuit of marathons in all 50 states.  It wasn’t something I set out to do, but as I pursued other goals, I found myself repeating more and more states.  At the time, I had done two or more marathons in 47 states, and was only missing Alabama, Alaska and Hawaii.  Since then, I’ve done my second Alabama race, and I've scheduled a race in Alaska.

In the meantime, I’ve started creeping closer and closer to completing a third circuit.  Last week’s Independence Series included my third marathons in Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.  Besides Alaska and Hawaii, the only other states I would need to revisit to complete a third circuit are New Hampshire, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah and Idaho.  My next race is in Utah, so the list is about to get shorter.

Minnesota has a lot of races, but they’re all clustered in late spring and early fall.  The race calendar for neighboring states doesn’t look much different.  For most of the year, I can only find races by traveling across the country.  There are a few states, like Georgia, Oregon, Washington and California, that I visit frequently.  Otherwise, I tend to spread my travels around.

The only states that I’m not apt to visit periodically are Alaska and Hawaii.  The number of 50 states circuits I complete will probably come down to how many times I visit those two states.

Earlier in the week, I posted something in the Mainly Marathons Facebook group to the effect that we need a series of races in Hawaii.  I suggested five islands in five days.  I didn’t expect this post to be taken seriously, but within a couple of days, there were 100 “likes” and a dozen comments.  Eventually, Mainly Marathons race director Clint Burleson commented that island hopping would be difficult, but a series of races in the same location might be possible.  If he builds it, I will come.  The same applies to Alaska.