Atlantic City, NJ October 18, 2026
6:17:45 – 1202/1239 Overall – 10/10 in 70-79
On Sunday Oct 18, 2026 (Katie and
Zach's one year anniversary), I ran the Atlantic City Marathon in 6:17:45. It
was my 194th marathon and 49th state in quest to do all the states a second
time. The first time was in 2009 where I finished at the Philadelphia, PA
Marathon. Jodi and I flew into Philly on Friday and then drove the one hour to
AC on Saturday. We stayed at Bally's which was the host hotel; that was perfect
so I could just walk out the door and be at the start/finish line. That helped
a lot since the weather was cold (40s, sunny and windy) and it was nice not to
have stand around outside for very long.
Having
been diagnosed with spinal stenosis earlier this year, I've had to change my
approach to training for and running marathons. The stenosis is really
aggravated by the pounding of running but not by walking. Therefore, I have
been doing a lot of walking this year. Typically, I'll do 3 or 4 minutes
walking and then 1 minute running. So, for Atlantic City Marathon, I did 4/1
for the first half and then 3/1 for the second half. The official cutoff was
6:30 so I figured if I could keep my miles around or under 15 minutes, I could
make that time. I would have been faster in second half if last 6 miles weren't
into the wind and slightly uphill most of the time.
I
kept to that plan very closely with walking pace being 15-16 minutes and
running being under 11 and often close to 10. Running one minute allowed me to
run pretty fast. Jodi joined me about mile 9 and ran to 16 where I did loop
alone. She joined me again for the last 5 miles and was such a great sherpa.
She got 12 miles in herself which were a lot more than she expected, but she
did great and never faltered. The hardest part of being on the course for 6
hours is boredom and Jodi kept me entertained with stories. She was great
little rabbit for the 1 minute pickups as I gave a few seconds headstart and
then tried to catch her. She got my cups of water at aid stations and
encouraged other runners as we passed about 60 of them in the second half of
the race.
Doing
so much walking made it easy to still run fast for the short bursts the whole
race, but my back started to hurt a lot in the second half. It was manageable
so I kept going. ("The faster you run, the sooner you're done.")
Monday
morning, as I write this, my back hurts a lot, so we'll see how much damage I
did...I've been doing PT and daily stretching all year to strengthen the area
around the lower back and icing daily to try to be as strong as I can be. The
goal is to rest and then get ready for Rochester, MN marathon in May 2027 for
the 50th state. I have relatives there including a cousin who is a doctor at
the Mayo Clinic. Hope I don't end up there. LOL
That
evening Jodi and I went to Ruth Chris' to celebrate Jodi's birthday (Oct 13)
and my marathon. It was a great and rare treat for us and the steak was perfect
for protein, iron and great taste!
The day after the marathon, Jodi and I drove to Philadelphia which was the place where I had completed running a marathon in all 50 states the first time and a place that Jodi had never visited. We started our touring by going to see the Liberty Bell so I could recreate the picture with it that I took in 2009. We then took a hop-on-hop-off bus to tour the city and learn some of its history. We saw the Besty Ross home, Ben Franklin monuments and burial place, Chinatown, Eastern State Penitentiary, and the famous Love Monument. Our driver recommended Cleavers for authentic Philly Cheesesteak so we ate there and then Jodi said, “We should get some ice cream” and half a block later we found an ice cream store. Our tour took us past the Philadelphia Art Museum where the Rocky statue is located and by the Rodin Museum where we saw his famous “Thinker” statue. We saw a lot of fall colors and saw two railroad stations whose names became famous on the Monopoly board: Reading (it’s actually pronounced “Reding”) and Pennsylvania. We saw a lot of impressive buildings including city hall which took 30 years to finish and a skyscraper in the shape of a “flip-phone” showing its age.
This was Marathon #194; 49 states+DC on 2nd go-round; All 10 Canadian provinces.
Next marathon: Rochester, MN May 26, 2027
Pictures with captions can be seen on my 2 Facebook posts.
Or go to Shutterfly: https://linkit.shutterfly.com/NUfZyB
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