Mileage Streaks

Over the years, I’ve met several runners who run every day.  They have a minimum distance that they run every day, with no exceptions.  Some are challenging themselves to do this for a year.  Others have been doing it for decades.

I’ve never been one to run every day.  I’m more than willing to take rest day, when it suits my purposes.  I’m more apt to pay attention to my weekly or monthly mileage, and I’ve sometimes had long streaks of consecutive weeks or months that I’ve consistently hit a minimum mileage goal.

In 2019 and 2020, I had a good mileage base.  Then a knee injury forced me to take an extended break from running.  I pivoted to race-walking until I could run again.

I recovered from the knee injury, but then I started having lower back issues.  At one point, I was trying to recover from sciatica, a high hamstring injury, and an RSV infection, all at the same time.  I just couldn’t do much training.

I eventually recovered from those things, but it took a long time to rebuild my mileage base.  I’ve learned from experience that you have to build gradually.

By July of 2023, I had built my weekly mileage to a minimum of 50 miles a week.  At some point, I realized, I had run more consecutive 50-miles weeks than ever before.  Now, I was motivated to keep that streak going.

The most difficult weeks were ones when I was traveling to other countries and didn’t have much time for daily runs.  I usually train at an easy pace, and a lot of my training runs are 10 or 11 miles.  It’s easy to find time for that when I’m at home.  It’s much tougher when I have a full sightseeing itinerary.  There have been weeks when I ran 50 miles in the first three days, because I didn’t know if I would find time later in the week.

Until recently, I had enjoyed more than two years of good health.  I didn’t have any injuries or illnesses, and I wasn’t having any lower back issues.  Last week was my 102nd consecutive 50-mile week.

This week wasn’t looking so good.  At the beginning of the week, even standing for more than a few minutes was uncomfortable.  I struggled to stand up straight.  When I tried to run, I not only had pain in my lower back, but also in my right leg.

I didn’t run at all Sunday or Monday.  By Tuesday, I was noticing some improvement, so I tried a short run.  I only ran a mile.  On the plus side, I ran the whole way.  When I tried to run last Saturday, I struggled to keep going for a mile, and I had to walk at least half of it.

I was feeling a little better on Wednesday, so I decided to see if I could run farther.  I altered my gait to soften my impact as much as possible.  I went at a slow pace, I shortened my stride, and I tried to stay as close to the ground as possible.  With these adjustments, I managed to run seven miles.  I still had discomfort in my lower back, but I wasn’t making it worse.

Physically, that run was uncomfortable, but emotionally, it felt fantastic.  It was the first time in a week that I managed to run for more than a mile.

That run made me think of Karen Queally.  Karen is a cancer survivor.  She’s also someone who runs every day.

Fifteen years ago, I attended a reunion of the 50 States Marathon Club.  Karen was the guest speaker.  She told us about her running streak, and how she kept running every day while undergoing cancer treatment.  She had at least two major surgeries, and each time, she still got out and ran the next day.

Karen explained that her daily runs were important for her emotional well-being.  It was something she could control when she couldn’t control anything else.  I could relate to that.

I’ve never faced anything as serious as cancer, but my lower back issues made me feel like I was losing control.  My run on Wednesday felt so great, because I felt like I was regaining control over an important part of my life.

Earlier in the week, I had all but given up on my mileage streak.  After my run on Wednesday, I wondered if it was still possible to run 50 miles this week.  I only had three days left, and I still needed 42 miles.  That’s an average of 14 miles a day.

I knew how my back felt during a seven-mile run.  I didn’t know how it would feel if I ran 14 miles.  I wasn’t optimistic that I could do it three days in a row.  Then I wondered if I could get there by breaking it up into two runs per day.

Thursday morning, I ran seven miles.  As I was finishing my run, I felt like I could go a few miles farther, but I stopped while I still had some gas in the tank.  Later in the day, I went back out and ran another seven miles.  My afternoon run didn’t feel any more difficult than my morning run.

I did the same thing on Friday, but I had a schedule constraint.  I had plans in the evening, so I had to get an earlier start on my afternoon run.  The heat index was 104.  I drank as much as I could, and I monitored my heart rate.  That run was more tiring, but I got through it.

This morning, I had a different schedule constraint.  It had been three days since I last did my strength training.  I have a set of leg and core exercises that I do three times a week.  I had already put off this workout by a day, and I didn’t want to put it off for another day.

I ran seven miles in the morning.  After lunch, I did my strength training workout, which takes about an hour.  Ordinarily, I would’ve waited a few hours before running again, but I didn’t feel like I had that luxury.  There were thunderstorms in the forecast for later in the day, and I wanted to get done running before they arrived.

I started my afternoon run almost immediately after my strength training workout.  I expected to have heavy legs, but I didn’t.  I felt great.  OK, I still had some minor soreness in my lower back, but it was the best I felt all week.  That may have been psychological.  I was excited, because I knew this run would get me to 50 miles for the week.

I kept my streak going.  This was my 103rd consecutive 50-mile week.  Next week should be easier, because I won’t be getting off to a slow start.  Then my streak will be two full years, and I can start on a third year.

In the grand scheme of things, this streak might not seem that important.  If I didn’t run 50 miles this week, I could still get back on track next week.  Having one low mileage week wouldn’t have a long-term effect on my fitness.  What I would lose is my motivation.

Every time I keep this streak going, it gives me more motivation to get past whatever hurdles I might face some other week.

I don’t generally get that excited about my day-to-day training runs.  I get much more excited about races, and I need to do the training to be ready for the races.  I need to find ways to keep myself motivated, so I’ll stay consistent.  A mileage streak is one way to do that.

I know this streak will eventually end.  Sooner or later, I’ll have an injury or an illness that forces me to take a break.  Until then, I’ll strive to keep this streak going

A Quadzilla Update

My primary motivation for running the Jackal Marathons was to get a quadzilla in another state.  I’ve been trying to run quadzillas in as many different states as I can.  It’s not actually possible to run one in every state.  There aren’t series of races in every state.  I’ll run the ones I can find.

The term “quadzilla” was coined by members of Marathon Maniacs.  Today, there are numerous series of races held over multiple days, but it wasn’t always like that.

When I joined the 50 States Marathon Club, I heard about other runners who would sometimes run a marathon in one state on a Saturday and then run one in another state on Sunday.  They called this a weekend double.

I ran my first double in 2005.  I was already signed up for a race in Connecticut called the Mystic Places Marathon.  Then I learned that there was a race in Newport, RI the day before.  Deb and I flew to Providence on Friday, spent one night in Newport, and then spent the rest of our vacation in Mystic.

Running a “double” was tough, but not nearly as tough as I expected it to be.  A year later, I did another double with races in Indiana and Kentucky.

The next step up was a triple.  I knew of only one place where you could to that.  It was the Tahoe Triple, which is in California and Nevada.  Over the course of three days, you run all the way around Lake Tahoe, with a little bit of overlap.

Before I ran my first triple, I joined Marathon Maniacs.  This club is all about running marathons frequently.  Some members, including the three founders, had done something they called a quadzilla.  In recent years, the Tahoe Triple has taken place over a Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Originally, it was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, making it possible to run another marathon on Sunday.  A few guys combined the Tahoe Triple with the Bizz Johnson Marathon, and the quadzilla was born.

I had my sights set on trying the Tahoe Triple in 2011, but then I learned about another triple.  There was a race in Portland, OR that was always held on July 4, regardless of what day of the week it was.  It was a race sponsored by Foot Traffic called the Flat Marathon.  In 2011, July 4 was a Monday.  Steve Walters, who lives in the Portland area created two smaller races on Saturday and Sunday.  These races could be combined with the Foot Traffic Flat Marathon for a triple over the long weekend.  Steve called it the Firecracker Triple, and he ordered T-shirts.

I ran the Firecracker Triple in July and then ran the Tahoe Triple in September.  The next step up was a quadzilla.

With the Tahoe Triple shifting to Friday through Sunday, it was no longer possible to do the original quadzilla, but now there was one in Seattle.  The Seattle Quadzilla consisted of four marathons over the Thanksgiving long weekend.

At the time, the Seattle Quadzilla was the only place in the United States where you could run marathons on four consecutive days.  Today, there are numerous multi-day series of marathons, but none of those existed yet.  The quadzilla was still the pinnacle.  For a Marathon Maniac, it was the most badass thing you could do.

Flash forward to 2013.  July 4 was a Thursday.  Steve Walter held races on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  If you did those three plus the Flat Marathon, it was called the Firecracker Quadzilla.  I ran the Firecracker Quadzilla in July, and then I ran the Seattle Quadzilla in November.

On the second day of the Seattle Quadzilla, I was wearing my T-shirt from the Firecracker Quadzilla.  Another runner saw my shirt and said, “Look.  That guy’s a quadzilla expert."  Steve was standing next to me at the time, and it started a brief conversation.  We wondered how many states there were where you could run a quadzilla.  We didn’t consider the new series Mainly Marathons had where you could run marathons in several different states on consecutive days.

Besides the Firecracker Quadzilla in Oregon and the Seattle Quadzilla in Washington, we could think of only three others.  There was the Texas Quad, which was also held over Thanksgiving weekend, the Day of the Dead Series in New Mexico, and the Savage Seven in Florida.

It was this conversation that planted the idea in my mind.  I wanted to run a quadzilla in as many different states as I could.  I don’t know why I focused solely on series that were all in one state.  Maybe it’s because I was a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, and I saw running quadzillas in each state as a similar goal, even though I knew it was impossible.

I didn’t add my third state until 2015.  By then, the Day of the Dead Series had grown to a seven-day series.  I didn’t do the whole series.  I just ran the first four days.  That was enough to complete a quadzilla in New Mexico.

Mainly Marathons had been adding more and more multi-day series, but they all spanned multiple states.  I lobbied Clint Burleson to add a series in Hawaii.  Eventually he did.  It was called the Aloha Series.  It was a four-day series with every race on the island of Kauai.  I ran that series in 2017.

Clint also added an Alaska Series, giving him marathons in all 50 states.  Then he sold Mainly Marathons to two brothers from Minnesota.  They added a series of four trail marathons in Minnesota and called it the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series.  I ran the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series in 2019.

In 2019, I also did four days of the Savage Seven.  The Savage Seven was a seven-day series in Florida.  The series started the day after Christmas and ended on New Years Day.  I didn’t want to travel on Christmas Day, so I flew to Florida on the 26th and only ran days two through five of the series.  That was enough to get a quadzilla in Florida. I was able to fly home in time for New Years.

I had plans to run the Alaska Series in 2020, but I cancelled those plans because of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I had lots of race plans that got cancelled that year, but I found something epic to replace them.

The Rueckert brothers had rebranded their Minnesota series.  Now it was called Summer Camp, and they expanded it to six days.  They already had two other series that included races in Minnesota.  Their Heartland Series had races in seven different states, with the last one in Minnesota.  Their Prairie Series also had races in seven different states, with the first one in Minnesota.  Their grand plan for 2020 was to hold these three series back-to-back.  If you did all three, you could run marathons on 20 consecutive days.  There was just one problem.  The pandemic made it nearly impossible to get permits to hold races at venues in 13 different states.

Most of their series had to be cancelled that year, but they rearranged this one.  After learning what they had to do to get permits for races in Minnesota, they merged these three series and pulled all the races into Minnesota.  They called it Running Ragged 20 in 20.

I ran the Running Ragged 20 in 20 series, even though I already had done a series in Minnesota.  It was something epic to replace all the races that got cancelled that year.  Two months later, I did the Texas Quad.

In 2021, I finally did the Alaska Series, which was a four-day series.  I didn’t add any more new states until this week, when I did the Jackal Marathons to add Tennessee.  Now I’ve run a quadzilla (or more) in nine different states.

I’m planning to do Arizona next.  Aravaipa Running has multiple events going on at the same time during Across the Years.  Most of them are fixed-time ultras, ranging anywhere from six hours to six days.  During their six-day race, they also have marathons each day.  I’m planning to do all six, even though I would only need four to get an Arizona quadzilla.

If you’re reading this, please consider joining me in Arizona to run as many as six marathons from December 28 through January 2.  If you can’t make it for the whole series, consider doing the races on January 1st and 2nd.  I’ve looked at past results, and they get plenty of runners for the first four days, but not as many on the first two days of January.  I think too many people need to get home to return to work.  I’m hoping to recruit enough other runners to make sure there are at least 15 of us every day.

Running quadzillas in different states is sort of a silly goal.  I’m off in the weeds on my own for this one.  It’s silly for three reasons.  First, I know I can’t run them in every state.  I’m already running out of states that have quadzilla opportunities.  Second, running a quadzilla was once the be-all and end-all of running on consecutive days, but that’s no longer the case.  Finally, it ignores the many multi-day series that include marathons in more than one state.  Mainly Marathons has numerous multi-day series.  There’s also the Four Corners Quad Keyah and the New England Challenge.

I’m running out of serious goals, so I guess I’m down to the silly ones now.  In other news, the Jackal Trail Marathon was my second marathon starting with the letter J.  If I do one more race starting with Q, I could complete another round of the alphabet.

My plans for 2025

Since I started this blog, I’ve always posted a list of goals at the beginning of the year.  This year, I’m not doing that.

I almost always set goals for individual races, but I’ve also been chasing longer term goal.  Over the years, those goals have included things like marathons in every state, the World Marathon Majors, marathons on every continent, or reaching certain lifetime milestones like 500 marathons or 100 Minnesota marathons.

At this point in my life, I’ve pretty much done all those things.  I’ll keep running marathons, but I no longer have a number I’m trying to hit.  Instead of having a list of goals for the year, I’m going to have something more like a mission statement.

So here’s my mission:  To explore strange to worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Wait, that’s Star Trek’s mission.  Actually, my mission is similar.  It has three parts.

First, I’m going to run marathons in places I’ve never been to before, whether they’re new countries, new cities, or new places in the great outdoors.

Second, I’m to do some races I’ve never done before.  I’m particularly interested in doing a few races that offer unique race experiences.

Finally, I want to challenge myself in new ways.

I won’t have to wait long for my first new challenge.  Tomorrow, I’ll be starting a 48-hour race.  I’ve made two previous attempts at 48-hour races, but both of these attempts ended early.  I still don’t know what it’s like to be on my feet for 48 hours or to go for two nights without sleep during a race.  Hopefully, I’ll find out soon.

2024 Year-End Review

This is my end of year review for the goals I set at the beginning of the year.  Technically, the year isn’t over yet, but I’m finishing the year with two rest days, so the year is effectively over for me.

I reached all of my goals, and I exceeded several of them.  In retrospect, some of my goals may have been too soft.

Run 3,000 Miles in 2024

This goal, more than any other, defined my year.

When I set this goal, I thought it was ambitious.  My previous best was 2,889.7 miles.  I stayed healthy all year and gradually increased my mileage.  By the end of October, I had already run more than 3,000 miles.  After that, I set a stretch goal of 3,660 miles, which is an average of 10 miles per day.

I’ll finish the year with 3,668.1 miles.  That’s an average of 10.02 miles per day.  I exceeded my previous best by almost 800 miles.

Besides setting a new personal record for mileage in a year, I also set PRs for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and October.

I was more consistent than I’ve ever been before.  There wasn’t a single week that I didn’t run at least 50 miles, even when my travel schedule made it difficult.

It's worth nothing that I’m only counting running, not walking.  In 2017 and 2018, when I was mostly race-walking, I may have put in more total mileage, but it was mostly walking.

Run at Least 100 Miles in the FANS 24-Hour Run

I ran 100 miles at FANS, and I won the state championship for men over 60.  Those were my minimum goals.  I was hoping for more, but my race ended suddenly when I went too long without changing clothes and had circulation issues in my legs as it cooled off during the night.

Run My 100th Minnesota Marathon

I ran nine marathons or ultras in Minnesota this year.  That brought my lifetime total to 104, exceeding my goal by four.

Run Marathons in 50 Countries

I ran marathons in five new countries this year, bringing my lifetime total to 51.  My 50th country was Andorra.  Since then, I’ve also run a marathon in Barbados.

Run Outdoors Whenever Possible

I made it through the whole year without doing any running on a treadmill or indoor track.  It helped that the 2023-24 winter was the mildest winter I can remember.  I didn’t have to deal with too much snow or ice, and we only had one week of subzero temperatures.

December was more difficult.  We had temperatures more typical for winter, and we also had snow and ice in the streets.  Those conditions made running outdoors more challenging, but not impossible.

Qualify for the National Senior Games

My minimum goal was to qualify for the road race and race-walk events at next year’s National Senior Games.  That was a pretty soft goal.  To qualify, all I needed to do was finish one road race event and place in the top four in my age group in one race-walk event.

My stretch goal was to place in the top three in my age group each of my events.  I was second in my age group in the 5K run, first in my age group in the 10K run, and first overall in both of my race-walk events.

I was happy with my results in the running events, but I was disappointed with my times in the walking events.  I won them, but I wasn’t as fast as I was in last year’s National Senior Games.  If I want to place in my age group in next year’s National Senior Games, I’m going to need to train harder.

Stay on Schedule to Finish a 5th Circuit of 50 States in 2025

My minimum goal was to position myself to finish next May.  Instead, I finished in November at the Route 66 Marathon.  That was ideal, since that race was a reunion of the 50 States Marathon Club.

The Missing Goal

I met or exceeded all of my goals, but I really should’ve had an additional goal.  The whole point of doing my winter running outdoors instead of on the treadmill was to break myself of the habit of tripping during races.

I thought running outdoors during the winter would force me to pick up my feet more.  Apparently, that didn’t work.  I still tripped and had hard falls in three races.  One was a trail race, but the other two were road races.

The goal I should’ve set was to get through the year with no falls.  I failed miserably at that.

2024 Third Quarter Review

This is my third quarterly review of the goals I set at the beginning of the year.  I’m a few days late with this post.  At the end of September, I was in Munich for Oktoberfest, so I was a bit preoccupied.

I’ve reached three of my goals, and I’ve made progress on most of the others.  I see no reason why I can’t reach all my goals by the end of the year.

Run 3,000 Miles in 2024

Through the first nine months of 2024, I ran 2,720,65 miles.  I’m just 279.35 miles shy of my goal of 3,000.  I’ve been averaging about 300 miles per month, so I could hit 3,000 by the end of October.

Run at Least 100 Miles in the FANS 24-Hour Run

I reached this goal in June.  There’s nothing new to say about it.

Run My 100th Minnesota Marathon

I ran seven Minnesota marathons in July, bringing my lifetime total to 103.  I celebrated #100 with Mainly Marathons on the third day of the Summer Camp Series.

Run Marathons in 50 Countries

I didn’t run marathons in any new countries in the third quarter, so my lifetime total is still 49.  I’ll get my 50th country in November when I run a marathon in Andorra.  I have another international trip scheduled in December, so I expect to finish the year with 51 countries.

Run Outdoors Whenever Possible

I’ve yet to do any indoor running this year.  During the summer, the biggest challenge was scheduling around thunderstorms.  Winter will be more challenging, but that’s still several weeks away.

Qualify for the National Senior Games

The Minnesota Senior Games were held in August.  My stated goal was to qualify for the National Senior Games in the road race and race-walking events.  To do that, I just needed to finish one of the road race events and place in the top four in my age group in one of the race-walk events.

I placed second in my age group in the 5K road race, first in my age group in the 10K road race, and first overall in both of the race-walking events.  I exceeded my goals by a wide margin.  I was a little disappointed with my times in the race-walk events, but that’s something to work on for next year.

Stay on Schedule to Finish a 5th Circuit of 50 States in 2025

At a minimum, I wanted to make enough progress toward a fifth circuit of 50 states that I could finish by the middle of 2025.  I’m now on track to finish by the end of this year.

So far this year, I’ve run marathons in Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, West Virginia, Vermont, Wyoming, and Ohio.  To finish my fifth circuit, I just need to do marathons in New Jersey and Oklahoma.  Both of those races are scheduled.  I’ll finish at the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa.

2024 Second Quarter Review

This is my second quarterly review of the goals I set at the beginning of the year.  I’ve reached one of my goals, and I’ve made progress on most of the others.  I see no reason why I can’t reach all my goals by the end of the year.

Run 3,000 Miles in 2024

Through the first six months of 2024, I ran 1764.55 miles.  I’m well over halfway to my goal.  In fact, I could take a whole month off, and I’d still be on schedule.  If I stay healthy, I should reach this goal easily.

Run at Least 100 Miles in the FANS 24-Hour Run

The FANS 24-Hour Run was on June 1-2.  I ran 100 miles, and I won the state championship for my age group.  Those were the goals I set for myself at the beginning of the year.

By race day, I was hoping for more, but I didn’t pace myself well.  I didn’t reach my more ambitious goals, but I managed to at least reach my minimum goal.

Run My 100th Minnesota Marathon

FANS was my 96th marathon or ultra in Minnesota.  To reach 100, I need four more.  I have seven marathons scheduled in July, and all seven of them are in Minnesota.  I expect to reach this goal on the third day of the Summer Camp Series.

Run Marathons in 50 Countries

Already this year, I’ve run marathons in three new countries, bringing my lifetime total to 49.  I just need one more to reach 50.

I expect to run two more international marathons this year, but only one of them will be in a new country.  If all goes well, I’ll get my 50th country this December in Barbados.

Run Outdoors Whenever Possible

So far this year, I’ll done all my running outdoors.  The summer months are easy.  I don’t mind the heat.  The only challenge will be the return of winter weather in December.

Qualify for the National Senior Games

I plan to qualify for the National Senior Games in August, when I compete in the Minnesota Senior Games.  Until then, all I can to is train for them.

Qualifying in the road race events is easy.  Anyone who competes automatically qualifies for nationals.

In the race-walk events, I need to place in the top four in my age group.  There are two race-walk events.  I plan to compete in both of them, but I only need to place in the top four in one of them.  If I qualify in either event at the state level, I can compete in both events in the national games.

Ideally, I’d like to better.  I’d like to place in my age group in one or both of the road race events, and I’d like to win my age group in both of the race-walk events.  That won’t be easy.  Both race-walk events are on the same day.  In the past, I’ve done one or the other, but not both.

While I was training for FANS, I put race-walk training on the back burner.  I was doing a few walking workouts, but my emphasis was on getting comfortable with a brisk pace, rather than going as fast as I can.

Since FANS, I’ve been picking up the pace of my walking workouts.  I recently timed myself at 31:30 for 5K.  I haven’t timed myself on 1500 meters, but I’ve walked a mile in 10:00.

Stay on Schedule to Finish a 5th Circuit of 50 States in 2025

Originally, my goal was to make enough progress toward a fifth circuit of 50 states that I could finish by the middle of 2025.  Since then, I’ve changed my goal to finishing this year.  The hard part was squeezing in a Vermont marathon.

Earlier this year, I ran marathons in Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, and West Virginia.  Two weeks ago, I ran one in Vermont.  At this point I just need to finish marathons in Wyoming, Ohio, New Jersey, and Oklahoma.  All of those races are scheduled.  I expect to finish at the Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa.

2024 First Quarter Review

The book, “Meb for Mortals” has a chapter on goal setting.  Shortly after reading that, I met Meb and told him how much I liked it.  He told me the most important thing is periodically review your progress.

I post a set of goals at the beginning of each year.  At the end of the year, I review how I did.  With Meb’s advice in mind, this year I’m also going to review my progress every three months.  Now that the first three months of 2024 are over, here’s how I’m doing on each of my goals.

Run 3,000 Miles in 2024

To reach my goal of running 3,000 miles, I need to average 250 miles per month.  After three months, I should have 750 miles to be on schedule.  I ran 270 miles in January, 273 miles in February, and 300 miles in March.  All three of those are personal bests.  It helped a lot that we’ve had a mild winter.  For most of February there wasn’t any snow or ice on the streets.

I’m already 93 miles ahead of schedule, and the winter months are behind me.  My mileage typically peaks during the summer months, so only an injury would prevent me from reaching this goal.

Run at Least 100 Miles in the FANS 24-Hour Run

This race doesn’t take place until June, but I’ve been training for it since September.  At this point in my training, the most important thing I can do is build a good mileage base.  I started building my mileage last summer.  I ran more miles in the first three months of the year than ever before.

In the race, I won’t just be running.  I’ll also be walking.  In fact, I expect to walk about a third of the race, so it’s important to be able to walk at a brisk pace.  With that in mind, I’ve started to add race-walking to my training.  It’s not enough to just have good fitness.  Walking efficiently takes practice.  In January, I started getting on the treadmill as many as three times a week to work on my race-walking technique.  So far, I’ve only been doing short fast workouts.  In the next two months, I’ll start doing longer walks.

Twenty-six years ago, when I was training for my first 24-hour race, a more experienced runner gave me some good advice.  He told me to do a few 6-hour training runs and use them to rehearse everything I’m going to do on race day.  Over the years, runs like this have helped me learn what I can eat and drink during a race without having GI distress.  I still find these run useful to practice pacing strategies, so I can go into a race with a realistic plan.  If your pace doesn’t feel easy after six hours, it’s not going to be sustainable for 24 hours.

Already this year, I’ve done a 6-hour run/walk workout to experiment with pacing.  I’ll probably do two or three more of these before the race.

Run My 100th Minnesota Marathon

To reach this goal, I need to run at least five Minnesota marathons (or ultras) in 2024.  There aren’t a lot of Minnesota races during the winter months, so I haven’t made any progress on this goal.  That’s to be expected.  I’ve registered for seven Minnesota races, and I may do as many as nine.  The earliest of these races is in June.  This goal is deferred until then.

Run Marathons in 50 Countries

To reach this goal, I need to run marathons in four new countries this year.  That’s an average of one every three months.  In March, I ran a marathon in South Korea, so I’m one fourth of the way to my goal.  I’m right on schedule.

When I posted this goal, I had three other international races scheduled, but only two of them were in new countries.  I was hoping to find one more, but I didn’t have much room in my schedule.  I needed to find a race in a new country that I could do in December.  Since then, I’ve picked out a race, and I’ve booked my travel.  I now have a plan for getting to 50 countries this year.

Run Outdoors Whenever Possible

I’ve made it through the first three months of the year without doing any running on a treadmill or on an indoor track.

January was challenging because of a week of subzero windchills.  There were a couple days that week that the temperature never got about zero.  I still got outdoors to run almost every day.  The only days I missed were days I was traveling.  To cope with the cold temperatures I dressed in layers, and on the coldest days I didn’t have any exposed skin.

When it was below zero, I couldn’t be outside long enough to run my usual training distance.  Instead, I split my mileage between two shorter runs.  For seven straight days in January, I ran in the morning and again in the afternoon.

February was surprisingly mild.  We had a couple of snow days, but I had dry roads for most of the month.

March started out mild, but we had a major snowstorm late in the month.  A couple of days were challenging, but I was determined to continue doing all my running outdoors.  The first day of that storm, I got out early, before there was too much snow in the streets.  The next day, I waited until after the streets were plowed.

Now that I’ve made it through the winter, it should be much easier.

Qualify for the National Senior Games

To qualify for the National Senior Games, I need to compete at the state level.  I could travel to any state to qualify, but it’s most convenient for me to compete in the Minnesota Senior games. 

The Minnesota Senior Games won’t be held until August, but I’ve started training for them.  Qualifying in the road race events is easy.  I just need to compete.  I don’t need to place.  To qualify in the race-walk events, I need to place in the top four in my age group in at least one of the race-walk events.  I’ve started race-walking on a treadmill a few times a week.

Walking at a fast pace takes constant practice.  If you neglect your training, you quickly get rusty.  Since January, I’ve been getting on the treadmill regularly to walk three miles at a brisk pace.

At first, I was out of practice, so I couldn’t go very fast.  The first of those three-mile workouts took me 40:38 minutes.  That’s an average pace of 13:3e, which isn’t particularly fast for such a short distance.  Since then, I’ve been getting a little faster with each workout.  By the end of March, I was albe to do the same 3-mile walk in 32:54.  That’s an average pace of 10:58.

I’d like to shave another minute off my pace, but I have until August to train.  I pleased with the progress I’ve made so far.

Stay on Schedule to Finish a 5th Circuit of 50 States in 2025

Goals are supposed to be well-defined.  Admittedly, this one is kind of vague.  Ideally, I’d like to finish my fifth circuit this year, but I don’t know if I can schedule races in all the states I need.  If I can’t do it this year, I want to finish by the middle of next year.  That’s my minimum goal.

Reaching my minimum goal requires running marathons in seven new states this year.  Reaching my stretch goal requires running marathons in two additional states.  I’ve scheduled my races for the first seven states, and I’ve already finished four of them.  In the first three months of 2024, I ran marathons in Alabama, North Carolina, Arkansas, and West Virginia.

So far, I’m crushing it.  Whether I can reach the stretch goal will come down to whether I can fit a Vermont race into my schedule.  Every Vermont marathon I’m aware of has some type of schedule conflict with my other races.  My best bet would be to do a Vermont race on June 13, but that’s only 11 days after the FANS 24-hour race.  Can I run a marathon that soon after a 100+ mile effort?  I won’t know until June.

My Goals for 2024

For the first time in years, I’m starting the year healthy, and with a good training base.  My first two goals for the year reflect that.

Run 3,000 Miles in 2024

One of my goals for 2023 was to get back in shape.  I did that.  For 2024, I have the easier task of simply staying in shape, which is mostly a matter of keeping up my training.  The hard part is to be consistent all year, which depends on staying healthy all year.

I’ve never run 3,000 miles in a calendar year, although I’ve been in the 2,800s three times.  To run 3,000 miles, I need to average 250 miles per month.  I ran that much each month in the last four months of 2023, so I just have to keep training at the same level, which mostly comes down to staying healthy.

Run at Least 100 Miles in the FANS 24-Hour Run

I mostly run marathons, but once or twice a year, I’ll do an ultra.  The last time I did a long ultra (100+ miles) was two years ago at the FANS 24-Hour Run.  When I decided to do this race in 2022, it was a last-minute decision.  I chose to enter the race when I discovered that I could compete for a state championship for men over 60.  I was pretty sure I could win that, even though I had not been training for an ultra.

Relying mainly on experience, I was able to run 101.4 miles, even with minimal training.  This year, I’m starting the year with the best mileage base I’ve had in years.  The race isn’t until June, so I have five more months to train.

My minimum goal for this race is to run 100 miles.  If I can do that, I’m confident I’ll also win another state championship for my age group.  Obviously, I’ll run farther if I can, but I have to be careful not to overreach.

Run My 100th Minnesota Marathon

I’ve run 95 marathons or ultras in my home state of Minnesota.  Running at least five more in 2024 is a priority.  I was already interested in doing the five-day Summer Camp Series in July.  Those five races alone would be enough to get me to 100.  I’m also planning to do FANS, and I may do one or two others as well.

Run Marathons in 50 Countries

I’ve run marathons in 46 different countries.  That puts me within striking distance of 50.  I’ve already booked travel to three new countries this year.  Ideally, I’d like to add a fourth, although there isn’t much room in my schedule.  This one is sort of a stretch goal.  It might come down to whether I can schedule an international trip in December.

Run Outdoors Whenever Possible

Last year, I didn’t do any running on a treadmill.  Running outdoors is challenging during the winter months, but running outdoors has forced me to pick up my feet more, so I’m less prone to tripping.

Inevitably, there will be days when running outdoors just isn’t possible.  I’m not going to run during a blizzard, nor am I going to run during a thunderstorm.  If my only choices are run indoors or take a day off, I’ll consider running indoors.  Still, I’d like to keep my indoor running to a minimum.  I won’t run on the treadmill just because it’s easier or more convenient.

Qualify for the National Senior Games

The National Senior Games are held in odd-number years.  Qualifying takes place at various state games in even-numbered years.

The Minnesota Senior Games are held in August.  At a minimum, I’d like to qualify for nationals in the race-walk events.  Ideally, I’d like to also qualify for the 5K and 10K road race events, and perhaps a track event, like the 1500 meter run.

Qualifying at the state level is usually pretty easy, as the race-walk events tend to be thinly attended, and you can qualify in road race events just by competing.  The difficulty with competing in multiple events is scheduling.  Doing more events means spending more days away from home, and sometimes there are schedule conflicts between events in different disciplines.

Stay on Schedule to Finish a 5th Circuit of 50 States in 2025

I’m within striking distance of completing my 5th circuit of marathons or ultras in every state.  To finish, I need to run marathons in Alabama, Arkansas, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

It would be possible to schedule all nine of these states in 2024, but some of the races I would need to schedule conflict with my other priorities.  Rather than try to finish this year, I’m aiming for 2025.  I finished my first circuit of states at the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington.  Since Vermont is one of the states I need, I’d like to go back to the same race to finish my 5th circuit.

I can easily schedule races in most of these states.  Ideally, I’ll go into 2025 needing just a couple states, with one of them being Vermont.

2023 Year-End Review

Every year, I post a list of goals for the year.  I usually achieve most of my goals, but I sometimes miss a few.  This year my goals were fairly modest, so it’s not too surprising that I nailed them all.

Finish My 4th Circuit of 50 States

At the beginning of 2023, I had already run four or more marathons (or ultras) in 45 states.  To complete my 4th circuit of marathons in every state, I needed to run marathons in Maryland, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, and West Virginia.

I got off to a rough start.  I was planning to run the Sun Marathon in Utah in January, but I had to skip that one because of a respiratory infection.  The day before I was scheduled to fly to Utah, I tried running for the first time in a week.  I managed to run just over a mile.  Two miles would’ve been too much.  A marathon was out of the question.

I recovered in time to run the George Washington’s Birthday Marathon in February, giving me my Maryland race.  In May, I ran the Maple Leaf Marathon in Vermont.  Then in the summer, I found another Utah race.  I actually ran two of them.  I ran the Deseret News Marathon in July and the Mt. Nebo Marathon in August.

I finished my fourth circuit in November by running the Marshall University Marathon in West Virginia and the Route 66 Marathon in Oklahoma.

I already had my eye on eventually doing a fifth circuit of states, so I also went out of my way to schedule races in a few states where I already had four marathons.  Besides running my fourth marathon in the states listed above, I ran my fifth marathon or ultra in Kentucky, Maine, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Maryland.  By the time I finished my fourth circuit, I just needed nine more states to finish my fifth circuit.

Run Marathons in Two New Countries

This was a fairly soft goal.  At the start of the year, I didn’t have any international trips scheduled, but I had tentative plans to run marathons in Slovakia and Brazil.  I ended up running both of those races, and I also ran the Antarctica Marathon.  More on that later.

Get Back into Shape

At the start of the year, I was out of shape, and I was carrying a little extra weight.  My training was held back by a high hamstring injury in my left leg and sciatica in my right leg.

To get back in shape, I first had to get healthy enough to train.  To lose the weight, I needed to get more exercise, which also depended on getting healthy enough to train.  I’ve never been able to lose weight through diet alone.

Things got worse before they got better.  In January, I came down with a respiratory infection that was mostly likely RSV.  I was completely sidelined for about a week, and it was two more weeks before I was recovered sufficiently to do any real training.

My hamstring injury was healing nicely, but my sciatica got worse.  It flared up so badly that I couldn’t run without pain.

I had a cortisone injection in February.  The first time I had one of those, I noticed improvement immediately.  This time, I felt no better after two weeks.  Then something surprising happened.  I flew to Argentina to join my tour group for the trip to Antarctica.  After the 10 hour flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires, I fully expected to be stiff and painful.  My sciatica was usually worst after a long period of sitting.  Instead, I got off the plane with no discomfort.  It hasn’t bothered me since.

It's possible, although unlikely, that it just took that long for the cortisone injection to be effective.  It’s much more likely that something else changed.  One possibility is that I had a synovial cyst putting pressure on the nerve, and then the cyst drained, relieving the pressure.  Those things can come and go unexpectedly.

That trip included a 10-day cruise, so my opportunities to run were limited.  When I got back, however, I started gradually building my mileage.  I was careful not to increase my mileage too quickly, but by mid-July, I was running 50+ miles a week.  I’ve kept that up since.

A goal should be measurable.  I wouldn’t consider myself to be “in shape” until I could run fast enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  In recent years, most of my BQs have been on downhill courses.  My goal for this year was to BQ on a course that didn’t have any net elevation loss.

By the end of April, I was able to run a marathon in four hours.  To qualify for Boston, I needed to shave off 10 more minutes.  In July, I qualified at the Deseret News Marathon, but that course has almost 3,000 feet of net descent.  In August, I qualified on another sharply downhill course.  It wouldn’t be until September that I would have a chance to test myself on a mostly flat course.  By then I was not only getting into getter shape, but I had also lost the excess weight.

I felt like I made a major breakthrough at the Clarence DeMar Marathon, where I qualified for Boston with more than four minutes to spare.  That course is also downhill, but not by nearly as much.  The first half descends about 600 feet.  The second half is relatively flat, although there’s a tough hill in the last few miles.

Two weeks later, I finally reached my goal of qualifying for Boston on a course that started and finished at the same elevation.  I did that at the Cape Cod Marathon, which is mostly flat.

I followed that up with a BQ at the Baltimore Marathon a week later.  That course is moderately hilly.  Before the year was up, I also had BQs at the Mankato Marathon (moderately hilly), the Marshall University Marathon (flat), and the Route 66 Marathon (moderately hilly).

My final BQ of the year came at the Hawaii Bird Conservation Marathon.  This course descends 3,700 feet, but it’s worth noting that I was 11 minutes faster this year than I was on the same course a year ago.

Of all my goals for 2023, this one was the most important.  It seems like every year I start the year thinking it’s going to be a rebuilding year, but then I end the year about where I started.  This year, I actually rebuilt.  I’m going into 2024 running better than I have in years.  I have a good mileage base, my weight is down, and I’m healthy.

Do My Winter Running Outdoors

Since buying my first treadmill (to train for the Pike’s Peak Marathon), I’ve fallen into the habit of doing all of my winter running on the treadmill.  There’s nothing wrong with training on a treadmill.  It has enabled me to train at a faster pace than I could if I had to run on icy streets.

The problem is that after years of doing half of my training on a treadmill, I developed the bad habit of barely getting my feet off the ground.  On a flat road course, I have an efficient stride.  On a trail course, I don’t pick up my feet enough, and I’m prone to tripping.

In recent years, I’ve started to trip and fall, even in road marathons.  If there’s an uneven spot in the pavement, I’ll catch it with one of my feet.  In the latter half of 2022, I was tripping about once per race.  Sometimes I fell, but even when I didn’t, I would have a few awkward jarring steps.  More than once, I aggravated an existing injury.

To cure myself of that habit, I committed to doing all of my winter running outdoors.  My hope was that running on snow and ice would force me to pick up my feet.

The first big test came in the Antarctica Marathon.  That was a hilly course on a dirt road with lots of rocks.  There were times when I was racing down a hill, knowing that I would have a bad fall if my foot caught one of those rocks.  It scared me, but I got through that race without tripping on anything.

I thought I would make it through the entire year without tripping.  Unfortunately, I tripped on a pothole in the Cape Cod Marathon, and hit the pavement pretty hard.

I’ve continued to use a treadmill for race-walk training, but I haven’t run on a treadmill at all this year.  While I didn’t make it through the whole year without a fall, I improved significantly.  One fall per year is a lot better than one fall per race.

Doing my winter running outdoors had another benefit.  It forced me to reacquaint myself with how to dress for different temperatures.  I didn’t know I would be running in Antarctica, but dressing properly for that race was a lot easier after running in similar temperatures at home.

Place in My Age Group in the National Senior Games

Most of my goals were running goals, but I also had two race-walking goals.  I was competing in two race-walking events at the National Senior Games.  The first was 1,500 meters on a track.  The second was 5,000 meters on a road loop.

Last year, I took fourth place in the 1,500.  There are medals for the top three and ribbons for places five through eight.  I got a late start on my training this year, so my goal was simply to place in the top eight.  My time was one second slower than last year, but I placed higher.  This year, I came in third, which was good for a bronze medal.

In the 5,000, my goal was to place in the top three.  I managed a second place finish, earning me a silver medal.

Move Up Among Minnesota Runners

Since 2015, I’ve been on the Megamarathon List, which lists every runner in the world who has finished at least 300 marathons.  I rank in the top 400 runners in the world and roughly 50th in North America, but as recently as 2021, there were still six runners ahead of me in my home state of Minnesota.

By the end of 2022, I had moved into 5th place among Minnesota runners.  My goal for 2023 was to move into the top four.

To move into 4th place, I needed to run 15 more marathons.  I ran 30 this year, easily moving me into the top four.  The three runners still ahead of me have all run more than 600 marathons.  Only one of them is still active, but it’ll be a long time before I run enough marathons to move into the top three.

The Goal That Wasn’t Even on My List

For the second straight year, my biggest accomplishment of the year was something that wasn’t even on my list of goals.  Last year, it was winning the state championship for men over 60 in a 24-hour race.  This year, it was finishing marathons (or ultras) on every continent.

I had previous run marathons or ultras on five continents.  I was only missing South America and Antarctica.  I had plans to run Maratona do Rio in June, but I wasn’t expecting to run a marathon in Antarctica this year.

I had made a deposit to run the Antarctica Marathon in 2024, but I was also on the waiting list for 2023.  Marathon Tours & Travel was leading two voyages to Antarctica this year, one in early March, and one in late March.  On the outside chance that I might get in off the waiting list, I avoided planning any other races in March.

By the middle of January, I was getting anxious to finish planning my race schedule for March and April.  In particular, I wanted to book a trip to Vienna and Bratislava at the beginning of April.  If I went on the second Antarctica voyage, I wouldn’t get home in time to leave for Vienna.

I called Marathon Tours to find out if there was any chance of getting into one of this year’s voyages.  I didn’t think there was any chance.  I just wanted to know for sure, so I could start booking other trips.

I was shocked to find out that both of this year’s Antarctica trips had room.  I chose the first one, so I could also go on the Vienna/Bratislava trip.  At the time, I was sick with RSV, so I took a leap of faith that I could recover in time to be ready for the Antarctica trip.

Antarctica was my sixth continent.  Three months later, I added South America as my seventh continent by running Maratona do Rio.