Jenny Kincaid Boone

Jenny Kincaid Boone has been running since she was in eighth grade. She competed in cross country and track at Fort Defiance High School (Fort Defiance, Va.) and at Roanoke College, where she was all-ODAC in cross country for four years. When her knees and legs aren't aching from the wear of years of competition, she hits the 19 to low 20-minute range for a 5K.

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Their dream is to finish 26.2 miles in Hawaii.

That seems to be a logical place for Terry Graham and David Hurley to celebrate the end of a longtime feat—Running marathons in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Newspaper articles detailed these marathoners' progress several years ago, and now, the men have gotten a few more marathon miles under their belts.

Graham has finished marathons in 37 states, and Hurley's completed races in 38 states. If they average four marathons a year, they should finish by 2008.

And recently, another Roanoke Valley runner, Tom Johnson has joined the 50-state's feat.

So far, Johnson has run marathons in 14 different states, but he's finished 30 total. He decided to join the 50 & DC Marathon Group USA, a national club, last year when he ran a marathon in Knoxville, Tenn. The club and one other like it, the 50-States Marathon Club, are informal groups that recognize runners across the country who are shooting for the 50-states marathon goal.

Johnson said he likes the 26.2-mile distance, because “you feel like you've done something.”

Graham and Hurley's journey started in the late 1990s.

They met after passing each other running on Wiley Drive in Roanoke. And later, when Hurley suggested that they run a race in every state, Graham was up for the idea. After several races, Hurley suggested they try a marathon in every state.

 “I think now my primary motivation is I am this close,” said Graham, 57, who works for Timber Truss Housing Systems in Salem. “It's a goal that I really want to finish.”

Graham and Hurley are lucky that they both aren't injury-prone. Hurley's only battled some heel soreness through the years, and Graham runs with a pace maker because of an irregular heartbeat.  But he's pushed through 42 of his total 43 marathons with the pacemaker, and though his heart problems have slowed his average pace some, he's still going.

The men run about four marathons a year and average about four hours or faster for most of them.

They keep a pretty even training schedule. They typically run longer on the weekends and add on more mileage each time they near their next marathon.

Hurley, 64, who's a retired teacher but still does some work for the school system, is a morning runner, while Graham runs in the evenings. The men often train together on the weekends.

They're already preparing for their first marathon of 2006 in Abilene, Kan., in April. They'll run another in Washington state in June and then choose two more for the fall.

One likely will be in a New England state, Hurley said.

Traveling to marathons in many states is a good way to see the country, Johnson said.

Johnson, who's been running for the last 15 to 16 years, said his favorite marathon has been in Niagara Falls, which started in Buffalo, N.Y.

“You finish by the falls,” he said. “You can see the mist coming up off the falls six or eight miles out.”

Graham and Hurley have finished some marathons in football stadiums. They even crossed the finish line of the Detroit marathon in the Silverdome, where this year's Super Bowl took place. That was before a regular season game had been played there, Graham said.

The two men recently shared dinner with some fellow running pals and laughed about some of their marathon adventures.

Last August, they ran one of their most difficult marathons in Green River, Wyoming. The race started at 6,800 feet and climbed up to 7,000 feet in elevation for 20 miles.

“Our lungs were burning,” Hurley said.

But race challenges have not steered these three men from their courses.

Johnson, 65, acknowledged that he's got awhile to reach his 50-states goal, and he'll keep working toward it as long as he can. He ran his first marathon at 56, and when he retires from his job working for the federal government, he said he'll have the time to run more marathons in a year.

Meanwhile, Hurley and Graham hope that their celebratory adventure will end in Hawaii, where they'd like to run the last marathon. They plan to make a vacation out of the trip and invite other running buddies along.

“We might not come back from Hawaii,” Graham said jokingly.

And what about after Hawaii? Graham said he'd like to run the original marathon course in Athens, Greece.

For more information about the two national 50-states marathon clubs, visit:
50 States Marathon Club: http://www.50statesmarathonclub.com/50dc/

50 States and D.C. Marathon Group USA: http://www.50anddcmarathongroupusa.com/index.cfm

Upcoming races:
March 18: Shamrock Hill 5K, Roanoke Catholic Schools

April 2: First National Bank 5K, Boones Mill