Three sisters of their 70s found a novel technique to connect with one another and their relations – by running a half marathon in all 50 states.
In 2009, Mary Vedborg, a 48-year-old Poway resident, set out on the half-marathon mission along with her sisters Patty Armstrong of Carmel Valley in central California and Ann Penfield of Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe.
That's a hike of 13.2 miles in each state.
The first state they entered was Washington and in July they ended with Alaska.
“It was incredible,” said Vedborg, 74. “We were thrilled that we finally did it. “We at all times looked forward to the trips because, along with the walks, we just enjoyed one another's company and had a terrific time.”
And the sisters said their mother would have been really proud of their achievement.
When they were children, their mother, Martha McAvoy, regularly took them on walks through their hometown of Torrance, during a time Veborg described as President Kennedy's “era of vigor and vigor.” When she was only 10, the walks were sometimes 20 miles long, she recalled.
“When we were kids, she used to let us go for walks,” said Vedborg, a retired Poway High School library worker. “She just believed in being physically fit. Sometimes we couldn't afford to drive, so we walked. She had really long legs, so it was difficult to keep up with her.”
The sisters' lives took different directions over the years, but they always remained active. The youngest, Penfield, 72, is an avid skier and backpacker; middle child, Vedborg, keeps fit with water aerobics and yoga; and the eldest, Armstrong, 76, enjoys playing golf and tennis.
In their later years, the sisters remained in touch, but bonded over a shared tragedy when Armstrong was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000 and Vedborg was diagnosed with breast cancer two years later. Both were 50 years old at the time of their diagnosis.
“Luckily we’re both strong and healthy and got through it,” Armstrong said.
Not the type to give up hope, the sisters decided after their recovery to raise funds for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation on a three-day walk. The 60-mile hike was then known as the Avon Hike, the sisters said.
That gave them the confidence to attempt the Big Sur hike in 2004. Vedborg's daughter Kate McCord, now 45 and living in Poway, accompanied her on the hike when she was still early in her pregnancy.
“We thought if we could run 20 miles in one day on the Avon Walk, we could do 21 miles in 6 hours on the Big Sur Power Walk,” said Armstrong, who taught fourth graders for 25 years.
After that, the sisters regularly ran half marathons around Lake Tahoe and signed up for another Big Sur Power Walk in 2009. By a stroke of luck – or coincidence – Vedborg spotted a man wearing a long-sleeved shirt with a map of the United States on it. He told her he was trying to complete a marathon in every state.
And so the sisters came up with the idea of organizing their own half marathons in each state.
“We decided, what the heck, we’ll try all 50,” said Penfield, who continues to work part-time as an accountant. “It was a good way to connect with each other, and by figuring out when to schedule the hikes on the calendar, we had the incentive to travel to all 50 states. We did a few different trips every year and probably did three or more half marathons every year.”
After McCord told their mother, “If you walk in a single state yearly, you'll be 110 years old by the tip,” the sisters decided to take it a step further and walked in four or five states every year until they Alaska reached its 50th state in July.
Since Penfield had lived in Alaska in the late 1970s and early '80s, she took her sisters through the cities of Fairbanks, Anchorage and Homer, as well as Denali National Park, where grizzly bears live.
“We researched and found cool places to visit and then set out to find the highlights of the state we were traveling in,” Penfield said.
Part of the fun was sharing adventures with their family members. Vedborg's husband, Chris Vedborg, was unable to run due to an injury, but traveled alongside them, and Penfield's late partner, Jim Delehanty, accompanied them in a dozen states. And long-lost cousins reunited with them on walks in New York and Colorado.
Over the years, they collected photo albums containing photos of the scenic areas they hiked and preserved special memories.
Vedborg said while they were in upstate New York, they came across an old church that their grandparents had converted into a summer vacation home.
“A neighbor said she had a key to the house and let us in,” she said. “The house was exactly as it was 50 years ago when my grandmother sold it.”
They found that a couple living in New Jersey brought their five children into the house during the summer, and since they spent most of their time outside, they decided they didn't need to change the inside of the house at all, Vedborg said.
Armstrong said there was something interesting and different in every state they visited, and that the sisters particularly enjoyed trying each region's unique dishes, from gumbo in the South to lobster in Maine.
“We went to Acadia National Park (in Maine) for a few days,” Armstrong said. “One of our first walks was on Cape Cod and it was beautiful. We went to Boston on one trip and to Niagara Falls on another trip. Some of the places we visited were really exciting, and there were places some people never got to see.”
Their commitment to walking in all 50 states waned during the COVID pandemic, but they never thought about stopping. Penfield said they persevered even in the rain because their trips were planned through the company Mainly Marathons, which organizes hikes in regions such as the prairie states of Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri.
“It was always an adventure,” Armstrong remembers. “We would travel to Michigan, Illinois and Iowa together. In Michigan we drove through a pretty Dutch town with windmills called Niles, where the Dutch settled. Then we drove to Illinois and Iowa, where we walked on both sides of the Mississippi.
“Between the two walks, we took a boat trip on the Mississippi,” she said. “Wherever we went, we found fun things to do or visited historical places. There was always something entertaining. It was fun.”
Vedborg said it was great to have a typical goal and shared experiences.
“It was fun to be together and explore the realm,” Vedborg said. “My two sisters travel more than I do, so it was a real pleasure for me.”
Now that they’ve accomplished the hikes in all 50 states, they’ve a brand new goal.
“We want to visit all the national parks, about 63,” Vedborg said. “We’ve been to at least 20 of them.”
Your next stop: Montana's Glacier National Park in fall 2025.
Originally published:
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