marathon in each of the 50 states over the past 10 years.
By Madoline Markham Koonce
What’s it like to run a half marathon in every state in the U.S.? Kelly Styslinger and Robin Bienvenu can tell you.
It all started a little more than 10 years ago when a friend of Bienvenu’s talked her into doing her first half marathon. At the time, Bienvenu had never been to Disney World, so she decided to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon in Orlando for her 50th birthday and asked Styslinger, a friend since their days together as students at Samford University, to join her.
Bienvenu found Hal Higdon’s half marathon program, and before long the two friends found the run at Disney to be “super fun.”
Around that time, Bienvenu had also started talking about how she wanted to travel more “to see Savannah, to Seattle and everything in between.” With that in mind, Styslinger went looking for a second race idea and came across a challenge to run a half marathon in all 50 states, so for Bienvenu’s birthday, Styslinger gave her a three-ring binder with a map of the United States and the state of Florida checked off. The challenge was on.
“She got me to run the first one, and I talked her into running the rest,” Styslinger said.
For the past decade, that’s what they have done, traveling to about five states each year for half marathons. They’ve run races with 100 people and races with 30,000, on mountain trails and city streets, in the rain and in the snow and the extreme heat, alongside people of all ages and abilities, and they’ve seen the entire country along the way.
“Everybody asks, ‘What was your favorite race?’” Bienvenu said. “But every place had something amazing – even North Dakota and South Dakota.”
Over and over again, the duo would start training 12 weeks before each race, and along the way they logged the most miles at Jemison Park and surrounding areas, close to Styslinger’s home in Mountain Brook and not too far away from Bienvenu’s in the Altadena Valley area.
“Around race seven or 10, I realized how hard it was to train and coordinate. It sunk in that this was not going to be easy or quick, but I always thought we’d do it,” Bienvenu said.
“It’s really about the travel and doing it with friends,” Styslinger said. “We got real excited when we hit 25.”
Styslinger and Bienvenu certainly weren’t alone in their journey. Styslinger’s five sisters came to cheerlead for different races. Two friends of Styslinger’s and Bienvenue’s who live in Dallas ran several races with them, as did Styslinger’s husband, Lee, who they both note has been supportive of their adventure.
Plus, Styslinger’s three sons each ran a race with them in the state where the sons went to college, taking them to New Haven, Connecticut; South Bend, Indiana, where it snowed; and Dallas.
Tour de USA
Getting up early for a race was never fun, but the scenery Styslinger and Bienvenu came across was more than spectacular.
At the Grand Canyon and Mount Rainier, they ran trails. The Bluegrass Run in Kentucky introduced them to the Bourbon Trail. At the Great Balloon Chase in Albuquerque, New Mexico, they were mesmerized by all the hot air balloons they saw.
“It was a spectacle seeing hundreds of balloons being launched,” Bienvenu said.
At the Canyonlands Half Marathon in Moab, Utah – which Styslinger said “looks like Mars” – the race was entirely downhill.
“I have never been so sore in my life,” Styslinger said. “It was grueling, but it was a beautiful race.”
In Pennsylvania, they ran a race put on by the Amish community, where people arrived in their horse-drawn carriages for the race dinner the night before the half marathon.
In Las Vegas, they ran at night with runners dressed like Elvis along the Strip, which was closed for the race.
It took them two years to get into the Covered Bridges Half Marathon in Vermont, but it was well worth the wait.
“It was spring and the sun was shining and there was a real light rain,” Bienvenu said. “It was so pretty.”
In the crazy high heat the women found in Chicago in September, they ran through sprinklers residents had put out in neighborhoods along the route. That race was also a winner for Bienvenu, who, unlike Styslinger, was all about any snack that was offered along the route – cookies, doughnuts, Jell-O shots, you name it.
In Hawaii, they ran along the coast of Maui in August 2023, just before the deadly wildfire struck.
“It was so sad to see two months later that it was all gone,” Styslinger said.
In Alaska, they took on the Midnight Sun Run in Anchorage on the longest day of the year, and of course they did lots of adventuring at Kenai Fjords National Park, Denali National Park & Preserve and beyond.
Along the way in their many rental cars, Bienvenu got pulled over a few times – once by a police officer in Wyoming who nicely warned them to never pass a gas station without topping off. The timing was fortuitous. Right after that run-in, Bienvenu and Styslinger got gas at the next station they saw, just before they really needed it when the highway turned into a dirt road. They’re very glad they had a full tank of gas going into it.
The 50 states challenge also took Bienvenu and Styslinger to destinations they might not have otherwise chosen.
In Omaha, Nebraska, for example, they particularly enjoyed the Joslyn Art Museum. At the Flying Pig Half Marathon in Cincinnati, the cheering made all the difference.
“It’s 13 miles of people cheering you and telling you don’t stop,” Styslinger said. “Miles 6 to 8 was one hill. We don’t mind if we walk a hill, but they would not let us walk. We ran the whole thing.”
Their biggest mistake in the journey, according to Styslinger, came on the East Coast. They were in Ocean City, Maryland, for a Saturday race, and once they got there, they ran into fellow 50 state runners who said they were doing a second race in Wilmington, Delaware, the next day. Styslinger’s eyes lit up as she heard their words, and before long they decided to squeeze in that race too before their flight the next day. They hadn’t trained to do two races in a row, though, and Styslinger said she felt the pain that came with it.
A Mountaintop Finish
No races were quite like their final two, which they completed this summer. Styslinger and Bienvenu had known they wanted to do a half marathon in Glacier National Park and had found that there was a race in Idaho the week before, so they thought they’d do both and simply stay at a high altitude. They’d soon learn, though, just how hard the Race the Wolf run on Schweitzer Mountain in northern Idaho would be.
“It was brutal,” Styslinger said. “You are at 6,000 feet and run up to 9,000 feet on a ski mountain. For 2½ miles, it was one hill straight up, and it was probably like a double back diamond and felt like it was 45 degrees. I stood up straight one time instead of leaning forward and almost fell back down.”
The running, traveling duo is also all about the markers of their accomplishment.
“We run for medals,” Styslinger said. “Sometimes we’d pick a race just for the medal.”
And if a race didn’t have a medal – like in Aspen, Colorado, where the race was canceled due to COVID but they ran the route anyway – Styslinger would design one and get it made for them.
Today, Bienvenu has her medals hanging on a rod in her garage so she can see them every day and think back on all the great memories and funny stories that go with them, and Styslinger has them hanging on a map of the United States in her home.
After they got back to Birmingham from their final race at Glacier in June, Styslinger’s daughters-in-law planned a party to celebrate the women’s accomplishment, complete with games tied to the 50 states they ran in. Both of them now are working on a photo book of their journey, and they sure have a lot of fun sharing stories from all their trips.
As to what’s next, Styslinger is taking a rest from running in July, and both of them are planning to play more golf, a sport they took up during the pandemic.
“The whole thing has been an amazing adventure,” Bienvenu said. “Doing this made me realize you can do anything, you just have to set your mind to it. It’s never too late to start a new adventure.”
And their advice in light of it all? “Whatever you do, try to see as much of this country as you can,” Styslinger said.
