by Donna Lampkin Stephens

Vickie McDonald of Conway is well on her way to membership in an elite group.
McDonald, 57, associate professor of biology at the University of Central Arkansas, has completed marathons in 29 states en route to her goal of conquering one in every state and the District of Columbia.

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“I’ve been running — I call it jogging — anywhere from a quarter-mile, half-mile, since graduate school,” said McDonald, who earned her undergraduate degree at Wake Forest, master’s at Virginia Tech and Ph.D. at Florida. “There have been times when I’ve stopped, but I’ve gotten back into it.”

For about the last four years, she’s been back in it in a big way.

She ran her first marathon, the Little Rock Marathon, in March 2005.

“I got up to running five or six miles, and I got to thinking, ‘You know, maybe I’ll run a half-marathon; I kind of like this,’” McDonald said. “I didn’t run more than five miles until I was 53.”

After Little Rock, she ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C., the following October. After Little Rock again in ’06, she ran in New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

By then she’d completed 10, the documentation of which qualified her for membership in the 50 States Marathon Club, the 50 States and D.C. Marathon Group and the “wacky” Marathon Maniacs — at the Iridium Level (four marathons in four consecutive weeks, 19-25 within one calendar year, two in two days or nine in nine different states, countries or Canadian provinces in a calendar year — this gets tricky!)

By then, she was more than hooked.

In ’07 she added Texas, Utah, South Dakota, Connecticut, West Virginia and California; in ’08 she completed Nebraska, Maine, Rhode Island, North Carolina, Nevada and Indiana. In ’09, she’s been to Arizona, New Jersey, Kentucky, Washington and Delaware.

She generally doesn’t run during the summers, when she’s climbing up and down trails doing research in Virginia. Her research specialty is the conservation, ecology and reproductive strategies of neotropical migrant birds, with a focus on Kentucky Warblers. She had planned to run in Alaska in June, but a family emergency forced her to postpone that one until next year. She’s “lucked out” to get in the New York City field, surviving a lottery, and will run that Sunday, Nov. 1.

Why does she do this?

Besides the rush of the accomplishment and the camaraderie — the 50 States Club boasts 1,852 members; the 50 States & D.C. Group has 1,075 — “it’s a great excuse to travel.”
“If I were to say I want to go to Tacoma, Wash., or to Big Sur in California, I could not at all justify it, but going out there to run a marathon,

I just spend money left and right,” she said, chuckling. “I do try to be very frugal. I try to match up marathons with good airfares.”

She’s got her share of tales from the road. Weather conditions have run the gamut.

“At Lake McMurtry in Oklahoma, it was 100 degrees with horrible humidity,” she said. “One-third of the field dropped out. If you look at the finishers, I’m the very last one. But I am ahead of all the DNFs (did not finish).

“In Indiana right before Christmas, up and down steep trails, it was snowing. There were literally some points on the course covered with ice. You had to grab branches and haul yourself. I was not the last finisher in that one.”

Her times have ranged from 5 hours, 36 minutes, 32 seconds at the Big D Texas Marathon in Dallas to 8:49.30 at Lake McMurtry.

“That’s the beautiful thing for all of these clubs — you don’t have to have certain times,” she said. “Anyone who achieves the finishing of 10 marathons is eligible. Some have cut-off times for finishing. I have never run one without a cut-off time. I’ve never not finished.

“You don’t have to run the whole way, but if there’s a cut-off time, one needs to press on. If you’re allegedly a runner, like I am, you can slow down and walk whenever. I’ve found it quite comfortable to just sort of lumber along at what would be a slower pace than some of the fastest walkers. I told my students that some walkers finish marathons before I do, and they kind of snicker.”

Several 501 residents are among the 14 members of the 50 States Club, including Garland Binns of Little Rock — the only one to complete all 50 so far. He completed the feat on June 4, 2005, 11 years after beginning his quest.

Of McDonald’s 29 states in a little more than four years, Binns said: “That’s an incredible pace, in my humble opinion. I wish her much success. She’s just doing great.”

McDonald was born in Virginia but grew up in the Carolinas. She came to UCA in 1990.

To her, what’s the best part of living in the 501?

“The mixture of not being in a city but the convenience of being close to Little Rock, and about 80 percent of the weather,” she said.

She’s already looking beyond the 50 states and D.C. goal. She has her eye on a marathon in Antarctica.

“There’s also a Seven Continents Club,” she said.

We can see what’s coming.

 

A marathon in all 50 states

Besides being the only Arkansan to complete a marathon in all 50 states, Garland Binns of Little Rock was the 46th person in the world to be certified by the 50 States Marathon Club.

It took him 11 years, and he’s still running.

“It’s just part of my life,” said Binns, 63, who didn’t start running until his 40s. “I train every day.”

He said he thought that age was a typical starting point.

“Under 30, that’s probably the last thing you’d want to be doing,” he said. “If you’re in it to run (a marathon in) all 50 states, you’ve got to be real focused, so it’s not a casual deal. You don’t wake up one morning and go out and run 26 miles.”

Running marathons is good for both physical and mental health. Binns said he started running as an outlet from long work hours.
“The thing that takes you out is injuries,” he said. “You’ll always have injuries if you run. I think the running will create a better lifestyle and good health.

“The mental part has to do with the ability to keep going unrelated to your health. To run a marathon, you have to have physical ability, but physical ability alone won’t allow you to run a marathon.”

As an example, he remembered running in Portland, Ore. At about the 6-mile mark, his ankle went out, and “it was excruciating to even take a step.

“I remember that I just said, ‘God, I’m out here in the middle of nowhere, and I’m not going to make it on my own. If I’m going to make it, I’m going to need some help.’”

So he used an ankle brace that he carried with him to finish the race.

“I went to the hospital the next day, and my ankle had bled so bad, it scared them,” he said. “That’s not a physical thing. That’s a mental thing.”

Now that he’s completed the 50 States, he’s more selective in his scheduling — but he’s still running.