Marathon man!
George Southgate has now run in over 500 marathons
We checked ... and running in 500 marathons is not a world record. But it is still incredibly impressive.
And as you read this, former Calhoun High School track and field coach and current long-distance runner George Southgate has now made that 501 marathons that he has participated in.
“It’s just something I have always enjoyed doing and it’s still something I love,” Southgate, who is 75 and retired, said. “My wife says to me all the time, ‘when you going to stop?’, and I tell her, ‘I don’t know’, and I don’t. But as long as I can continue to run and I enjoy, I plan to keep on doing it.”
Southgate runs an average of more than 210 races a year and usually about 130 of those are of the 26.2-mile variety, which is how long a marathon course is. And he has participated in those marathon marathons, where they run five in five days or even six in six days.
“They are challenging,” he said. “But they’re a lot of fun and there’s a great sense of accomplishment when you’re able to run that many in that amount of time.”
Last month, he took part in the New England challenge, where there is one marathon event each day for six days in a different state.
In other words, for basically a full week, Southgate was either running in a marathon or driving somewhere to run in another long-distance event.
On May 15, he ran in the Maple Leaf Marathon in Manchester, Vermont; Tuesday, May 16, he ran in Pine Tree Marathon in Portland, Maine; Wednesday, May 17, he was at the Granite State event in Nushua, New Hampshire; May 18, he was at the Red Island Marathon in Warwick, Rhode Island; May 19, he ran in the Old Colony Marathon in Westfield, Massachusetts and he completed the full week on Saturday, May 20 by running in the Nutmeg State Marathon in Hartford, Connecticut.
“It was a challenge, but I enjoyed being part of it,” he said. “With all six of the marathons being spread out like they were, there was a lot of hustling to make sure we got to the next race on time, but all the courses were nice with beautiful
backdrops and so I enjoyed being part of the New England Challenge.”
While many people have a goal of seeing all 50 states in the country, Southgate is a proud card-carrying member of the 50-state club, which brings together a group of people from around
the country who have the same goal — running a marathon in all 50 states.
“That’s what I want to do, run in all 50 states,” Southgate said. “And we’re at 48 right now, with Washington state and Alaska, the only ones we haven’t ran in. That’s one of the fun things about these marathons, like the one we’re running in (right now) here in Utah and these runs like the NewEngland Challenge, is getting to run in the different states.”
And running in three different states is what he is currently doing in the Bear Lake Trifecta, which is based out of Utah, but is held in Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho, depending on which side of the lake everyone was on.
On Thursday, everyone ran on the west side of Bear Lake, which
is known as Idaho. On Friday, everybody ran on the east side of Bear Lake, which is called Wyoming. And Saturday, he and everyone will be on the south side of Bear Lake, running in Utah.
He reached the 500 mark over the Memorial Day holiday in his next marathon after the New England Challenge, when he signed up for the Heroes of America marathon at Fort Benning in Columbus. In the past, runners started at the museum and then the course went around the base but this year with all the ceremonies taking place, they started at the museum and then finished at the museum.
It was there he met former Olympians Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers and both of them are former world record holders in the marathon. He also met Frank Galloway, who has written books on how to train and his latest method is the way that Southgate says he operates.
He runs for three minutes and
then walks for 30 seconds and follows that routine the entire marathon.
“It was great to meet all those guys,” Southgate said. “They have all left their mark on distance running and are accomplished in marathons. So it was great to meet those guys. We all stood there talking for an hour and it was something I really enjoyed.”
He said while everyone is the 50-states club is from somewhere else, their common goal and love of running is the common thread that brings them all together.
“It’s always great to see the different people at all these marathons,” Southgate said. “The people that I’ve met and gotten too run with has been incredible. There’s a lot of wonderful people in this 50-states club and I am always excited when we together for these runs.”
He said he doesn’t have any expectations for these marathons other than the experience and the joy he feels from being in them.
“If you’re 75 years old like I am and you’re thinking, ‘I can still set a PR (personal record), that’s probably not a good thing,” Southgate said. “And it’s probably not going to happen, but for me I just still really enjoy doing it. I love getting out on the course and running it. All I want to do is run well, run a respectable time and finish strong and so far I feel like have been able to do that. Which is why I still get excited about going out there and being in these marathons.
And he’s been in the heat in the middle of the summer, icy conditions in the middle of winter, the heavy rains in spring and to paraphrase the post office’s slogan, nothing’s going to keep him from his appointed rounds.
“I’ve ran in all kinds of conditions and in all kinds of places,” he said. “I remember in Deerborn, Michigan, running when I’m getting hit in the face with big snowflakes. I’ve run on some wet course with big puddles everywhere. I’ve
ran when it’s really hot out, but when you enjoy doing something like I enjoy this, you just kind of put your head down and go with the conditions and rely on your training.”
He said while training and running itself has increased in popularity since he began doing it in the 1960s, it seems to be loosing some of its appeal.
“It has grown since I first started running, but there doesn’t seem to be as many young people running as there was just a few years ago,” Southgate said. “I know some of these marathons, there’s only older runners there. There’s almost no one between 20 and 30 or even 40 running so I’m not sure why that is. But it seems like most of your runners now are older like myself.”
There’s no doubt that now 501 marathons is not a record. But there’s also no doubt about just how incredible being a part of that many is.