50 in 50

PALMER — In running, Stephen Brown is a late bloomer.

Brown was on a high school team while growing up in his home state of Texas, admitting a fairly forgettable prep career.

But things are different now, and the Palmer man is working toward a goal most runners can only dream of. Brown is halfway through his trek to run 50 marathons in 50 states.

“It’s really something I found later in life,” Brown said Monday. “I was on the track team in high school, but I was the most pathetic runner. I ran the mile and usually got lapped. I think it’s funny I didn’t blossom really until I was 40.”

Brown recently crossed states 24 and 25 off his list, completing marathons in Utah and Idaho. Just at the halfway mark, Brown’s achievements are already impressive, considering he ran his first marathon only eight years ago.

Brown decided to tackle his first 26-miler, along with his twin brother, to celebrate their 40th birthday. The twins jumped into the field of the Oklahoma City Marathon.

“He and I had fun,” Brown said. “It got me hooked.”

Brown soon ran marathons in Kansas and Texas, and eventually became part of a niche in the running world that’s growing in popularity.

“There’s about a thousand people across country that do that at any given time,” Brown said. “I got to know them.”

Now Brown looks for future marathons to help him run closer to his goal.

There’s a website, 50statesmarathonclub.com, he visits often. He tries to hit a pair of marathons in adjacent states per trip, and would like to average four marathons a year.

“I try to do to two marathons on the same weekend to knock them out quicker,” Brown said.

That means running more than 50 miles in two or three days, but that’s something Brown has adjusted to. Brown has no problem staying active and fit, he’s been active in mountaineering since he was a kid and has scaled some of the tallest peaks in North America.

When he’s doubling up over a weekend, he’ll just slow his pace. Brown said he typically runs a 26.2-mile race in about four hours. He’ll shoot for 4 hours, 20 minutes when he’s running a pair of marathons in a weekend.

Brown started his path to 50 while living in Kansas about five years ago.

“The great thing about living in Kansas is half the country is within driving distance,” Brown said. “It’s easy to knock out a bunch.”

It’s a little harder now. Brown, who works within the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service Palmer office, has lived in Alaska for about four-and-a-half years. It just takes more planning now, he said.

Brown said people within his office joke with him when he signs up to attend a business conference Outside, asking him if the trip is for a marathon or is he really going to the conference?

Sometimes it’s all about timing.

Brown said he has a bunch of frequent flier miles on American Airlines. He’s going to use those to hit a marathon in California in January.

“If I don’t do it now, I’ll lose those miles,” Brown said.

Brown keeps running for a number of reasons, he said. Often, it’s the people and places that drive him as much as the run.

“The neat thing about it, my wife and I really enjoy going to these places, most places we’d never go ordinarily,” Brown said.

One of those places was Frankenmuth, Mich.

“There was a marathon there and Frankenmuth was a really neat little German town,” Brown said. “We had the most wonderful time. People are so nice. I’d never even heard of it, expect for the marathon. A great way for us to see the country is run through a community. You really learn what’s going on in that community, see how people take care of their yards, see the diversity.”

Marathons also took Brown to places like Mobile, Ala., and Jackson, Miss.

“It’s fun to go to places you’d never ordinarily see,” Brown said.

Brown said one of the most memorable marathons to date is the Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado. The race starts in Colorado Springs and the route sends runners up Pikes Peak, one of Colorado’s 54 14,000-foot mountain peaks, along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. If that’s not tough enough, the mountain’s summit is the race’s halfway mark.

“It’s the toughest marathon I’ve been in,” Brown said. “It’s really cool to top out on the summit.”

The high elevation, and the reduced oxygen at the high elevation, is not an issue for Brown. He’s actually pretty used to it, as an accomplished mountaineer.

Brown scaled Mount McKinley two years ago. He’s also tackled Pico de Orizaba, the tallest mountain in Mexico and third tallest in North America at 18,000 feet, a number of times.

Brown is preparing to climb a 23,000-foot peak in Argentina. Brown said his two hobbies — running marathons and climbing mountains — certainly work together.

“The marathon training keeps you in shape,” Brown said.

Brown also has plans to climb Pico Duarpe, a 10,000-foot mountain in the Dominican Republic, the tallest mountain in the Caribbean.

Brown said his next two-marathon trip will lead him to North Carolina and South Carolina. He has yet to run in some of the nation’s most notable marathons, such as the Chicago Marathon, Boston Marathon or New York Marathon.

“I’m saving some of the more premiere ones toward the end,” Brown said.

An ideal finish would be saving the New York Marathon for No. 50.

Brown has run a few marathons in Alaska, hitting the Mayor’s Marathon in Anchorage and the Kenai River Marathon. He also ran in the first Hatcher Pass Marathon during the summer.

Brown said he’d like to finish his quest by the time he turns 55, but he knows the further he gets, the harder it will be to find marathons in states close together.

He’s already thought about hitting marathons outside of the country. There’s a marathon in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, that’s hosted in January.

“Two years ago only one person finished,” Brown said.

He’s thought about hitting a marathon in every Canadian province, and maybe even marathons on other continents.

But in the meantime, Brown is enjoying his run, ready to mark something else on his 50 in 50 list.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.