MEMORIES - RUNNING FULL & HALF MARATHONS

Oct 10, 2017
2 min read

"I didn't train all that time just to come here and get it over with as fast as I can."

~John Bingham

Running a marathon, and eventually the Boston Marathon, were two of the main items on my Original Bucket List. Even though I'm not running a marathon during my Year 77, marathons are a favorite memory of mine. Over the years I ran seven marathons, but my last marathon on October 10, 2004 was my favorite because I ran it with my daughter Tracy Clair. The other marathons (26.2 miles as all runners know) were the El Toro Leatherneck that I ran with Dennie in June 1980 (photo in gallery), the Los Angeles Marathon ran in March 1987, the St. George Marathon I ran with Dennie in October 1990, a second St. George Marathon ran in October 1992 to qualify for Boston, the Boston Marathon ran in April 1993 (photo in gallery), the Top of Utah Marathon ran in September 2000, and the Long Beach Marathon ran in October 2004 with Tracy Clair (photo in gallery). All these marathons were enjoyable, but it's interesting to me that the most enjoyable was my lucky number seven that I ran with Tracy Clair.

My favorite annual half-marathon was the Glendora Half. I ran my fastest half-marathon time at Glendora (one hour-34 minutes) and it surprised me when I looked at my records that I ran seven of those races (1980, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, and 1991, with an average time for all seven of 1:37).

Our family sponsored a run in Big Bear for our running friends with a hosted lunch afterward at our Cabin. The course around Big Bear Lake is 15 miles, so very close to the 13.1 miles for a half-marathon. Surprise again, we hosted seven of those runs over the years; 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1996.

Photos below from left-1st row: Tracy and I at the Long Beach Marathon, Dennie and I at our first marathon - the El Toro Marathon, and Dennie and I at St. George;

2nd row: Me at the Los Angeles Marathon, Me at the Boston Marathon, and me at Top of Utah Marathon;

3rd row: Dennie and I at our first half-marathon - the Rose Bowl Half, Dennie and I at one of the Glendora Half-Marathons, and one of the tee-shirts given each year at the Big Bear Run we sponsored;

4th row: Photos from the Big Bear Runs we sponsored, including the "Water-Stop Girls" in the last photo.

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