When Lauren Valentino first decided to run a marathon, she considered it an item on her to-do list. She had seen a friend run the New York Marathon in 2008 and wanted to prove to herself that she could do it too.
But as soon as she put on her running shoes, she was hooked. She loved the sense of accomplishment after completing her first marathon in 2010. She began criss-crossing the United States to pursue her passion.
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Twelve years later, the Houston resident has become one of approximately 1,700 runners to have completed a marathon in all 50 states, according to the 50 State Marathon Club, which is based in Texas. It’s a rarer feat than climbing Mount Everest, which has been achieved by around 4,000 people.
Valentino, who is 44 and works for a commercial property and casualty insurance company, was motivated in part by the rebuttal of skeptics. Even her father was skeptical about finishing a marathon in every state.
” There is so much [times] people in my life have gently, or maybe harshly, tried to say, “Hey, you could never do that. And for me, it made me want to do it even more,” Valentino said. “I’ve always been driven by negativity, so to speak.”
Today, after completing 62 marathons, Valentino is pursuing another dream: she aims to become one of 430 runners to complete a marathon in all 50 states in less than 4 hours. She was beaten this time in 47 states; only Florida, Tennessee and Washington remain. She hopes to complete these last three states in the next two years.
This time, her father, Richard Curtis, is convinced that she will achieve her goal. Curtis, who lives in New York, continues to be impressed every time his daughter calls after completing another 26.2-mile run.
“I don’t think I could stand for that long, let alone run,” he said.
Valentino never really ran while growing up in New York and Connecticut, though she played field hockey in college and became “a total gym rat” in college.
Something changed when she watched marathon runners in New York. She realized she wanted to run alongside them.
“I was like, ‘Hey…maybe that’s something I could do,'” she said. “If all these people – these thousands of people – could do it, maybe I could do it.”
Valentino, who was living in New York at the time, set his sights on the Hamptons Marathon on Long Island. She used an online training plan to help her average 45 miles per week. She was 32 when she completed her first marathon in 4 hours, 15 minutes and 36 seconds, an average of 9:45 per mile.
“I was completely exhausted after that run, but it was a pleasant fatigue,” she said. “It was so rewarding.”
She had only planned to run one marathon, but quickly felt the urge to keep going. She joined a running club in the Bronx to help her improve enough to qualify for the Boston Marathon. At that time, she was running five or six days a week.
Over the next two years, she ran five more marathons in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. His time of 3:35:04 at the New Jersey Marathon in 2012 was enough to qualify for Boston.
It was at this time that she met her future husband, Ian Brown, also a marathon runner. Valentino and Brown are now divorced but remain close friends.
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Brown, who ran several marathons with Valentino, remembers how determined she was to keep improving.
“She would go out every morning or every evening,” he said. “She would just be very consistent. Whether it was 100 degrees outside or 40 degrees, she would go for miles.”
Valentino’s first Boston Marathon in 2013 was marred by the bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds near the finish line.
She had finished the race 45 minutes early, but she and Brown were still a few blocks away when they heard the explosions.
“I felt like I had no right to celebrate what I had been looking forward to, at this point, for over two years,” she said.
Valentino continued running when she and Brown moved to Houston in 2014. She struggled with the heat, but adapted by running in the morning or evening. Memorial Park has become her favorite running spot, although she also enjoys the Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou trails.
Although she’s been lucky enough to avoid serious injuries over the years, Valentino’s running shoes hold up to wear and tear. She spins four pairs at a time and each one lasts around 500 miles, or a few months.
She prefers to run alone because it allows her to set her own schedule. She never listens to music, which puzzles her friends who ask her if she is bored.
“I say, ‘How can I be bored? I’m doing something. I’m running. How can I be bored?’ she said. “That doesn’t even cross my mind.
Valentino only started thinking about running a marathon in every state in 2015. Prior to that year, she had already run 13 marathons in six states. She had met other runners with the same goal and thought it sounded like a great way to travel the country.
Many runners don’t think about completing a 50-state marathon until they’re already halfway there, said Lois Berkowitz, a Michigan resident who is the current president of the 50 States Marathon. Club. Many are like Valentino and enjoy the feeling of accomplishment after a race.
Other runners enjoy the camaraderie of being part of an exclusive club. Berkowitz is part of this group; the 73-year-old has completed 460 marathons since 1990, including at least five in every state.
“You can bond with them in a way that you can’t bond with other people because they’re not crazy enough to do that,” she said.
Valentino didn’t really have a plan to achieve his goal. Sometimes she found a marathon that coincided with a work trip or a family visit. Most marathons are on weekends, so she would find a cheap flight and stay in a cheap hotel or on Airbnb.
Things didn’t always work out. In 2018, she stayed in an Airbnb that turned out to be a converted tool shed near a Tennessee airport. She couldn’t sleep and she finished the St. Jude Memphis Marathon in 4:03:29 — still good enough for 15th place out of 135 women in her 40-44 age bracket.
Most of the time, however, Valentino was thrilled to fly around the country and do what she loved. Her favorite marathon was the 2018 Jackson Hole Marathon in Wyoming, as she was overwhelmed by the landscape near Grand Teton National Park.
She completed her final state, South Dakota, on May 18. She had planned to run several days earlier at Brookings, but a tornado canceled the race. Fortunately, she managed to find the Prairie Series Marathon a few days later in the neighboring Baltic.
“I just got really, really lucky to find that one so I could get 50th and finish before Memorial Day. Because that was my goal,” she said.
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Valentino is now focused on finishing his last three states in less than four hours. Just like in Tennessee, a bad day also hampered her in Washington, and she finished a 2019 marathon in Seattle in 4:00:01 – just two seconds too late. In Florida, she pioneered a marathon in 2019, so she deliberately finished around 4:15:00 a.m. to help others maintain that speed.
She also hopes to beat her personal best of 3:18:30, set at the 2020 Veterans Marathon in Columbia City, Indiana. His goal is to complete a marathon in less than 3:10:00.
“Let’s face it, I’m getting older and my window is slowly closing for that,” she said. “I would like to set a personal record.”
Also on the bucket list are the World Marathon Majors, a series of six of the biggest and most renowned marathons in the world. She has already finished in Boston, Chicago and New York but will have to complete her first international marathons in Berlin, London and Tokyo.
Valentino is convinced that she can do anything. After 12 years, she doesn’t feel like she’s peaked.
“I think for me the best is yet to come and I’m definitely not going to slow down,” she said. “We’ll see what happens. I just want to keep going.
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