Karen proudly displays her 50 States Plaque,recognizing her achievement of running marathons in all 50 states of the country.
by Maryanna Savage Phinn
Many Americans dream of visiting all 50 states as a goal on their “bucket list.” But one local woman “ran” with that goal and took it to another level. Karen Adler, 72, of Yardley and Phoenix, Arizona, has run 52 marathons in all 50 states including running in two states twice (Mississippi and Hawaii). A full marathon is 26.2 miles. As a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, she received a plaque commemorating this challenging achievement after running in her 50th state in 2011.
Karen started running road races at age 42. “I started running later in life. I was always fairly athletic. I participated in sports in high school like softball and basketball.” She initially got involved in the distance running because her first husband was a runner and he suggested that she join him on runs. “We started running around my neighborhood. Eventually, a friend suggested that we run a 5K, which is 3.1 miles. “At first I thought, that sounds so far! I only run around my neighborhood for about 20 minutes a day. It seemed like a Herculean task,” she recalled.
Karen ran her first 5K with her friend and quickly decided to find another 5K to run solo to discover how she actually felt about distance running. “At that 5K, between the other runners and the crowds that were there with family members supporting them, I found that it was so exhilarating and there was so much camaraderie. I felt like this is something I could really get into so it piqued my interest. I did fairly well. So I kept at it and kept on running.”
Karen joined a running group in Phoenix with chapters in major cities across the country that encouraged first-time or less experienced runners to get involved in a 26-week training program with the goal of running a full marathon within the year.
She followed a regular running schedule, met with other members on Saturdays at local parks for mini-instruction sessions on topics such as hydration. She was grouped with runners at the same caliber and talent levels as her running speed. “I remember a conversation I had with a friend who mentioned she knew someone that wants to run marathons in all 50 states. I said, “’Is she crazy?’”
Karen completed her first full marathon in 1999 in Scottsdale, Arizona. She continued to train and compete in more marathons in California, New Mexico, Nevada and other states in proximity to Arizona.
At that time, Karen was a full-time teacher of math and science for seventh and eighth grade students. “I was still teaching so I had to make sure these races were on three-day weekends, or holiday weekends or breaks in the school year. At one point we went to visit family in Columbus, Ohio and there was a marathon, so I planned for that weekend. Gradually I started checking off states that weren’t anywhere near Arizona, and I realized that I was approaching 20 marathons. I thought back on that conversation that I had with my running partner whose friend wanted to run marathons in all 50 states and I suddenly realized I was half-way there! This is doable. I was amazing myself that I could actually do this. That’s when I really started planning.”
Karen used a running website that had every marathon listed in every state by date and location. She created her own online system to set up a plan to run a marathon in the states she had not run in yet. She planned running in marathons around family vacations in states she had not yet competed.
As far as having a “favorite” state that she competed in, Karen noted that each state offered a wide range of experiences. “I enjoyed different states for different reasons. One of my favorite marathons was in Las Vegas because I ran my fastest time. I loved Hawaii just for the scenery; how do you not love it there? I loved running in Colorado because of the Rocky Mountains, and it was June, but you can still see snow-covered peaks at the very top.”
The weather and the terrain were factors regardless of what time of year the marathons took place. “In Alaska, it’s so far north in June that it’s still dusk at 11 pm. There are only four or five hours of nighttime because it’s summer,” she recalled. “When I ran in the Dakotas in late May or early June, at the start of the race the temperature was in the mid-20s and after about 10 miles into the race there was hail and sleet pellets coming down.” She noted that running in Phoenix in the winter, the temperature was dry in the 70s with low humidity, but in West Palm Beach in Florida at the same time of year the temperature was in the 70s but with high humidity and felt totally different.
Karen recalled a farewell gathering when she was retiring after teaching for 29 years. A colleague mentioned she’d like to see all 50 states during retirement. “I said, ‘I want to see all 50 states but I want to run a marathon in all of them! By then, I had more than half of them done by this time, so it was really a foreseeable goal.’”
Today, Karen and her husband, David, spend time between Yardley and Arizona. Karen’s Yardley neighbors see her running around their picturesque neighborhoods from early spring through late fall when she and David return from the desert warmth of Arizona.
She does not have any marathons planned for now, but she continues to compete in local 5Ks and keeps active, and she certainly earned her way into American marathon history “When I received my 50 states recognition plaque, it turned out that I was one out of a total of 256 women in the entire country who had accomplished that. So I was in a pretty elite group,” she added.