Idaho man joins elite marathon runner group after finishing a race in all 50 states

On Jan. 15, Bob Mueller crossed the finish line at the Maui Oceanfront Marathon in Hawaii. He wasn’t happy with his performance — he’d gotten a cramp and had to walk several miles, making it one of his worst marathon times ever.

“I was more relieved than exhilarated,” Mueller told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. “I was just happy I was done.”

But a few weeks later, Mueller was starting to appreciate the reality of finishing the race. The 69-year-old’s Hawaii marathon marked his completion of running a marathon in each of the 50 states in the U.S., a feat only a fraction of marathon runners ever achieve.

Marathon achievement was years in the making

Mueller, who now lives in Garden City, started running marathons when he turned 40. He was living in his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the time and was intrigued by the boss at his new job. Though the man was older than Mueller, he was an avid long-distance runner.

“He said the secret to running longer (is that) you just need to focus on pushing the distance out farther for one run a week,” Mueller said.

He tried that technique and found his body “hung in there” through the additional distance. In 1994 on his 40th birthday, he completed his first marathon, the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee.

The marathon was hosted by the Badgerland Striders, a local running club that Mueller joined. He started to focus on achieving a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. In a few years, he had run marathons in several states on family trips or visits to neighboring states with fellow runners.

In 2007, he decided to work toward the goal of running a marathon in every state.

“By the time I decided I would try it, I had already done 30 marathons and had five states done,” he said.

In 2010, Mueller ran in the Boston Marathon with friends from his Milwaukee running group. After that, he said, he didn’t worry much about his marathon times.

“There’s a difference between running a marathon and just finishing one,” Mueller told the Statesman. “When you’re going for 50 states, you kind of give up on your time and performance.”

Mueller was running between four and six marathons every year to move closer to his goal. Sometimes he would run back-to-back marathons in close states, finishing one on Saturday and the other on Sunday to cut down on travel.

That’s a grueling slog, said Jim Szyjakowski, who met Mueller through the Badgerland Striders and finished the Boston Marathon with him.

“Doing a marathon itself is something because of the training you’ve put into it,” Szyjakowski told the Statesman in an interview. “Most people will run maybe two marathons a year.”

Idaho race marked return to marathons

The demanding running routine eventually took its toll. In 2012, Mueller suffered a knee injury while running a marathon in Aspen, Colorado, where the route begins around 8,000 feet in elevation and takes runners even higher over several inclines.

He moved to Idaho in 2013 for work and took a break from marathons to recover. As he healed, he picked up running with the Boise Area Runners club. Though he’d lived in Idaho for some time, he still had to cross the Gem State off his 50 states marathon list.

Through the club, he met Courtney Murray, who had run half-marathons but never a full marathon. In an interview, Murray said Mueller convinced her to try the longer race.

“He really put together all the training and (at 6 a.m.) was like, ‘Courtney, it’s time to get up and go running,’” Murray said.

Together, the two completed the Lake Lowell Marathon in 2016 — Mueller’s first marathon since his injury in Aspen. He still had 17 more states to run in.

After his Idaho race, Mueller picked up the pace again, checking off states one by one. In the last 10 months, he completed five marathons, including his final race in Hawaii.

When he crossed the finish line in Maui, Mueller became a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, which was founded in 2001 and includes just 5,130 members.

Mueller’s running companions said they’re impressed with his feat but not surprised. Mueller has always been one to push himself and other runners, Szyjakowski said. Often, he was the one to plan group trips for marathons, working out the logistics of travel, lodging, marathon registration and more.

Plus, Szyjawkoski said, Mueller is just a great guy to spend time with.

“Miles go by really quick when you’re with Bob, and he’s always making it a fun event,” Szyjawkoski said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re hurt or having a bad day. Bob can always pick you up and make it an enjoyable event.”

Murray said Mueller felt like a father figure as they trained for their Idaho marathon, sharing wisdom on hydration and fueling.

“He’s so nice and so positive, and he never made me feel bad about being slow,” Murray told the Statesman. “It was nice to just have someone that had your back. He would say, ‘You run your own race, you don’t run someone else’s.’”

After running dozens of his own races, Mueller has his favorites: Boston for its prestige; the Chicago Marathon in Illinois where he earned a personal record time of 3:34.14; the Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon as his first race with his daughter; and New Mexico’s Bataan Memorial Death March, a memorial to World War II veterans who endured the namesake march in the Philippines.

In the time since completing his Hawaii race, it has made his top five favorites, too, capping off a decades-long endeavor.

“I’m enjoying the accomplishment,” Mueller said. “There’s not another mountain I want to climb.”

Well, maybe a small one. Hawaii marked Mueller’s 74th marathon in his running career. He hopes to run one more race when he turns 70 — maybe a local charity run — and make his 75th marathon his last.