Abigail Geiger

ageiger@ydr.com

Running was a good excuse for Mike Ball's 20-something self to quit smoking. After he ran his first marathon, he was overwhelmed with emotion.

“After that first race in Ottawa, I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry,” the 62-year-old York County resident said. “It was incredible. Still to this day I will see people trying to just stand up after finishing a marathon and they just can’t. You just have to laugh because you understand the feeling.”

Ball and several other York County residents have experienced the exhilaration of racing as part of the 50 States Marathon Club, organized in 2001 to bring together long-distance runners to run a marathon in each of the U.S. states.

The club isn’t to breed competition, founder Steve Boone said, but rather to create support.

“I mean, you’ve got some Olympians (in the group), so they are going to be trying to compete and do really well,” said Boone, who has run around 630 marathons. “Some will run a marathon in two hours. Others will run in seven."

But it's not about the time, really. It's also not about the number of marathons.

“When you get to a race, if it’s your first marathon and my 100th marathon, there’s no difference," Boone said. "It’s still the same day and the same marathon.”

From the Matterhorn to a moraine: Running as exploration

Runners will frequently travel to many different places to run races.

One of Ball's many memorable runs, he said, was the Kettle Moraine 100K (just over 60 miles) that follows the edge of the last continental glacier in Wisconsin.

Clay Shaw, who grew up in San Francisco city, and Karen Mitchell, who was born in Dayton, Ohio, and later moved to Pennsylvania, have embarked on worldwide adventures together since meeting at a race in York in 1993.

Shaw, 64, proposed at the Matterhorn in Switzerland. Shaw cheered on Mitchell, 65, when she hit her 50th state marathon in Alaska. They encountered vehicles and animals during a race in Ethiopia.

Self-defense for runners

Other 50 States members seek to run a marathon in all seven continents. And yes, that includes Antarctica, which Boone ran in late January.

“Running in Antarctica was great,” Boone said. “You’re running next to penguins and sea lions and icebergs, and it’s so cold. You think, ‘This is a crazy idea.’ We wanted it to be an adventure. And it definitely was an adventure.”

But, of course, a marathon in Antarctica wasn’t enough. Days after finishing that cold, windy feat, he finished a marathon in Chile.

Weighing the risks

“The hardest part of your run is, and always is, the first 10 feet out the door,” Boone said. “Getting out of bed and out the door.”

While running a marathon, all sorts of things are going on in the body, from depleted glycogen to increased endorphin levels. Over a lifetime, such energy exertion can take a toll, threatening injuries to joints, knees and other body parts.

For the local runners, time has brought many injuries and setbacks.

Shaw: In his self-proclaimed pursuit for speed, he suffered several injuries along the way. “It takes time to adjust to the breathing, the aches and pains, the exercise-induced asthma beginning runners have,” said Shaw, who completed his 200th marathon in February. “It’s just not easy to all of a sudden get it right away.” Shaw, who now speed-walks his races and runs with a knee brace when he has to race the clock, said his competitive nature might have led to his several injuries. But it’s just the way he is.

In his self-proclaimed pursuit for speed, he suffered several injuries along the way. “It takes time to adjust to the breathing, the aches and pains, the exercise-induced asthma beginning runners have,” said Shaw, who completed his 200th marathon in February. “It’s just not easy to all of a sudden get it right away.” Shaw, who now speed-walks his races and runs with a knee brace when he has to race the clock, said his competitive nature might have led to his several injuries. But it’s just the way he is. Ball: He realized over the years that he couldn’t do more than two or three marathons a year. “Say you’re running a marathon,” Ball said.” Well, then you need two weeks to recover afterward. Then you need two weeks to train, and then two more weeks to taper. So that’s six weeks. And if you’re running a lot of races in a year, it’s hard to follow that, and then you risk training for less or recovering for less. There’s a point where you just have to know your body, Ball continued.

‘Relentless forward progress’

Why keep running? Why continue to put the body through such duress? The finish line.

But runners have to learn to be patient, and to respect time, said Ball, who has completed 58 marathons. Say you want to do a marathon — you can’t gobble down the whole thing at once, he said.

“Relentless forward progress,” Ball said. “That’s what I tell myself. Always move forward.”

For Boone, it’s about a greater impact — inspiration.

“If you’re out running in 2-degree weather, someone will see you and ask what you’re doing," Boone said. "But then they’ll think about it. And then they might say, ‘Hey, maybe I can do that.’ And they can.”

Advice for new runners

Mike Ball

"If you're out there running, you're a runner. I think there's a hesitancy to, sometimes, to go out and run and have people see you run. ... Just go, go run. Go run."

Steve Boone

“Just don’t cry. Don’t cry on your first marathon. You can do anything else. Just don’t cry. But — whining is different. I’ve said some things during races that I’m not proud of. Whining is okay.”

Karen Mitchell

"At this point, I would say if I could do anything differently I would do exactly what all runners are told to do from the beginning, which is we’re supposed to cross-train. We’re not supposed to run day after day after day. We should run, bike, go to the gym, walk. I think we would all have a lot less injuries if we paid attention to that advice.”

Clay Shaw

“You have to be patient. It takes time to adjust to everything that occurs in a runner’s body — the breathing, the aches and pains, the shin splints and muscle pulls. It takes patience to learn how to take care of your body.