Wednesday, Jul. 07, 2010

Marathon man runs in 50 states

On June 19, Eric Johnson did something few people ever accomplish. He completed his quest to run marathons in all 50 states in the Union, plus Washington, D.C.

It took 10 years and seven months.

Through it all, Johnson, 42, racked up his share of wild successes and dismal failures. He never gave up, even though it took him three tries to conquer Colorado. He also battled heat exhaustion during a sizzling marathon in Nashville, Tenn., and suffered a knee injury that threatened to knock him out of the game for good.

When Johnson crossed the finish line of his 50th state at the 2010 Mayor's Marathon in Anchorage, Alaska, he cried.

"It was kind of surreal," he said. "I was emotional at the end. I was hugging and high-fiving, and there may have been a tear or two, but I had my back to the camera, so if pressured, I will deny that."

A marathon covers 26.2 miles. Johnson has completed 71 of them, although he ran the first two before he joined the 50-State Marathon Club. If that sounds like a lot of running, consider that a fellow named Norm Frank from New York has completed 965 marathons, according to the Marathon Club's website.

Rich Holmes, a North Carolinian, has run a marathon in each state two times over and is more than halfway through his third tour.

"As crazy as people think I am, in the 50-States Club there's always someone crazier," Johnson said.

A husky guy, Johnson would be the first to admit he's not built for speed. But he's got the endurance part down.

The Louisburg resident was a high school athlete, but he mostly abandoned sports as an adult. "I just sat on the couch and drank beer," he said.

Johnson remembers the day he transformed from couch potato into marathon man. It was spring 1999.

"Someone asked me when my baby was due," he said, referring to his physique.

Those were fighting words. He attacked distance running. With a vengeance.

He ran 14 marathons in 16 months, including nine in 2000 alone. In 2008, he ran 12 marathons, and so far in 2010, he has run seven. His fastest finishing time was four hours, two minutes. His slowest was 6:15.

Nothing could keep him from running marathons. Johnson was sick when he showed up in Denver to attempt his Colorado race.

"I had a sinus infection and bronchitis," he said.

Like many do-or-die marathon runners, Johnson ignored his illness. He only made it to mile four.

On his second attempt to complete Colorado, he was six days into recovering from the heat exhaustion he suffered during a sweltering spring day in Nashville, where he had gone to run his Tennessee marathon.

"I don't remember the last two miles of the Nashville marathon, or even crossing the finish line," he said.

So when Johnson showed up in Fort Collins, Colo., elevation 6,200 feet, he made it to mile 16 before his hamstrings locked up.

Back in Fort Collins, on his third Colorado attempt, anxiety made Johnson so nauseous he had to stop five times along the way. But he finished.

Then there was the knee injury he suffered in between marathons 27 and 28. He wasn't even running when he stepped over a barbed wire fence, catching his pants leg.

"I fell and landed with all my weight on my right knee," Johnson said. "It sounded like a firecracker when I hit the ground."

A split ACL ligament cost him nearly a year as he recovered.

"If I had not been more than halfway through the states, I would have thrown in the towel at that point," he said.

Johnson's first marathon after his injury was in Atlanta, and he ran it with a brace on his leg.

But the journey hasn't been all bad. Most of it has been pretty terrific.

Johnson's quest took him to the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center, just one year before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. He has seen Mount Rushmore and Old Faithful. He recalls sipping apple cider on a beautiful fall morning after he ran his Connecticut marathon.

He loved running the Deadwood Marathon through the Black Hills of South Dakota, where the race took runners over the Old West Railroad bed.

With 71 marathons under his belt, Johnson's going to add another 29 for a cool 100. He also wants to run a marathon on all seven continents.

He might as well. He's already conquered North America.