By the time you read this, 60-year-old retired Dallas lawyer Scott Kline will have (hopefully) just run a marathon in all 50 states. He ran No. 46 in May, in Rhode Island. Leaving the finish line at the state Capitol, he was engaged by a man who pulled up in his car and asked, “What is going on over there?” Kline said, “We just finished a marathon.” The driver responded, “Is it the Boston Marathon?” Kline thought for a few seconds before answering, “No, that’s in Boston, and we’re in Rhode Island now, so this is the Providence Marathon.” Here are the stories from his insane quest.
You began with the Boston Marathon in 1987, when you were 25 years old. Were you thinking then that you might do all 50 states? I was a second-year law student at Harvard. It was just because we were in Boston, and it was a big deal, and so we thought, Well, we’re here, let’s run it and it’ll be fun. But, no, I did it and finished it and never wanted to do another one. I’ve had to go back and check my time because I’m in the 50 States Marathon Club now, with all the crazy people, right? It was 4:26.
What is the slowest time you’ve run during this entire project? It was in January, the Maui, Hawaii, marathon. Around the middle of the race, my foot started really hurting. I hobbled along, and I couldn’t really run. It took me about six hours. The medics checked it out, and they said, “Yeah, there’s something wrong with your foot, but you did just finish a marathon.” When I got back to Dallas, they X-rayed it. It was a complete bone break. One of my metatarsals had displaced a couple of millimeters.
Has there been a strategy in terms of the order of states that you’ve run in? There was no strategy at the beginning. It really wasn’t until about state No. 25 that I really thought I might do this. Because of the way this worked out, to finish, I have three races in three weeks, which I’ve never done before. But that was because the three states I have left just don’t have very many races. It’s New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. I’ve really been working hard on my stamina and trying to make sure I don’t blow anything out the first race.
Scott! You and I are talking in September. We publish this Q&A a week after you finish your 50th marathon. You can’t screw this up. [Editor’s Note: He did not screw it up. He completed the Eversource Hartford Marathon on Oct. 13 in 5 hours and 30 seconds.] I promise. If I have to be on crutches to finish, I will finish. There is no one who wants this project to be over more than me.
“If I have to be on crutches to finish, I will finish. There is no one who wants this project to be over more than me.”
This next question might seem oddly specific, but have your shorts ever fallen to your ankles in the first mile of a race? [laughs] How do you know that? Yes, that happened in Colorado. I usually carry a lot of stuff in my shorts. My phone, my gel, my aspirin. The elastic band just gave out. With all the weight, literally they just came right down. I kind of MacGyvered a solution. I was wearing those arm sleeve things. I tied two of those together and that wasn’t quite long enough. Then I had a headband on, and so I tied that together, and I made a belt. It actually kept my pants up.
What happens after No. 50? Do you have any other insane, obsessive-compulsive quests planned? This is strange for me because not only am I not a very fast runner, but I don’t even like it that much. The reason I’ve stayed with it—this is going to sound kind of hokey—but as I’ve traveled around the country to all these places that my wife and I never went, especially with the smaller races, we’ve just met really wonderful people. There was a guy in West Virginia. I met him one time. I ran a race with him. And he’s flying out to Connecticut to run the last race with me. I’m kind of a cynical guy, but this really made me feel like the country is not as divided as Fox News and MSNBC would have us believe. People have been absolutely wonderful. Back to your question. I have continued with this less out of love for running and more out of compulsion and just being jazzed up about going to all these places where people are absolutely wonderful. But I’m tired of the running. The short answer is, I probably will not do a lot of running after this.
This story originally appeared in the November issue of D Magazine with the headline, “The Running Man.” Write to [email protected].
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