Marathon – Houghton STAR

Glen Avery, International Marathon Runner.

International marathon runner, Glen Avery, faculty at Houghton for 28 years, will participate in the World Marathon Challenge in January. The challenge is to complete seven back-to-back 26.2-mile marathons, one on each continent. The challenge from start to finish must be finished in 168 hours. This provides an 8-hour window to complete each individual marathon. Avery will join 14 other runners as they board a plane headed for Antarctica. The event starts at Union Glacier in Antarctica where the runners complete their first marathon. From Union Glacier, the runners fly to Punta Arenas, Chile for number two. From Chile, to Florida, USA to Madrid, Spain to Marrakesh, Morocco to Dubai, UAE, these 15 runners will participate in an event that few people dare to try. Some challenges in the event include altitude and weather changes. The event ends with a midnight marathon in Australia.

GlenAveryMedalsRGB Avery’s running career started long before he signed up for the World Marathon Challenge. On his 51st birthday in 2001, Avery began to be concerned about his physical health. He decided to start walking at the gym. In April 2002, he ran his first 5k in Geneva, NY. After this first event, he bought shoes and started running more. His first marathon was in Athens, Greece and what initially interested him in this race was of the history of the marathon. The Greek soldier, Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of military victory over the Persians in the battle of Marathon.

Avery and his wife, Margery travelled to Greece. This started a pattern of internationally traveling and running. Avery has run a marathon on every continent, twice. In his first tour of the continents, he completed races in Greece, NYC, Hawaii, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Thailand, and Antarctica. Avery explained that it is imperative to mind the penguins when running a marathon in Antarctica. His first cycle took 9 years and ended with running into the sunrise of Cheng Mai, Thailand on Christmas day, 2011. The second cycle took him 4 years. During the second cycle, he ran in South Africa, the Falkland Islands, Cuba, Spain, Antarctica, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

Avery recounted, “I’ve made connections and learned so much about culture from these experiences. That’s what I take away from all this.” He explained that one of his most impressionable intercultural experiences was in the Falkland Islands. Avery and 30 new friends from the Falkland Islands visited 1982 war sites of the 74-day war fought between Argentina and the Falkland islands. His new friends invited him for meals, visited battle sites, and cemeteries where he saw his friends grieve the losses of the causalities from the war. Because of experiences like this, Avery assures us, “I am going to continue to do international marathons. I can’t imagine my life without these experiences.”

This June, Glen and his wife Margery are retiring from Houghton after many years. Glen will retire from his current Instructional Technology Librarian position and Margery will retire from her current duties as head of Academic Records. When they are not working, the Avery’s enjoy traveling, reading, hiking, and serving others.
To prepare for the World Marathon Challenge, Avery intends to run four back-to-back marathons in the Western United States this summer. Avery continuously trains for events year-round. He states, “I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.” During his retirement, he plans on writing a book about all of his experiences as an international runner.

Michael Jordan, dean of the chapel, ran in the record breaking New York City Marathon this past Sunday. He finished in 3541st place out of over fifty thousand runners, with a time of three hours, 26 minutes, and 45 seconds. According to a Runner’s World article, published Monday, this was the largest marathon in history with a total count of 50,564 finishers.

Jordan stayed on Staten Island, the starting location, about a quarter mile away from the starting line. He said most participants stay in Manhattan and have to take the subway and ferry over, which takes hours. Instead he said he, “rolled out of bed, walked down the street to get a bagel and a cup of coffee and then walked over and ran the race.”

According to Jordan, for him some of the most rewarding aspects of running the marathon was being in a big city, the feeling of accomplishment, and being happy with his time. Distinguished by his poncho, given to him at the finish, he said it seemed the whole city seemed to be asking him excitedly, “Did you run the marathon?!” He was even offered warmer clothes by person on the street, to which he declined. New York City, which he added for having a reputation for being grouchy, he said was really nice and called it “the friendliest city in the world” that day.

There were many international runners in the marathon according to Jordan. He said there were people waving flags from around the world along the course. Wilson Kipsang, and Mary Keitany, both Kenyans, won this year’s mens and womens marathon .

Jordan decided to enter the lottery system for running in the marathon four years ago. His then colleague, Ginny Routhe, former sustainability coordinator at Houghton College, entered at the same time. She also ran in the marathon Sunday.

This was the ninth marathon Jordan ran. The eight other marathons in Buffalo, Letchworth State Park, Niagara Falls, Rehoboth Beach, and the New Jersey Shore. He said though he is a much more introverted runner, given the chance he would run the NYC marathon again.