October 17, 2025 • 41 mins
The Kansas City lawyer has turned a passion for running into a mind-blowing set of accomplishments, running over 300 marathons, including every state in the union and every country on earth. Fascinating and fun stories from around the globe!
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Danny Clinkscale, Reasonably irreverent podcast, insightful and
witty commentary, probing interviews and detours from the beaten path.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Kansas City Profiles presented by Eastern Roofing and
a truly remarkable conversation with a person who's done remarkable things,
who just says he's an ordinary person trying to do
extraordinary things. And that is one Steve Fuller. He is
a local attorney from Kansas City. He was born in
Cincinnati and moved to Kansas City at age fourteen and
in his twenty started to run and run and run
(00:37):
and run. And he has run now three hundred and
six marathons. In the Hospital Hill Marathon this weekend will
be three hundred and seven. He has run marathons in
all fifty states. He completed that in nineteen eighty six.
He has run a marathon in every continent. He completed
that several years ago and needed one more challenge, which
was to run a marathon in every single country in
(01:00):
the world, and that took thirty five years and his
final one was in twenty twenty three in Tonga in
the South Pacific. All over the world from Pike's Peak
to Mount Everest to Antarctica. Steve Fuller has run marathons
and had a wonderful time doing it and has many
stories to tell about it. He describes himself as just
(01:21):
an ordinary guy who many people don't even know that
running is a big part of his life, but obviously
it is. And he's had articles written about him in
The Star in many other different places, and why not
an incredible story of great perseverance and endeavor and exploration.
It's Steve Fuller, the marathoner of marathoners, you would say,
(01:43):
and the traveling marathoner all around the world. His story
is fantastic and it's yours. Next on Kansas City Profiles
presented by Eastern Roofing, more.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Of Danny's Reasonably Irreverent podcast after this.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Hey, Kansas City, Joe Spiker Eastern Roofing Year.
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Don't you hate it when people start talking about Christmas
before Thanksgiving? Even arrives me too, But right now I'm
that guy. Call East and Roofing today and get on
the schedule to have your custom Christmas lights installed before
Thanksgiving and receive a ten percent discount on your holiday
light installation. Stay off that ladder and let the pros
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and valleys over the years. The peaks are great and
even the valleys can provide opportunities for you as an investor. However,
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market swings can become. This is Zach Ridemarer. I would
like to get to know you and your goals for
the future. I offer financial planning services across the United States,
(02:49):
focusing mainly on Kansas and the Missouri area. I look
forward to meeting with you face to face with the
highs and lows throughout the financial landscape. My goal is
to make sure you feel protected once you've set your
ear retirement date. Growing up in a tight knit community,
I understand the importance of knowing you can rely on
someone to have your back. I'm always a phone call
away to talk with you about your investments. Make you
(03:10):
feel you're getting the most out of your retirement. Give
me a call today at Strategic Partners, Incorporated. Ask for
Zach Reidemeier at eight hundred four to two one six
two two seven. That's eight hundred four to two one
six two two seven.
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rest on advisor from member Sports and Family Chiropractic and acupuncture.
Staying active and being active is part of a healthy
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(04:46):
contact us at Danny at Danny clinkscale dot com. Look
forward to working with you.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
Steve.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You're born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and tell us a little
bit and you'd eventually move to Kansas City at age fourteen.
But as you were growing up, what was life like
in Cincinnati for young Steve Fuller?
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Oh h just probably just a typical, you know, uh,
suburban you know, semi suburban life. I did have a
My dad and my grandpa were huge baseball fans, which
is carried over to the present. And I've got a
great I don't know if you want to start with
a Billy Martin story. Sure that I got a hug
(05:26):
from Billy Martin in the court in a courthouse here
in Kansas City due to my when I was in
seventh grade reading the fine print of our Cincinnati was
an inquire sports page where you're ready for a story.
I'll make this. I'll try to make this quick. Billy
(05:46):
is okay? Do you want to yep? Sure, okay. Billy
Martin was a utility man after his Yankee days, and
I think one of his first stops was a utility
man for the Cincinnati red And in the spring training
of nineteen sixty there was a hot shot pitcher that
(06:07):
was also i believe, on the cover of sports illustrators
who were going to be the phenom of the year.
He was a fire bawling starter named Jim Brewer with
the Cups and during a spring training game, he made
the apparent real mistake of brushing back utility man Billy
Martin playing for the Reds and on a spring training game,
(06:32):
and Billy was super offended and yelled out to the
rookie that hey, you're not supposed to do that to
veterans like me, and he responded to something in kind,
and on the next pitch, Billy not so expertly let
the bat fly out of his hand, but he didn't
do it very well, but the bat ended up between
first pace and the pitcher's round, and so the yet
(06:56):
give Jim Brewer even more reason to taunt Billy Martin
as an old has been. So Billy didn't take much
to that, and he charged the mound and basically gave
a shattered Jim Brewer's right orbital bone and basically ruined
his career for something like five years. I think he
came back later as a reliever with the Dodgers five
(07:19):
years later, but basically put him out of commission for
a number of years. So he goes home. So he
filed They filed a lawsuit, which in those days, I
don't know how rare or common that was, but they
fought a lawsuit against Billy Martin for one million dollars
plus fifty seven dollars was a one million and fifty seven.
And it so happened that they when they filed a lawsuit,
(07:42):
they filed it, and I guess in some kind of
court in Cincinnati, and the sheriff came to the bullpen
and so now that summer and served him with the papers,
with the suit papers, and Billy responded to the sheriff
with the retort does this Brewer guid as he want
a check or of money order, And he thought that
(08:02):
was real funny. That was just happened to be in
the paper that you wouldn't have the average person wouldn't
have seen. But I remember that from when I was twelve.
So fast forward thirty years. I'm a criminal lawyer and
I'm here in the court in North Kansas City and
I see a character that I think is Billy Martin.
It so happened. I grew up in the shoe business,
(08:24):
and I saw a guy standing there with eight hundred
dollars cowboy boots on, which at the time were extraordinary.
And walked up to the guy and I said, are
you Billy Martin? No, not me, so I just kind
of forgot the situation. But later on in the court hearing,
I pointed out in what I thought was a subtle
way that it was Billy Martin, and he saw me
(08:45):
and he motioned me to shut my mouth and he
pointed me come out in the hallway. So we were talking,
and I asked how I recognized him, but I told
him that anecdote from Cincinnati, and he just I thought
you'd think he might be embarrassed by it, but all
he thought that was the greatest thing. And he gave
(09:05):
me a hug and he said, boy, Cincinnati fans. There's
no fans like Cincinnati Reds fans. And he gave me
a hug. And I think, by the way, the reason
he was in court was he was stopped for a
DWI and he assaulted the highway patrol.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And that sounds well.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
He was with the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
That sounds about right. Well, besides your brushes with fame
in Cincinnati when you were young, what was what are
the kind of things you liked? You said, you're a
big baseball fan. Did you play baseball?
Speaker 7 (09:31):
Oh? Yeah, sure, very very poorly, but yeah, oh it was.
And since I just like I'm sure all those post
World War two, this would have been in the what
early in those early sixties, I guess every there was,
every kid like me that was woefully, woefully bad, had
no hand to eye coordination, and the fact that I
(09:53):
was so woeful and awful maybe explain why I'm running
to this day. While I'm going to be doing the
Kansas City Marathon Saturday, I will be reliving my embarrassingly
poor sports performance in nineteen sixty two at some baseball
field and Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So you grew up, did you eventually would move to
Kansas City? What was the adjustment, like for a teenager
for moving to Cincinnati to Kansas.
Speaker 7 (10:21):
Just like everybody, it was a little difficult, but it
just forces you to be who you are, and you
it was a whole new set of friends, and I
wouldn't wish it on anybody to do that. But you
might have. I think in your history, didn't you travel
around it. You might have moved around suburban Boston a
little bit, didn't you. You might have had the same experience.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, mostly when I was very very young. Luckily we
settled down after that. But at what did you do
running at this point in your lifetime?
Speaker 7 (10:50):
No, no, no, I wasn't and I wasn't past enough.
I was on the wrestling team here, but just fairly adequate,
but I wasn't good enough. I would have liked to
have been on the track team, but we had a
real competitive program and I didn't even consider going out.
(11:10):
But it wasn't until I was like in the mid
twenties where I started gaining a little weight and get
my first job and getting a little weight, and then
I just started jogging. And then I think near the
end of the seventies that running boom really took off,
and so I with a pair of Converse tennis shoes,
went down to the Hospital Hill Race and did the
(11:32):
seven mile race, and I was hooked and I just
kind of took off from there and I liked it
so much, And even though I wasn't very good at
it originally, I ended up becoming adequate, but got my
first pair of running shoes and set up signed up
for a marathon that week at that fall into Troit, Michigan,
(11:54):
and just had kept on it ever since. I've been
running basically marathons every year since the late seventies.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yes, you certainly have. Let's flash back a little bit.
You became a lawyer. Where did you go to college here.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
In the city in Kansas City, went to law school here.
I became a father when I was a senior in college.
We got married there when I VI was I think
in my junior senior year. So when I was married
for twenty years, we had two wonderful kids that I'm
(12:32):
still close to. And yeah, and then that was kind
of while I was married there and just continued on
till the present. It was running just became part of
my life.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, when did it go from being something that you
enjoyed to becoming something that would end up taking you
all over the world and all over the country. And
part of the reason we're talking to me today is
the unbelievable amount of marathons that you've run. How did
it evolve into that? Do you think that's.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
A real good question. I think part of it is
a social I'm kind of a very social guy, and
I started running a few of these marathons, and I
don't think I realized till my first six or seven
marathons that they happened to be in six or seven
different six or seven different states. And then I ran
into a couple of people that I was seeing at
(13:24):
the same people at these runs, and there were a
number of people and I hadn't even occurred to me
to do the fifty States. There was actually here in
Kansas City. There's four of us. All were pursuing that
on into the early eighties, and it became kind of
a thing in the mid to late eighties, and to
this day, I think there's twenty five hundred. That's hard
(13:47):
to believe. Twenty five hundred runners have run an all
fifty run at least one marathon in all fifty states,
So I just did that, and when I completed it
in eighty six, I was just looking for another challenge
and the first thing that came to mind was was
the Seven Continents, and that became kind of a thing.
So what I did, so I embarked on that and
(14:09):
that took three, four or five years. But while I
was doing that, I just found I hadn't ever been
out of the country much, and I just loved going
to some of these Third world countries like Nepal and
maybe in Africa, the Kilimanjaro area in Tanzania. So it
just kind of mushroomed from that that I loved traveling
(14:31):
and I thought, well, maybe I could visit one hundred countries,
and the traveling actually took over. I still kept running,
but the traveling became bigger. And there was an outfit
in Los Angeles for people that have been to one
hundred countries, Travelers Centry Club, and that became kind of
part of my life, and I ended up joining the
(14:52):
board and I was actually the international president two or
three years ago of Travelers. And as you travel, then again,
maybe it's a competitive instinct in me, or a competitive
bad habit of me that I think, well, Hey, maybe
instead of just visiting one hundred countries, maybe I could
visit all of them. And I think there was one
hundred and ninety six. So it ended up taking me
(15:12):
thirty five years and I just finished, I think it
was two years ago. I visited my last country, Tonga,
and that's United Nations has one hundred and ninety three members,
and there's three members that aren't in the United Nations
that are generally considered countries, Palestine, the Vatican, and Taiwan.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Wow, that is truly amazing. Well, let's let's go through
this a little bit, which stated, did you know when
as you were moving along which state was maybe a
more challenging one than others? And of course marathons take
on different challenges as well.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Yes, well, I elected to do the Pike's Peak Marathon
in Colorado, so that was really hard. But I've ended
up going back and doing it four other times. It's
very challenging, but it's it's real nice. And then I
would say, actually, rather than even the hardness of the
difficulty of the marathon is your injuries when you're coping
(16:11):
with In those days, particularly, I was short on money,
so there were a number of races. I can think
of one in Washington State and then one in Maine
where I gave injured halfway through the run, and a
normal person would have stopped and just given it up,
but I didn't want to have to pay another three
or four hundred dollars airfare and another hotel, so I
(16:33):
limped through a couple of them. One in particular, I
got a rounding applause in it was Olympia Washington when
I was finishing that and I was copping, and everybody
thought I was a handicapped and I got a rousing applause,
But it was only because my knee kind of went
out and I couldn't really bend my knee, so I
(16:53):
was hopping through the last few miles to finish that marathon.
So I would say coping with the injuries and finishing
the marathon was probably a bigger aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
A lot of people start their marathoning career in Chicago
because it's flat, and how many of the how many
of these states or marathons around the country would you
say are good ones for the beginning marathon or to
go to. And obviously Pike Peaks isn't when you want
to take on if you're just a beginning marathon. But
what are some of the other what are some of
the easier ones and what are some of the more
(17:26):
challenging ones.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
Well, I would think that the what they call it
eye candy, the things that are surrounding the marathon actually
make it easier or harder. Los Angeles is an example
a Los Angeles and actually that checks two boxes because
the marathon starts at the Chabez Ravine, the baseball park,
(17:49):
which is up on a pretty big incline, and the
race goes all the way to Santa Monica down on
the ocean. So that would be one where there's a
little bit of down during the entire run, and that
brings up a whole nother thing that was actually just
there was an article and I think the New York
Times or Wall Street Journal recently about these downhill marathons
(18:13):
are starting to skew statistics because there's an outfit out
and I think that they're based in Salt Lake City.
It's called what's the name of the they do downhill marathons.
So they have about four or five places. There's one
there's one in Arizona, one in Nevada, Colorado, Utah, where
(18:35):
they actually start the race at the top of a
mountain and you basically run down twenty six miles, and
that affords certain people easier qualifications to enter into the
Boston Marathon. So there's a whole that's a whole another
story about that, but there are those. But I would
just say that running in a race like maybe like
(18:58):
New York City or even the Marie Corps, or I
just ran one in Baltimore, Maryland that was dreary, a
lot of fun and I can't really remember whether it
was how much uphill or downhill, but it was just
fun seeing all the different the sites and along the
ocean and the spectators. So I would say that would
(19:19):
be probably more paramount importance than the actual up and
down of the most marathons.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
More of Danny's Reasonably Irreverend podcast after this.
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Hey, Kansas City, Joe Spiker Eastern Roofing here.
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Don't you hate it when people start talking about Christmas
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Even arrives? Me too, But right now I'm that guy.
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Call Eastern Roofing today and get on the schedule to
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a ten percent discount on your holiday light installation. Stay
off that ladder and let the pros hang your custom
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I'm here with Zach Rhidemeyer from Strategic Partners, Inc. Zach
investments have their peaks and valleys. How do you help
your clients with the ups and downs?
Speaker 5 (20:10):
The peaks are great and even the valleys can provide
opportunities for you as an investor. However, the closer we
get to retirement, the more challenging these market swings can become.
I would like to get to know you and your
goals for the future. I offer financial planning services across
the United States, focusing mainly on Kansas and the Missouri area.
I look forward to meeting with you face to face
(20:30):
with the highs and lows throughout the financial landscape. MY
goal is to make sure you feel protected once you've
set your retirement date. Growing up in a tight knit community,
I understand the importance of knowing that you can rely
on someone to have your back. I'm always a phone
call away to talk with you about your investments. Make
you feel you're getting the most out of your retirement.
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Give Zach a call today. It's Strategic Partners, Inc. Ask
for Zach Rhightemeyer at eight hundred four to one six
two two seven. That's eight hundred four to one six
two two seven.
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We're here at the twenty third Street Brewery with Matt
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And that's cool.
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Football back in Lawrence. Can you imagine that we actually
had to endure a year without it.
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Well, it is back.
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It's back on campus. We're so happy that they're here,
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We love to have you out here. Excited to have
(21:45):
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If you'd like to join these and other great sponsors
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Speaker 2 (22:06):
Our guest is Steve Fuller. He's run well over three
hundred marathons and continues to do so. As you heard
him say, this weekend he'll be running Kansas City Marathon.
I think that's what about fifteen times? Is that that right, Steve?
Speaker 7 (22:18):
That's probably about right. That's yeah, that's probably.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You'll probably lose lose account of some of the ones.
So as you started to run all these marathons, what
was the count per year? And has that dropped off
as you're getting a little bit older.
Speaker 7 (22:34):
No, actually it's actually it picked up a lot more
because part of that is our capitalistic system. There are
some people that have really made this into a business.
Now where there's an organization that's a guy, actually it
was a gun from New Mexico came up with this
idea of setting up it's called the name of the
(22:56):
organization's mainly marathons and they have almost like it's a
circus or a carnival where they can do all fifty
states in a six month period, I believe, And they
actually instead of running your twenty six miles, like we're
going to be in Kansas City, going hither and yon
(23:17):
through the entire part of the city, they just go
to a park and they lay out maybe a two
mile a two mile section which is usually pretty flat
on a jogging trail and a trail, and they do
the marathon back and forth, back and forth. I did one,
(23:37):
and at first it was laughably boring, but as you
get older you realize that there's a certain advantage to it.
That you're always never more than a mile away from
a restroom, and similarly, you're never a mile away from
where your backpack is. With suntown locean and another a
(24:00):
change of a hat, or if it starts raining, you
can bring your poncho with, you can put your poncho
on and not having to deal with that. Now, the
Kansas City Marathon, for example, that's going to be difficult
because I think they're predicting thunderstorms and what you wear,
and particularly if your socks get completely drenched and you
step in a couple puddles. That's what you're going to
(24:24):
have for the whole twenty six miles. Whereas these mainly
marathons that have gotten incredibly popular just in the last
four or five years, you could you bring an extra
pair of shoes or extra pair of socks with you
and the next time you go buy the aide station,
you've changed your shoes and socks, or you can put
on a new change your hat, put a sun hat
(24:46):
on as opposed to a baseball hat. Those are kind
of things. So these mainly marathons have become very popular lately.
They haven't replaced the big city marathons, but for veteran
people that are doing all the fifty states, and particularly
older people who aren't particularly keen to be seen and
be seen on the streets of Baltimore, the streets of Philadelphia,
(25:09):
it's a really it's a very nice alternative.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Now let's talk about the Seven continents. Now, one of
those continents is Antarctica. What's the marathon there?
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah, well, see that's again that was kind of a
money I think, kind of a money drove that. There
was an outfit in Boston, Massachusetts. It's called What's a
marathon tours and this gentleman, and originally he was doing
it is a one time deal. He made arrangements, he
rented apparently those two. Russia has these big spy boats
(25:44):
that can accommodate one hundred tourists there around the world,
and he commandeered two of these spy boats and he
set this up. And it was in the year maybe
the early nineties where it was. He thought it was
going to be a one show deal and charged everybody,
I don't know, three or four thousand dollars, but it, surprise, surprise,
(26:05):
it was immensely popular. So before long he was doing
one of them or two of them every year. And
now some other people have gotten in the act and
they do. I think there was a second option, and
there's even a third option if you wanted to do
it on a South Pole and you've got fifty thousand
dollars to spend on a chartered airplane. They have one
(26:27):
actually on the ice on the South Pole itself. But
as I say, that's a prohibitive cost for a lot
of people.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So where was the one you did and what were
the conditions like in Antarctica that.
Speaker 7 (26:38):
Was the first time, and it was it was on
a what this guy from Boston did, and they still
have it. It's called it was called I think originally
it's called maybe Antarctic Marathon. It was called the Last Marathon.
But what he does with the spot with those little
with those boats, you tour around and it's actually King
George Island, which is a peninsula the up and I
(27:01):
don't I've heard even some people quibble whether it's truly
Antarctica if it's on the King George Island, and I
believe that's it. There's also a peninsula, right, and I'm
not sure whether the marathon was actually on the peninsula itself,
but there's a number of aids of research in government
military stations. And so the way the marathon was set
(27:22):
up and the way the tour we actually were on,
like a ten day tour. We stopped at the like
the Uruguay has a station and they can entertain guests,
and then Argentina, Russia, China, Australia, a number of countries
have these little bases and when the twenty six mile
(27:42):
marathon was set up, you ran between these bases. They
set up a twenty six mile course between the bases
and that was kind of a kind of.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Fun that sounds really really fascinating. What was the Was
that your last continent Antarctica?
Speaker 7 (28:00):
No, actually, I think it was close to it, But
then I think I ran one in Australia after that.
And at that time there was a real competition, and
when we were doing the fifty States, there was an
immense pressure to try to be the first to do
this and that, and there was a lot of competition
among a number of us, and I'm sure there probably
(28:23):
were for the continents, but by that time I was
kind of over being it being first. But there were
a number of people who were eager to do the
to do the fifties, to do the seven continents. But
I think after that there were a number of other,
as I say, options, and I really didn't keep track
of who was doing what. I'm sure there's some there's
(28:46):
some compilation somewhere of who did it first and when
they did it and when they completed it. That that
type of thing.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Well, you've run them in in Nepal and the Galapagos.
I mean there's a prison pretty amazing spots.
Speaker 9 (29:00):
Have a favorite, Yeah, I would have to say one,
And of course this is an option when you ask
a question like that, you're begging me to show off
and to kind of say that, you know, you did
the Melon Everst Marathon or the killiman Jaro Marathon.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
But actually, I think the one I enjoyed most happened
to be in the Galopagos, where the people in the
Galopagos went all in to make this a special occasion.
You went. You they opened the national park so that
you could run around this volcano. You run around the
rim of the volcano, and you ran across the I
(29:36):
guess what's the lava fields, And they even we even
went through a cave that was actually some distance and
they had people on one side of the cave, gave
you a helmet, and then when you finished and you
came out the cave on the other side of the
marathon route, you took the cave, you took your helmet off,
and they even this is pretty unbelievable. Through some virgin
(29:58):
forest they went through and they cut through about eighteen
inches wide, about two miles of They cut the greener
so you could just run right through and you're both
your shoulders were rushing rubbing up against the greenery. But
it was all these exotic animals and you're running right
in the middle of this beautiful rainforest. So yeah, that
was real special. But a number of these are A
(30:21):
lot of these are just real sweet. A lot And
how can I forget me and Mar when you were there?
Me and Mar. They have all these little villages in
the Bagone region, and the people there were so wonderful
and so sweet. They had little benches set up and
each one of these little villages over the twenty six
mile course, when you came through the little village, the
(30:42):
people all got up and cheered for you, and it
was real sweet. Not actually similarly, I remember now Vietnam
Marathon was the same way that people were real supportive.
Now yourush, So yeah, any one of these, every one
of these has a story.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You brushed by it. But so there's a Mount Everest Marathon.
Speaker 7 (31:00):
Huh. Yeah, it actually doesn't start. It starts at the
base camp itself, right, and which would be I think
seventeen thousand feet And actually it's more of a twenty
day hike where you hike up there and then you
run from there, and it's not all downhill. There's some
uphill parts of it, but there's twenty miles away there's
(31:23):
a town Namche Bazaar, which is close to where they
have a little fly in airport, and I think you
do that twenty miles and then they put a little
a six mile loop on the end. But that's very
very special. And because of the distance in the time constraints,
it was a twenty five actually a twenty eight day trip.
I think now to make it more competitive, people weren't
(31:45):
being able to sign up and take twenty eight days.
They've shortened it considerably so that you can fly into
which is close to where the marathon starts. But they've
made it into i think a ten day or two
week trip. But yeah, that was very very special.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Well, you're talking about unbelievable altitude there. I mean, what
is it like to run a marathon at that altitude?
Speaker 7 (32:05):
It's very difficult, but because you take so long, because
it takes the and there's a number of people that
do get sick before you get there. But because of
the time of taking the fifteen days to be there,
you're just going. At each one of those you stay
in the monastery, and there was about to five or
six days preceding the marathon. You stayed maybe even two
(32:28):
days at that monastery. I have a real cool anecdote
that on the let's see, was it the first or
second time? I've run it twice? It's so engaging. But
I actually came across there was a real narrow part
of the trail where you were coming across these little ravines,
and there was a yak on the other side, and
(32:49):
the farmer wanted me to come in front of the
come cross towards the yak, and the yak kind of
got panicked when he saw me running, and he lowered
his horns and actually gordon me across the stomach. Oh no,
and it left a colorful scar on my stomach for
(33:11):
a while. But that was a that was kind of
a fun something I can brag about now when I'm
talking to somebody like you, it can sound like a
like a cool guy story to brag about.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I guess, well, you said you got to be a
pretty good marathon or as far as time was concerned,
what was your personal best and as the years went on,
did you have certain certain goals that you had that
you were able to make.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
Yes, yeah, well three oh six was the best and
I was at the time. And it's oddly oddly enough,
this is I just did my three hundred and six
marathon last week in Wyoming or two weeks ago, and
that time that was three oh six, So I was
kind of a weird coincidence.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So you're you're running your best marathon times now and
you're no, no, no, okay, no.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
No, no, no, almost double the time. So this would
have been when I.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Do your three hundred and six marathon. You made you
remember the three oh six, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
Three exactly exactly, but no, that would have been So
that time would have been in three oh six translates
to event A seven a little over a seven minute mile.
I think maybe seven ten seven oh six mile, seven
oh six miles or rate per mile, So that's okay,
but that would be probably enough to qualify you for Boston.
(34:28):
But that would have probably in its day, that would
have been in the top ten percent. Now the times
have slowed down considerably, so now if you do a
three oh six, that is kind of a pretty noteworthy
and I would say a three oh six now might
be in the top four or five percent. I don't know,
but I would say the top four or five percent
of marathoners wereas at the time, it was only in
(34:50):
the top ten percent.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Why why is it slowed down? It'll do you less
people run marathons. Is that what it is?
Speaker 7 (34:55):
Yeah? No, a lot more, I think a lot more.
But I think it's just a general the sign of
times that people and it's attracting a different quality, different
type of person, And I think it's just the way
life is as far as disciplined and what passes for acceptable.
I think in those days, I can remember doing and
(35:18):
being almost I don't want to say shamed, but when
I would do a marathon, like I remember doing the
Boston Marathon when and I didn't do very well, like
I did a three thirty or something, and at the
time I was appalled at how I had images of
me doing real well. At the time, I was almost embarrassed.
And now if you told somebody you did a three
thirty marathon, they'd say, hey, you know, hey, that's great.
(35:41):
So I think that's a very good sign, and that's
very positive. We always talk about how negativity of our times,
negativity of our society, negative, how things are not like
they used to be thirty forty years ago. But I
would say that's a very positive, very positiveless judgment on
you know, on running, and they're encouraging people now to walk.
(36:02):
And by the way, when you talk about those mainly marathons,
a lot of these people now they're doing these marathons,
walk the whole thing, and I think that's great. I
don't see anything anything different than the way. It takes
a lot longer. Yeah, for sure, I think those are
it's to be encouraged.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
You tell us how old you are now, and yeah,
obvious seven what'd you say.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
Seventy seven? That's seventy seven.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
It's remarkable that it's seventy seven. You're still continuing to
do this and as you mentioned, it'll be three hundred
and six marathons now, three hundred and seven with the
Kansas City Marathon. How are you feeling and you're just
gonna do it until you can't?
Speaker 7 (36:42):
Yes, yeah, probably most of all the runners. And this
would have been me too, most runners. When you've done third,
When you've run for twenty thirty years, which would have
been if I started in the late seventies. By the
time you get in the nineties, so that would be
like twenty twenty five years, you really have taken a
(37:02):
toll on your body and you're very susceptible to muscle
pools and injuries, and I was getting injured all the time,
and most of my friends and that's all my friends,
almost to a tea of quit running. About that time.
I just happened to have a cousin of mine in
Boston that I'm quite close to that's a real yoga enthusiast,
(37:23):
and he talked me into going to some yoga classes.
And this would have been in the late nineties when
I was about the time I was quitting marathoning. And
by the way, I've run almost every year. I run
a marathon or two every year. But I think I
even skipped two years there, ninety eight and ninety nine,
or you were just getting injured so much. But that yoga,
(37:45):
I have this, and I think you haven't figured it
out to kind of an addictive personality. Instead of going
to yoga class once a week, I was going seven
days a week, and I really started going every day,
and I really changed my I don't want to say
body type an overstatement, and I lost all my speed
almost immediately, but I really I started doing all this
(38:06):
stretching and I really did change the character of my
have a pardon me clear my throat, clear my legs
so that I can run, and that I stretch. Now
I do it. I do yoga every day even to
this day, and I do some crazy amount of stretching,
and that's given me the option to keep the way
(38:28):
that yoga really transformed my ability to keep running. And
that's where most people, and I have an idea most
of runners, if they had chosen to do that kind
of thing, they could be running themselves too. But that
was kind of the magic ingredient or of magic elixir
for me that I was able to maintain that without
getting injured so much.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Well, it must be incredibly enjoyable for you to look
back and to tell others about this and to continue
to be doing it. It must be an unbelievably gratifying
thing for you.
Speaker 7 (39:00):
It is. It is. It's hard though, because you figure
my time's basically doubled. Or I used to be able
to do a marathon, and like here, I could do
a marathon and let's say three point fifteen. Now it's
going to take me. It could well take me, you know,
five forty five, or it could take me even six
hours to do this marathon. So it gratifying, yes, But
(39:20):
it's also kind of frustrating, and it can be it
takes a special I think maybe even a loss of dignity,
if you could, or a loss a lack of or
an immense amount of humility and humbleness to be able
to kind of stumble through these things. And the last
few miles where I'm kind of waddling through it and
(39:42):
kind of angling and I'm kind of leaning over to
one side or the other. It's a certainly humbling experience.
But then when you're finished, it is it's certainly it's nice,
but there's a toll that you have to be willing
to pay.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
But it also has created a lifetime of unbelievable memories
and friendship.
Speaker 7 (40:00):
Because it is exactly exactly and going to these crazy places.
I've just this summer, I've just we did a marathon
in Victoria Falls, and then we did one actually in
uh most of Zambia where it was and the only
route we could find if we had to start a
little school way out in the middle of the middle
(40:23):
of nowhere, and we ran among the school and the
school kids ended up running the race with us doing
the twenty six months, we're basically running around on dirt
on a dirt road around this school in the middle
of nowhere, very very satisfying, very satisfying, and you're going
to suffer these indignities and these uh you know, six hours,
you know, six hours, seven hour marathon times to be
(40:45):
able to share in those experiences.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
We hope you enjoyed the latest Danny kling Scale Reasonably
irreverent podcast. Come back soon for something fresh and new.
This podcast was made possible by our great sponsors like
Advanced Sports and Family Chiropractic and Acupuncture eight locations all
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(41:11):
tune you for life.
Welcome to the Danny Clinkscale, Reasonably irreverent podcast, insightful and
witty commentary, probing interviews and detours from the beaten path.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to Kansas City Profiles presented by Eastern Roofing and
a truly remarkable conversation with a person who's done remarkable things,
who just says he's an ordinary person trying to do
extraordinary things. And that is one Steve Fuller. He is
a local attorney from Kansas City. He was born in
Cincinnati and moved to Kansas City at age fourteen and
in his twenty started to run and run and run
(00:37):
and run. And he has run now three hundred and
six marathons. In the Hospital Hill Marathon this weekend will
be three hundred and seven. He has run marathons in
all fifty states. He completed that in nineteen eighty six.
He has run a marathon in every continent. He completed
that several years ago and needed one more challenge, which
was to run a marathon in every single country in
(01:00):
the world, and that took thirty five years and his
final one was in twenty twenty three in Tonga in
the South Pacific. All over the world from Pike's Peak
to Mount Everest to Antarctica. Steve Fuller has run marathons
and had a wonderful time doing it and has many
stories to tell about it. He describes himself as just
(01:21):
an ordinary guy who many people don't even know that
running is a big part of his life, but obviously
it is. And he's had articles written about him in
The Star in many other different places, and why not
an incredible story of great perseverance and endeavor and exploration.
It's Steve Fuller, the marathoner of marathoners, you would say,
(01:43):
and the traveling marathoner all around the world. His story
is fantastic and it's yours. Next on Kansas City Profiles
presented by Eastern Roofing, more.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Of Danny's Reasonably Irreverent podcast after this.
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Staying active and being active is part of a healthy
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We all want to perform better, whether we're ten moving
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Speaker 5 (04:52):
Steve.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
You're born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and tell us a little
bit and you'd eventually move to Kansas City at age fourteen.
But as you were growing up, what was life like
in Cincinnati for young Steve Fuller?
Speaker 7 (05:03):
Oh h just probably just a typical, you know, uh,
suburban you know, semi suburban life. I did have a
My dad and my grandpa were huge baseball fans, which
is carried over to the present. And I've got a
great I don't know if you want to start with
a Billy Martin story. Sure that I got a hug
(05:26):
from Billy Martin in the court in a courthouse here
in Kansas City due to my when I was in
seventh grade reading the fine print of our Cincinnati was
an inquire sports page where you're ready for a story.
I'll make this. I'll try to make this quick. Billy
(05:46):
is okay? Do you want to yep? Sure, okay. Billy
Martin was a utility man after his Yankee days, and
I think one of his first stops was a utility
man for the Cincinnati red And in the spring training
of nineteen sixty there was a hot shot pitcher that
(06:07):
was also i believe, on the cover of sports illustrators
who were going to be the phenom of the year.
He was a fire bawling starter named Jim Brewer with
the Cups and during a spring training game, he made
the apparent real mistake of brushing back utility man Billy
Martin playing for the Reds and on a spring training game,
(06:32):
and Billy was super offended and yelled out to the
rookie that hey, you're not supposed to do that to
veterans like me, and he responded to something in kind,
and on the next pitch, Billy not so expertly let
the bat fly out of his hand, but he didn't
do it very well, but the bat ended up between
first pace and the pitcher's round, and so the yet
(06:56):
give Jim Brewer even more reason to taunt Billy Martin
as an old has been. So Billy didn't take much
to that, and he charged the mound and basically gave
a shattered Jim Brewer's right orbital bone and basically ruined
his career for something like five years. I think he
came back later as a reliever with the Dodgers five
(07:19):
years later, but basically put him out of commission for
a number of years. So he goes home. So he
filed They filed a lawsuit, which in those days, I
don't know how rare or common that was, but they
fought a lawsuit against Billy Martin for one million dollars
plus fifty seven dollars was a one million and fifty seven.
And it so happened that they when they filed a lawsuit,
(07:42):
they filed it, and I guess in some kind of
court in Cincinnati, and the sheriff came to the bullpen
and so now that summer and served him with the papers,
with the suit papers, and Billy responded to the sheriff
with the retort does this Brewer guid as he want
a check or of money order, And he thought that
(08:02):
was real funny. That was just happened to be in
the paper that you wouldn't have the average person wouldn't
have seen. But I remember that from when I was twelve.
So fast forward thirty years. I'm a criminal lawyer and
I'm here in the court in North Kansas City and
I see a character that I think is Billy Martin.
It so happened. I grew up in the shoe business,
(08:24):
and I saw a guy standing there with eight hundred
dollars cowboy boots on, which at the time were extraordinary.
And walked up to the guy and I said, are
you Billy Martin? No, not me, so I just kind
of forgot the situation. But later on in the court hearing,
I pointed out in what I thought was a subtle
way that it was Billy Martin, and he saw me
(08:45):
and he motioned me to shut my mouth and he
pointed me come out in the hallway. So we were talking,
and I asked how I recognized him, but I told
him that anecdote from Cincinnati, and he just I thought
you'd think he might be embarrassed by it, but all
he thought that was the greatest thing. And he gave
(09:05):
me a hug and he said, boy, Cincinnati fans. There's
no fans like Cincinnati Reds fans. And he gave me
a hug. And I think, by the way, the reason
he was in court was he was stopped for a
DWI and he assaulted the highway patrol.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And that sounds well.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
He was with the Texas Rangers.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
That sounds about right. Well, besides your brushes with fame
in Cincinnati when you were young, what was what are
the kind of things you liked? You said, you're a
big baseball fan. Did you play baseball?
Speaker 7 (09:31):
Oh? Yeah, sure, very very poorly, but yeah, oh it was.
And since I just like I'm sure all those post
World War two, this would have been in the what
early in those early sixties, I guess every there was,
every kid like me that was woefully, woefully bad, had
no hand to eye coordination, and the fact that I
(09:53):
was so woeful and awful maybe explain why I'm running
to this day. While I'm going to be doing the
Kansas City Marathon Saturday, I will be reliving my embarrassingly
poor sports performance in nineteen sixty two at some baseball
field and Cincinnati.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So you grew up, did you eventually would move to
Kansas City? What was the adjustment, like for a teenager
for moving to Cincinnati to Kansas.
Speaker 7 (10:21):
Just like everybody, it was a little difficult, but it
just forces you to be who you are, and you
it was a whole new set of friends, and I
wouldn't wish it on anybody to do that. But you
might have. I think in your history, didn't you travel
around it. You might have moved around suburban Boston a
little bit, didn't you. You might have had the same experience.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Yeah, mostly when I was very very young. Luckily we
settled down after that. But at what did you do
running at this point in your lifetime?
Speaker 7 (10:50):
No, no, no, I wasn't and I wasn't past enough.
I was on the wrestling team here, but just fairly adequate,
but I wasn't good enough. I would have liked to
have been on the track team, but we had a
real competitive program and I didn't even consider going out.
(11:10):
But it wasn't until I was like in the mid
twenties where I started gaining a little weight and get
my first job and getting a little weight, and then
I just started jogging. And then I think near the
end of the seventies that running boom really took off,
and so I with a pair of Converse tennis shoes,
went down to the Hospital Hill Race and did the
(11:32):
seven mile race, and I was hooked and I just
kind of took off from there and I liked it
so much, And even though I wasn't very good at
it originally, I ended up becoming adequate, but got my
first pair of running shoes and set up signed up
for a marathon that week at that fall into Troit, Michigan,
(11:54):
and just had kept on it ever since. I've been
running basically marathons every year since the late seventies.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yes, you certainly have. Let's flash back a little bit.
You became a lawyer. Where did you go to college here.
Speaker 7 (12:10):
In the city in Kansas City, went to law school here.
I became a father when I was a senior in college.
We got married there when I VI was I think
in my junior senior year. So when I was married
for twenty years, we had two wonderful kids that I'm
(12:32):
still close to. And yeah, and then that was kind
of while I was married there and just continued on
till the present. It was running just became part of
my life.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, when did it go from being something that you
enjoyed to becoming something that would end up taking you
all over the world and all over the country. And
part of the reason we're talking to me today is
the unbelievable amount of marathons that you've run. How did
it evolve into that? Do you think that's.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
A real good question. I think part of it is
a social I'm kind of a very social guy, and
I started running a few of these marathons, and I
don't think I realized till my first six or seven
marathons that they happened to be in six or seven
different six or seven different states. And then I ran
into a couple of people that I was seeing at
(13:24):
the same people at these runs, and there were a
number of people and I hadn't even occurred to me
to do the fifty States. There was actually here in
Kansas City. There's four of us. All were pursuing that
on into the early eighties, and it became kind of
a thing in the mid to late eighties, and to
this day, I think there's twenty five hundred. That's hard
(13:47):
to believe. Twenty five hundred runners have run an all
fifty run at least one marathon in all fifty states,
So I just did that, and when I completed it
in eighty six, I was just looking for another challenge
and the first thing that came to mind was was
the Seven Continents, and that became kind of a thing.
So what I did, so I embarked on that and
(14:09):
that took three, four or five years. But while I
was doing that, I just found I hadn't ever been
out of the country much, and I just loved going
to some of these Third world countries like Nepal and
maybe in Africa, the Kilimanjaro area in Tanzania. So it
just kind of mushroomed from that that I loved traveling
(14:31):
and I thought, well, maybe I could visit one hundred countries,
and the traveling actually took over. I still kept running,
but the traveling became bigger. And there was an outfit
in Los Angeles for people that have been to one
hundred countries, Travelers Centry Club, and that became kind of
part of my life, and I ended up joining the
(14:52):
board and I was actually the international president two or
three years ago of Travelers. And as you travel, then again,
maybe it's a competitive instinct in me, or a competitive
bad habit of me that I think, well, Hey, maybe
instead of just visiting one hundred countries, maybe I could
visit all of them. And I think there was one
hundred and ninety six. So it ended up taking me
(15:12):
thirty five years and I just finished, I think it
was two years ago. I visited my last country, Tonga,
and that's United Nations has one hundred and ninety three members,
and there's three members that aren't in the United Nations
that are generally considered countries, Palestine, the Vatican, and Taiwan.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Wow, that is truly amazing. Well, let's let's go through
this a little bit, which stated, did you know when
as you were moving along which state was maybe a
more challenging one than others? And of course marathons take
on different challenges as well.
Speaker 7 (15:48):
Yes, well, I elected to do the Pike's Peak Marathon
in Colorado, so that was really hard. But I've ended
up going back and doing it four other times. It's
very challenging, but it's it's real nice. And then I
would say, actually, rather than even the hardness of the
difficulty of the marathon is your injuries when you're coping
(16:11):
with In those days, particularly, I was short on money,
so there were a number of races. I can think
of one in Washington State and then one in Maine
where I gave injured halfway through the run, and a
normal person would have stopped and just given it up,
but I didn't want to have to pay another three
or four hundred dollars airfare and another hotel, so I
(16:33):
limped through a couple of them. One in particular, I
got a rounding applause in it was Olympia Washington when
I was finishing that and I was copping, and everybody
thought I was a handicapped and I got a rousing applause,
But it was only because my knee kind of went
out and I couldn't really bend my knee, so I
(16:53):
was hopping through the last few miles to finish that marathon.
So I would say coping with the injuries and finishing
the marathon was probably a bigger aspect of it.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
A lot of people start their marathoning career in Chicago
because it's flat, and how many of the how many
of these states or marathons around the country would you
say are good ones for the beginning marathon or to
go to. And obviously Pike Peaks isn't when you want
to take on if you're just a beginning marathon. But
what are some of the other what are some of
the easier ones and what are some of the more
(17:26):
challenging ones.
Speaker 7 (17:28):
Well, I would think that the what they call it
eye candy, the things that are surrounding the marathon actually
make it easier or harder. Los Angeles is an example
a Los Angeles and actually that checks two boxes because
the marathon starts at the Chabez Ravine, the baseball park,
(17:49):
which is up on a pretty big incline, and the
race goes all the way to Santa Monica down on
the ocean. So that would be one where there's a
little bit of down during the entire run, and that
brings up a whole nother thing that was actually just
there was an article and I think the New York
Times or Wall Street Journal recently about these downhill marathons
(18:13):
are starting to skew statistics because there's an outfit out
and I think that they're based in Salt Lake City.
It's called what's the name of the they do downhill marathons.
So they have about four or five places. There's one
there's one in Arizona, one in Nevada, Colorado, Utah, where
(18:35):
they actually start the race at the top of a
mountain and you basically run down twenty six miles, and
that affords certain people easier qualifications to enter into the
Boston Marathon. So there's a whole that's a whole another
story about that, but there are those. But I would
just say that running in a race like maybe like
(18:58):
New York City or even the Marie Corps, or I
just ran one in Baltimore, Maryland that was dreary, a
lot of fun and I can't really remember whether it
was how much uphill or downhill, but it was just
fun seeing all the different the sites and along the
ocean and the spectators. So I would say that would
(19:19):
be probably more paramount importance than the actual up and
down of the most marathons.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
More of Danny's Reasonably Irreverend podcast after this.
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I look forward to meeting with you face to face
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We're here at the twenty third Street Brewery with Matt
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And that's cool.
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Football back in Lawrence. Can you imagine that we actually
had to endure a year without it.
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Well, it is back.
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It's back on campus. We're so happy that they're here,
just like years past. We offer a free shuttle coming
from the twenty third Stree Brewery an hour and a
half before game time. We partner with the Boys and
Girls Club to do that, so it's helping a good
cause also, so come in to the brewery early before
the game. Free shuttle to and from the football game.
We love to have you out here. Excited to have
(21:45):
the Jayhawks back in town where they belong.
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Speaker 2 (22:06):
Our guest is Steve Fuller. He's run well over three
hundred marathons and continues to do so. As you heard
him say, this weekend he'll be running Kansas City Marathon.
I think that's what about fifteen times? Is that that right, Steve?
Speaker 7 (22:18):
That's probably about right. That's yeah, that's probably.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You'll probably lose lose account of some of the ones.
So as you started to run all these marathons, what
was the count per year? And has that dropped off
as you're getting a little bit older.
Speaker 7 (22:34):
No, actually it's actually it picked up a lot more
because part of that is our capitalistic system. There are
some people that have really made this into a business.
Now where there's an organization that's a guy, actually it
was a gun from New Mexico came up with this
idea of setting up it's called the name of the
(22:56):
organization's mainly marathons and they have almost like it's a
circus or a carnival where they can do all fifty
states in a six month period, I believe, And they
actually instead of running your twenty six miles, like we're
going to be in Kansas City, going hither and yon
(23:17):
through the entire part of the city, they just go
to a park and they lay out maybe a two
mile a two mile section which is usually pretty flat
on a jogging trail and a trail, and they do
the marathon back and forth, back and forth. I did one,
(23:37):
and at first it was laughably boring, but as you
get older you realize that there's a certain advantage to it.
That you're always never more than a mile away from
a restroom, and similarly, you're never a mile away from
where your backpack is. With suntown locean and another a
(24:00):
change of a hat, or if it starts raining, you
can bring your poncho with, you can put your poncho
on and not having to deal with that. Now, the
Kansas City Marathon, for example, that's going to be difficult
because I think they're predicting thunderstorms and what you wear,
and particularly if your socks get completely drenched and you
step in a couple puddles. That's what you're going to
(24:24):
have for the whole twenty six miles. Whereas these mainly
marathons that have gotten incredibly popular just in the last
four or five years, you could you bring an extra
pair of shoes or extra pair of socks with you
and the next time you go buy the aide station,
you've changed your shoes and socks, or you can put
on a new change your hat, put a sun hat
(24:46):
on as opposed to a baseball hat. Those are kind
of things. So these mainly marathons have become very popular lately.
They haven't replaced the big city marathons, but for veteran
people that are doing all the fifty states, and particularly
older people who aren't particularly keen to be seen and
be seen on the streets of Baltimore, the streets of Philadelphia,
(25:09):
it's a really it's a very nice alternative.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Now let's talk about the Seven continents. Now, one of
those continents is Antarctica. What's the marathon there?
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah, well, see that's again that was kind of a
money I think, kind of a money drove that. There
was an outfit in Boston, Massachusetts. It's called What's a
marathon tours and this gentleman, and originally he was doing
it is a one time deal. He made arrangements, he
rented apparently those two. Russia has these big spy boats
(25:44):
that can accommodate one hundred tourists there around the world,
and he commandeered two of these spy boats and he
set this up. And it was in the year maybe
the early nineties where it was. He thought it was
going to be a one show deal and charged everybody,
I don't know, three or four thousand dollars, but it, surprise, surprise,
(26:05):
it was immensely popular. So before long he was doing
one of them or two of them every year. And
now some other people have gotten in the act and
they do. I think there was a second option, and
there's even a third option if you wanted to do
it on a South Pole and you've got fifty thousand
dollars to spend on a chartered airplane. They have one
(26:27):
actually on the ice on the South Pole itself. But
as I say, that's a prohibitive cost for a lot
of people.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So where was the one you did and what were
the conditions like in Antarctica that.
Speaker 7 (26:38):
Was the first time, and it was it was on
a what this guy from Boston did, and they still
have it. It's called it was called I think originally
it's called maybe Antarctic Marathon. It was called the Last Marathon.
But what he does with the spot with those little
with those boats, you tour around and it's actually King
George Island, which is a peninsula the up and I
(27:01):
don't I've heard even some people quibble whether it's truly
Antarctica if it's on the King George Island, and I
believe that's it. There's also a peninsula, right, and I'm
not sure whether the marathon was actually on the peninsula itself,
but there's a number of aids of research in government
military stations. And so the way the marathon was set
(27:22):
up and the way the tour we actually were on,
like a ten day tour. We stopped at the like
the Uruguay has a station and they can entertain guests,
and then Argentina, Russia, China, Australia, a number of countries
have these little bases and when the twenty six mile
(27:42):
marathon was set up, you ran between these bases. They
set up a twenty six mile course between the bases
and that was kind of a kind of.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Fun that sounds really really fascinating. What was the Was
that your last continent Antarctica?
Speaker 7 (28:00):
No, actually, I think it was close to it, But
then I think I ran one in Australia after that.
And at that time there was a real competition, and
when we were doing the fifty States, there was an
immense pressure to try to be the first to do
this and that, and there was a lot of competition
among a number of us, and I'm sure there probably
(28:23):
were for the continents, but by that time I was
kind of over being it being first. But there were
a number of people who were eager to do the
to do the fifties, to do the seven continents. But
I think after that there were a number of other,
as I say, options, and I really didn't keep track
of who was doing what. I'm sure there's some there's
(28:46):
some compilation somewhere of who did it first and when
they did it and when they completed it. That that
type of thing.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
Well, you've run them in in Nepal and the Galapagos.
I mean there's a prison pretty amazing spots.
Speaker 9 (29:00):
Have a favorite, Yeah, I would have to say one,
And of course this is an option when you ask
a question like that, you're begging me to show off
and to kind of say that, you know, you did
the Melon Everst Marathon or the killiman Jaro Marathon.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
But actually, I think the one I enjoyed most happened
to be in the Galopagos, where the people in the
Galopagos went all in to make this a special occasion.
You went. You they opened the national park so that
you could run around this volcano. You run around the
rim of the volcano, and you ran across the I
(29:36):
guess what's the lava fields, And they even we even
went through a cave that was actually some distance and
they had people on one side of the cave, gave
you a helmet, and then when you finished and you
came out the cave on the other side of the
marathon route, you took the cave, you took your helmet off,
and they even this is pretty unbelievable. Through some virgin
(29:58):
forest they went through and they cut through about eighteen
inches wide, about two miles of They cut the greener
so you could just run right through and you're both
your shoulders were rushing rubbing up against the greenery. But
it was all these exotic animals and you're running right
in the middle of this beautiful rainforest. So yeah, that
was real special. But a number of these are A
(30:21):
lot of these are just real sweet. A lot And
how can I forget me and Mar when you were there?
Me and Mar. They have all these little villages in
the Bagone region, and the people there were so wonderful
and so sweet. They had little benches set up and
each one of these little villages over the twenty six
mile course, when you came through the little village, the
(30:42):
people all got up and cheered for you, and it
was real sweet. Not actually similarly, I remember now Vietnam
Marathon was the same way that people were real supportive.
Now yourush, So yeah, any one of these, every one
of these has a story.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You brushed by it. But so there's a Mount Everest Marathon.
Speaker 7 (31:00):
Huh. Yeah, it actually doesn't start. It starts at the
base camp itself, right, and which would be I think
seventeen thousand feet And actually it's more of a twenty
day hike where you hike up there and then you
run from there, and it's not all downhill. There's some
uphill parts of it, but there's twenty miles away there's
(31:23):
a town Namche Bazaar, which is close to where they
have a little fly in airport, and I think you
do that twenty miles and then they put a little
a six mile loop on the end. But that's very
very special. And because of the distance in the time constraints,
it was a twenty five actually a twenty eight day trip.
I think now to make it more competitive, people weren't
(31:45):
being able to sign up and take twenty eight days.
They've shortened it considerably so that you can fly into
which is close to where the marathon starts. But they've
made it into i think a ten day or two
week trip. But yeah, that was very very special.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Well, you're talking about unbelievable altitude there. I mean, what
is it like to run a marathon at that altitude?
Speaker 7 (32:05):
It's very difficult, but because you take so long, because
it takes the and there's a number of people that
do get sick before you get there. But because of
the time of taking the fifteen days to be there,
you're just going. At each one of those you stay
in the monastery, and there was about to five or
six days preceding the marathon. You stayed maybe even two
(32:28):
days at that monastery. I have a real cool anecdote
that on the let's see, was it the first or
second time? I've run it twice? It's so engaging. But
I actually came across there was a real narrow part
of the trail where you were coming across these little ravines,
and there was a yak on the other side, and
(32:49):
the farmer wanted me to come in front of the
come cross towards the yak, and the yak kind of
got panicked when he saw me running, and he lowered
his horns and actually gordon me across the stomach. Oh no,
and it left a colorful scar on my stomach for
(33:11):
a while. But that was a that was kind of
a fun something I can brag about now when I'm
talking to somebody like you, it can sound like a
like a cool guy story to brag about.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I guess, well, you said you got to be a
pretty good marathon or as far as time was concerned,
what was your personal best and as the years went on,
did you have certain certain goals that you had that
you were able to make.
Speaker 7 (33:34):
Yes, yeah, well three oh six was the best and
I was at the time. And it's oddly oddly enough,
this is I just did my three hundred and six
marathon last week in Wyoming or two weeks ago, and
that time that was three oh six, So I was
kind of a weird coincidence.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So you're you're running your best marathon times now and
you're no, no, no, okay, no.
Speaker 7 (33:57):
No, no, no, almost double the time. So this would
have been when I.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Do your three hundred and six marathon. You made you
remember the three oh six, Yeah.
Speaker 7 (34:05):
Three exactly exactly, but no, that would have been So
that time would have been in three oh six translates
to event A seven a little over a seven minute mile.
I think maybe seven ten seven oh six mile, seven
oh six miles or rate per mile, So that's okay,
but that would be probably enough to qualify you for Boston.
(34:28):
But that would have probably in its day, that would
have been in the top ten percent. Now the times
have slowed down considerably, so now if you do a
three oh six, that is kind of a pretty noteworthy
and I would say a three oh six now might
be in the top four or five percent. I don't know,
but I would say the top four or five percent
of marathoners wereas at the time, it was only in
(34:50):
the top ten percent.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Why why is it slowed down? It'll do you less
people run marathons. Is that what it is?
Speaker 7 (34:55):
Yeah? No, a lot more, I think a lot more.
But I think it's just a general the sign of
times that people and it's attracting a different quality, different
type of person, And I think it's just the way
life is as far as disciplined and what passes for acceptable.
I think in those days, I can remember doing and
(35:18):
being almost I don't want to say shamed, but when
I would do a marathon, like I remember doing the
Boston Marathon when and I didn't do very well, like
I did a three thirty or something, and at the
time I was appalled at how I had images of
me doing real well. At the time, I was almost embarrassed.
And now if you told somebody you did a three
thirty marathon, they'd say, hey, you know, hey, that's great.
(35:41):
So I think that's a very good sign, and that's
very positive. We always talk about how negativity of our times,
negativity of our society, negative, how things are not like
they used to be thirty forty years ago. But I
would say that's a very positive, very positiveless judgment on
you know, on running, and they're encouraging people now to walk.
(36:02):
And by the way, when you talk about those mainly marathons,
a lot of these people now they're doing these marathons,
walk the whole thing, and I think that's great. I
don't see anything anything different than the way. It takes
a lot longer. Yeah, for sure, I think those are
it's to be encouraged.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
You tell us how old you are now, and yeah,
obvious seven what'd you say.
Speaker 7 (36:25):
Seventy seven? That's seventy seven.
Speaker 2 (36:27):
It's remarkable that it's seventy seven. You're still continuing to
do this and as you mentioned, it'll be three hundred
and six marathons now, three hundred and seven with the
Kansas City Marathon. How are you feeling and you're just
gonna do it until you can't?
Speaker 7 (36:42):
Yes, yeah, probably most of all the runners. And this
would have been me too, most runners. When you've done third,
When you've run for twenty thirty years, which would have
been if I started in the late seventies. By the
time you get in the nineties, so that would be
like twenty twenty five years, you really have taken a
(37:02):
toll on your body and you're very susceptible to muscle
pools and injuries, and I was getting injured all the time,
and most of my friends and that's all my friends,
almost to a tea of quit running. About that time.
I just happened to have a cousin of mine in
Boston that I'm quite close to that's a real yoga enthusiast,
(37:23):
and he talked me into going to some yoga classes.
And this would have been in the late nineties when
I was about the time I was quitting marathoning. And
by the way, I've run almost every year. I run
a marathon or two every year. But I think I
even skipped two years there, ninety eight and ninety nine,
or you were just getting injured so much. But that yoga,
(37:45):
I have this, and I think you haven't figured it
out to kind of an addictive personality. Instead of going
to yoga class once a week, I was going seven
days a week, and I really started going every day,
and I really changed my I don't want to say
body type an overstatement, and I lost all my speed
almost immediately, but I really I started doing all this
(38:06):
stretching and I really did change the character of my
have a pardon me clear my throat, clear my legs
so that I can run, and that I stretch. Now
I do it. I do yoga every day even to
this day, and I do some crazy amount of stretching,
and that's given me the option to keep the way
(38:28):
that yoga really transformed my ability to keep running. And
that's where most people, and I have an idea most
of runners, if they had chosen to do that kind
of thing, they could be running themselves too. But that
was kind of the magic ingredient or of magic elixir
for me that I was able to maintain that without
getting injured so much.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Well, it must be incredibly enjoyable for you to look
back and to tell others about this and to continue
to be doing it. It must be an unbelievably gratifying
thing for you.
Speaker 7 (39:00):
It is. It is. It's hard though, because you figure
my time's basically doubled. Or I used to be able
to do a marathon, and like here, I could do
a marathon and let's say three point fifteen. Now it's
going to take me. It could well take me, you know,
five forty five, or it could take me even six
hours to do this marathon. So it gratifying, yes, But
(39:20):
it's also kind of frustrating, and it can be it
takes a special I think maybe even a loss of dignity,
if you could, or a loss a lack of or
an immense amount of humility and humbleness to be able
to kind of stumble through these things. And the last
few miles where I'm kind of waddling through it and
(39:42):
kind of angling and I'm kind of leaning over to
one side or the other. It's a certainly humbling experience.
But then when you're finished, it is it's certainly it's nice,
but there's a toll that you have to be willing
to pay.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
But it also has created a lifetime of unbelievable memories
and friendship.
Speaker 7 (40:00):
Because it is exactly exactly and going to these crazy places.
I've just this summer, I've just we did a marathon
in Victoria Falls, and then we did one actually in
uh most of Zambia where it was and the only
route we could find if we had to start a
little school way out in the middle of the middle
(40:23):
of nowhere, and we ran among the school and the
school kids ended up running the race with us doing
the twenty six months, we're basically running around on dirt
on a dirt road around this school in the middle
of nowhere, very very satisfying, very satisfying, and you're going
to suffer these indignities and these uh you know, six hours,
you know, six hours, seven hour marathon times to be
(40:45):
able to share in those experiences.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
We hope you enjoyed the latest Danny kling Scale Reasonably
irreverent podcast. Come back soon for something fresh and new.
This podcast was made possible by our great sponsors like
Advanced Sports and Family Chiropractic and Acupuncture eight locations all
around Kansas City for expert and friendly services to fine
(41:11):
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