Bucket List · Bucket list route
A Marathon in All 50 States
One marathon in every state. It's the most American running goal there is, it takes most people a decade or two, and by the end you will have seen more of this country than almost anyone you know.
- Races
- 50 minimum
- Typical timeline
- 10 to 20 years
- Fast finishers
- Under 2 years
- Hard states
- AK, HI, ND, SD, WY, VT
- Cost
- $15,000 to $40,000+
- Clubs
- 50 States Marathon Club, Marathon Maniacs
The 50 states project is deceptively simple and genuinely transformative. It sends you to Fargo and Missoula and Casper and Little Rock, to races with 300 people and a homemade finish arch, and it turns marathon running from a performance goal into a travel habit. Nobody who finishes it talks about their times.
It also has a real community. The 50 States Marathon Club and Marathon Maniacs both maintain rosters, rules, and a culture of people who will recognise your shirt at a small race in Iowa and immediately know your whole story.
How to get in
- Open entryJust start, then join a club
There's no permission required. Run marathons, log them, and join a club to have your list verified and recognised. Clubs have their own rules about what counts, particularly around distance and course certification, so read them before you accumulate a list you can't register.
- Self-supportedDesign the project deliberately
The people who finish are the ones who treat it as a project rather than a coincidence: a spreadsheet, a target of four to six states a year, and a plan for the hard ones.
Plan the hard states first
Most states have a dozen marathons. A handful have one or two, and they're the reason people stall at 46.
- Alaska and Hawaii: expensive flights, limited dates. Book these early and pair them with a real holiday.
- North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont, Delaware: few options, so the date is fixed and you plan the year around it.
- Group states geographically. New England and the mid-Atlantic can be collected in weekends; the mountain west cannot.
- Doubles and series. Multi-day events like Mainly Marathons run consecutive-day marathons across neighbouring states, which is how a lot of people close out the plains. Purists have opinions about this. Ignore them or don't.
Budgeting a decade
Fifty marathons at $100 to $200 entry is only $5,000 to $10,000. Travel is where it lands: flights, hotels, and rental cars for the states you can't drive to typically take the total to somewhere between $15,000 and $40,000 over the life of the project. Spreading it over fifteen years makes it roughly the cost of a modest annual holiday, which is exactly what most people turn it into.
Questions runners actually ask
What counts as a marathon for the 50 states?
Club rules vary. Most require a full 26.2 mile marathon, and some have specific requirements around course measurement and organised events. Read your chosen club's rules before you build a list, since ultras and untimed events may not count.
How long does it take?
Ten to twenty years is typical at a comfortable pace. A small number of people do it in under two years, which requires a very particular lifestyle.
Which states are hardest?
Alaska and Hawaii for cost and travel, and the low-population states with only one or two marathons a year, which force you to plan around a fixed date.
Go to the source
Entry rules, dates, standards, fees, and odds change every single year, and the interesting races change them the most. Use this guide to build the plan; use the official site to confirm the details before you book anything.
If this is your kind of thing
Need the races in between? The hard part of a bucket list year is everything else on the calendar: the qualifier, the tune-up, the long run with a bib on.