Local runner completes seven back-to-back marathons

At 26.2 miles, running a marathon can hardly be called an easy feat – as the story goes, the runner of the very first, Pheidippides, supposedly dropped dead from exhaustion after completing his marathon over 2,500 years ago.

Running seven of them in as many days, and in as many states, can be considered a real challenge. Local runner Dale McMurren recently completed such a feat last month, after participating in the Mainly Marathons Appalachian Series circuit.

"I had no idea if I could do it," he explained in an interview afterward. Taking up running only in the past decade or so, McMurren ran his first marathon just seven years ago, in 2008. McMurren said he had found the past time enjoyable because of the opportunities it presented to meet people, and because it is a constructive way to deal with stress.

Then 48 years old, as a goal he had decided he would like to run at least one marathon in every state. He started doing one or two a year, but after refiguring the math decided he would have to pick up the pace if he was to meet his goal.

The Appalachian set of runs appealed to him because it included some far-flung states in relatively close proximity to each other – Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. McMurren said he signed up to participate in six of the marathons at first, and would run the seventh if he felt up to it.

Accompanied by his friend Eric Yancey, the two traveled to Atlanta and made their way up to West Virginia for the first race on Oct. 11.

"It's a really unconventional run," McMurren noted. The course was set up on nearly a two-mile loop, with a single aid station serving as a checkpoint for the 12 laps participants would run. The terrain was even, and weather in the 70s and breezy.

"All in all I was really pleased with the weather," he said. Keeping the schedule ahead in mind, McMurren said speed or time wasn't much of an issue.

"I was just going to finish," he explained. "There's no way in heck I could actually race and do it again."

Where temporal issues became a factor was after the race. Yancey said they would rush back to the hotel to clean up and pack, then drive the several-hour distance to the next race location. They would then try to get settled, eat, and prepare to repeat the process the next day.

"It was like "Groundhog Day,'" recounted Yancey. In the 1993 film, Bill Murray plays a news anchor caught in a time loop, stuck having to relive the same day.

Each morning began with McMurren awaking at 4:30 to prepare and warm up. The two would drive to the starting point, and from 7 a.m. through the rest of the morning McMurren would run his marathon. He and Yancey would then hurry to get to the next meet site. By the end of the seventh day, it had become a tiring process.

"It's not just the running. The running's just a part of it," said McMurren. "The traveling got to me almost as much as the running did."

The two did have time enough to meet other participants, a varied group coming in all shapes, ages and abilities, running these marathons for every reason one could think of.

"It was really inspirational," said McMurren.

Yancey recalled one runner who had completed his 50th state during the series, and for the 11th time. McMurren is up to 18 states himself now and hopes to run in a few more next year. While he proved he can run seven marathons consecutively, he's sure he'll try taking future runs at a more reasonable pace.