These Crazy-Determined Runners Have Each Finished Fifty Marathons in Fifty States

They range in age from 16 to 81, but share a quirky, obsessive desire to run 26.2 miles in every corner of America.

All photos courtesy Lisa Jost

When the annual New York City Marathon rolls through the five boroughs this weekend, Lisa Jost, a keen runner with dozens of marathons under her belt, will once again be nowhere near the event’s start line. Instead, Jost – who has never participated in the world’s largest footrace – will be pounding the tarmac more than seven hundred miles away, at the lesser-known Monumental Marathon, in Indianapolis, Indiana. By finishing the much smaller race, she will achieve the goal set by one of the running world’s most unique groups. The 50 States Marathon Club, as its name suggests, caters to determined runners who have completed, or are looking to complete, a marathon in every state.

“This country is so varied — the different terrain, the different types of beauty,” Jost, a stay-at-home mom from West Chicago, Illinois, said. “I get to see it all in such a unique way.”

For Jost, 47, finishing “The States,” as the challenge is known, has meant cartwheeling over the f…