Running marathons by the numbers
By Paul Baltutis
Runners are known to be number crunchers. We motivate ourselves by tracking our training miles, recording races, taking down our split times and calculating pace per mile. The only problem is that sometimes those numbers can come back to crunch us. One local runner had the weight of a heart-wrenching setback seemingly dash his hopes of achieving his goal.
It all started when local San Antonio runner, Dan Shuff, now 71, formulated a plan in the late ’90s to complete 50 marathons in all 50 states and Washington D.C. At that time, Shuff was already a seasoned marathoner, running his first in 1992 in San Antonio. Shuff’s plan was to ramp up his normal pattern of completing three to four marathons a year to knocking them out at a rate of about 18 per year. At this accelerated pace, he made the 50 States and D.C. Club in 2002. You can find more information about this club on the Web site www.50statesmarathonclub.com
It was at this juncture that Shuff, then 67 years old, realized he completed most of his 50-state marathons in less than four hours. His new goal was to keep running marathons every three weeks at various places he’d like to visit, and adding to his list all the provinces of Canada. He also decided to go back to the states where he had run over four hours so that he might run those at under that time. An ambitious schedule with a catch.
The marathons he ran over four hours in were all on tough courses and in states that had only a few marathons from which to choose. Wyoming, for example, had hills, trails and higher elevation. West Virginia was extremely hilly, and Delaware had trails and a slippery, sandy course. Fortunately for Shuff, these three states added more marathon events to their race calendar. Now each state had a gentler road course that one could run in a reasonable time.
Shuff completed marathons in Wyoming and West Virginia in less than four hours with one to go in Delaware. In May 2005, Shuff entered the Wilmington, Delaware, Marathon, but was slightly under the weather and finished in an agonizingly close 4:00:07. It would appear the marathon gods just didn’t want him to accomplish this numerical feat. To make it even more challenging, at age 70, he wasn’t exactly getting any faster.
Mere mortals may have been deterred. Shuff just saw it as a road bump. He entered the Delaware Marathon in 2006 and left no doubt by running a 3:54. Now Shuff is one of the few “50 States and D.C. Club members” who have run all the marathons in less than four hours. In addition Shuff won his age group, 70-74, which is common for him. Probably the most remarkable component to Shuff’s exploits is that he runs his races as fast as he can. His marathons are all about quality, somewhere around 9:00 minutes a mile for 26 miles.
What’s next for Shuff? So far it is 164 marathons and counting. He has five more states to complete to make the Double 50 States Club. How about attempting the seven continent club? Shuff has made it to five continents and is scheduled to run the Antarctica Marathon this February. If all goes well, he will hit South America on his way back to Texas and complete the seven continents goal as well. It all goes to prove that, as long as you keep plugging along, the numbers and results will compute. You can count on it.
Paul Baltutis is the manager of Soler’s Sports on 5933 Broadway in Alamo Heights. He is a certified marathon coach with Team in Training. He can be reached at (210) 930-3148 or by E-mail at sage_run03@yahoo.com.
