I’ve been trying to reach this milestone since May 2020. The original plan was to hit 25 states at that time, at a race in Kansas right around my birthday. As we all know, by then covid was a force that couldn’t be stopped and the ability to race was nonexistent. All of my planned spring/summer/fall races were canceled, and I couldn’t plan on anything with certainty.

So, I’ve adjusted. I will say running helps you do that. I often have a Plan A (some type of goal), a Plan B (a lesser goal), and a Plan C (just finish). Sometimes shit just doesn’t go your way. You could get injured, the weather outlook isn’t ideal, your nutrition isn’t on point, you didn’t train enough, etc and so on. 2020 was basically a never ending race. Looking back I view it as running a marathon and perpetually hitting the mile 22 marker and not progressing. You’re tired, hurting, and you just want the pain to end. But it didn’t and hasn’t.

Plan A was to finish all 50 states before I turned 40. I was fully on track. However with covid I’ve moved to Plan B. Finish all 50 states. Period. I’m now unable to put a timeline on it. It’s okay. The dream isn’t dead, just different.

I’ve had my eye on the Hall of Fame Marathon since 2020 when they announced a super bowl ring medal. That went virtual so they decided to do it again in 2021. I was chatting with my sister on the phone one day and we decided to go for it. The covid plan looked solid and we felt like it had a higher than average chance of not being canceled.

I was almost afraid to hope, or put in the training, when there was always the chance of it going virtual. But alas, race weekend came so we showed up, overconfident and undertrained.

This race meant a great deal to me. I wanted to enjoy the accomplishment while also pushing myself. For me, the marathon distance is always hard. There is a steep physical, mental and emotional price to pay.

This was a different race than I imagine it would be under normal circumstances. They had water tables every 2 miles, with capped 8oz bottles. That was it. No Gatorade, no food, no nutrition, just water. This ended up being especially tough in the second half of the race. The temp climbed up to 78 degrees so salt loss became a big deal. I drank 8 Oz every two miles and that still wasn’t enough. My throat was dry, my lips were chapped and my skin was getting burned (I did put on sunscreen Megan but it sweated off 😂). My stomach kept cramping and the last few miles were really hard. I was talking myself forward one orange marker cone at a time. Ohio is also much hillier than I anticipated.

When I finally crossed the finish line tears pricked at my eyes. I felt physically destroyed, mentally stripped down, but emotionally buoyed. I felt PROUD. For some reason the halfway point seems significant. I’ve worked really hard to get here. I’ve gone from being out of shape, overweight, and unable to run a mile, to this major milestone.

It was even better being able to share this experience with my sister. We talked afterwards about why we do this. And we both talked about the mental chats we have with ourselves during the race. “Why the hell did I sign up for this?” “I’m never doing this again!” “This sucks so much”. Etc and so forth.

But it’s about feeling alive. Our bodies are made to handle hard things. And I think the older you get the more you want to push all of those boundaries. You want to FEEL. You want to see what your limits are again and again. And then you want to push them further.

So what’s next? Who knows at this point. But I’ll keep going until I’m done. Because I’m fucking resilient.