Some Goals Are Whimsical

Most of my goals are performance related.  I want to run faster, run farther, or race more frequently.  I also set geographical goals.  One such goal was running marathons in all 50 states, which I completed in 2010.  Occasionally, I set goals that are more whimsical.  The Quad Cities Marathon took me a step closer to one of my whimsical goals – running marathons or ultras for every letter of the alphabet.

The seed for this goal was planted when I first ran the Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon in 2012.  This race is held on an indoor track at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN.  The race director, Dick Daymont, had help organizing this race from a colleague at Carlton College who offered to do most of the work on the condition that the race had a name starting with Z.  At the time, he was running marathons for every letter of the alphabet, but was having trouble finding a “Z” race.

That made me wonder how many letters I had.  His rule was to omit sponsor’s names.  For example, The [Medtronic] Twin Cities Marathon would be T for Twin Cities, not M for Medtronic.  That made sense to me.  Sponsors come and go.  For example, the first time I ran the Georgia Marathon, it was called the [ING] Georgia Marathon.  A year later, it was the [Publix] Georgia Marathon.  A notable exception would be a race where the sponsor’s name was the entire name of the race.  Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth was originally named for Grandma’s Saloon and Grill, although the race later took on a life of its own.

After running Zoom! Yah! Yah!, I was still missing J, K, Q, X and Y.  I’ve since run the Yakima River Canyon Marathon, Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon and Jackson Hole Marathon.  Finally, I added the Quad Cities Marathon yesterday.  At this point, the only letter I’m missing is X.

Here’s what I’ve got so far.  In most cases, I’ve run multiple races that start with the same letter, but I only listed one.

Athens Classic Marathon

Boston Marathon

Comrades Marathon

Darkside 8 Hour Race

Emerald Bay Marathon

FANS 24 Hour Race

Grandma’s Marathon

Honolulu Marathon

Illinois Marathon

Jackson Hole Marathon

Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon

Lean Horse 100

Midnight Sun Marathon

New York City Marathon

Olander Park 24 Hour Race

Pike’s Peak Marathon

Quad Cities Marathon

Reggae Marathon

San Francisco Marathon

Twin Cities Marathon

Umstead 50 Mile Endurance Run

Venice Marathon

Walker/North Country Marathon

X

Yakima River Canyon Marathon

Zoom! Yah! Yah! Indoor Marathon

I haven’t scheduled any X races, but my leading candidate is the Xiamen International Marathon, which is the largest marathon in China.  It doesn’t fit into my schedule for 2015, so it may take me a while to complete this goal.

Does anyone know of another marathon or ultra that begins with X (excluding the sponsor’s name)?