There once was a young man named Dave who ran for fun at a park in Taylor Mill, KY. 

"Hi, I'm Dave."

"Hi, I'm Joe."

One day he met a friend at the park named Joe who also liked to run. They soon started to run together. 

They ran more and more miles together. Sometimes as many as 10 miles at once! Dave had heard his cousin Correne was running a marathon. 

That is more than 384 football fields! Dave reflected. She's crazy!

Dave said there was no way he could run 26.2 miles all at once. Joe and Dave talked more and more about running a marathon during their long runs together. 

 Joe pondered, Could I help

 Dave train? I know he 

            could do it!

Dave wondered if he could run a marathon. He thought long and hard about it. He decided he would try.

If I train hard, I think I can do it, thought Dave.

So Dave and Joe trained, and trained, and trained.  They ran many miles up and down hills at the park every week in the sun, rain, and even snow.

Finally, Dave felt ready to run his first marathon in Chicago, Illinois on October 24, 1999.

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Dave did great and finished the race. Dave ran this first marathon in 4 hours and 50 minutes. He was exhausted but enjoyed the experience.

After the marathon, Dave was relieved to be running just 3 to 10 miles again at the park with Joe and his new friend Tom. Dave wasn't sure he would ever run another marathon.

But one year later he ran the Chicago Marathon again with Joe this time. One day Tom said to Dave, “What do you think of running a marathon in every state?”

50 State Marathons....are you crazy? thought Dave

Dave thought long and hard about that goal. He had already completed a marathon in 3 states in Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana but to run 47 more states would be insane! Fifty marathons would be equal to climbing Mt. Everest over 238 times!

Dave knew it would not be easy but he decided he could do it with the help of his friends and family. He trained every week running 30 to 80 miles per week depending on his training schedule.

Fun Fact: As of January 2024, almost 7,000 different people have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Only about 2,000 have run a marathon in every state.

"Would climbing Mt. Everest be easier?" debated Dave. 

Dave soon met more and more friends who also loved to run. They formed a running club and called themselves, “Northern Kentucky’s Most Interesting Men.”  

"We are so interesting, aren't we?" said Dave.

"Why yes, yes we are," Timmy agreed.

"What makes us so interesting?" asked Bob.

"Let's see...

We have run over 450 marathons between all of us and completed fourteen 200 mile relays with three of them in under 24 hours... just to name a few reasons why we are so interesting!" explained  Mike.

Dave’s running club started giving each other nicknames. Dave became “D-Mac." Some others were (pictured left to right after D-Mac) Mountain Goat, Captain, Smalls, Big Al, Joe the Show, Doc, Timmy, Rev, Bawb, J-Mil and Chip...just to name a few. 

"Mountain Goat means I am the fastest, right?" contemplated Kenji. 

"Doc means I am the smartest," Rob surmised.

"Kenji it's because you love to run hills and Rob because you are a DOCTOR!" reasoned Timmy. "Maybe I am actually the smartest one of the group."

D-Mac and his running friends would meet every Saturday to train for different races. They had fun together and even started a tradition to wear costumes for a Halloween run each year. 

Dave started to knock off more states….Nevada, California, Tennessee, Virginia and then continued running across the USA averaging about 2 marathons a year.  

After 20 years, D-Mac was at 47 states and could picture his goal of running a marathon in all 50 states. Only 3 more to go!

I can finish this! believed Dave.

Then there was a setback ...

COVID. Dave was

going to finish 

his goal of 

running a 

marathon 

in all 

50 states 

in 2020, but all the

marathons got canceled.

He was disappointed 

   but knew someday he 

           would finish his   

                     goal.

             Maybe he would 

               finish in 2021?

Then in 2021 a second setback happened that

D-Mac wasn’t expecting. Dave got sick...

really, really sick. 

 D-Mac didn’t know if he would ever be able to run again and finish his goal.   

Dave got a pulmonary embolism. That is where he got a blood clot in his lungs.