To keep the pounds off after losing weight in 2010, Lisa Land started running. And racing. And running and racing some more.
This fall, the Andover resident reached her goal of running a race in all 50 states. “I ran my first race in the nation’s largest state and finished it in Rhode Island, the smallest,” she said.
Land started running while living and working in Anchorage. It became a lifestyle for her and good friend Laura Burvinski. They ran both before and after work, which sounds like a challenge considering the winter sun sets at 3:30 p.m. and doesn’t rise until 10:30 a.m. in Alaska’s biggest city. But it’s a different kind of darkness, Land said.
“We had headlamps, and with snow on the ground and city lights there was good ambient light. It is much darker here after sunset.”
They participated in races year-round, usually one a week in the summer and one a month during the winter. They’ve done all the distances from marathons and half marathons to 5Ks and 10Ks. It was after a marathon in Portland, Ore., that the pair set their 50-state goal.
The value of running is as much social as physical, Land said. “Laura and I tried biking, but we couldn’t visit. When we run, we talk, so we prefer it.
Running times aren’t the most important part of the activity. A few years ago, Land would run three miles in about 28 minutes. Today, that takes her about 36 minutes. Part of the reason for the slower pace is a hip replacement. After it, doctors said, running for recreation was fine, but hard running and training weren’t advisable.
She sticks to a plan: During a workout or race, she runs 90 seconds and then walks for 30. An app, “Runkeeper,” helps her keep track of the pace. “That way at the end of the run, your legs don’t feel wiped out,” she said.
What was her toughest race? “Probably when my friend Laura ran her fiftieth. It was near Cheyenne, Wyoming. The wind was terrible and we were running around cactus plants and gopher holes,” she recalled with a laugh.
Her husband, Bob, gets kudos for helping her schedule and travel to races. Actually, her whole family is supportive. When she celebrated her 60th birthday with a trip to Hawaii to race, her mother, sister, nieces and daughters were with her.
In Rhode Island for race number 50, she was surprised to find all three of her children and their spouses and children along with Burvinski. “I cried,” she said. “It was pretty awesome.”
Land was born in Denver and moved to Hays with her family when she was two. She earned a finance degree from Fort Hays State and was recruited by Conoco-Phillips to work in the company’s computer department in Ponca City. Her 38-year career took her to Texas and ultimately Anchorage to work in construction project management.
With races in all 50 states behind her, what’s next?
She hasn’t decided, she said. But there are 10 Canadian provinces and two territories and the U.S, territories of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands. Surely there are races to run there.
Contact Bob Rives at bprives@gmail.com.
