Mike Garry goal was to run a sub four hour marathon in all 50 states

As he was running the Casper, Wyoming marathon June 3, Mike Barry could sense the pressure rising. If he ran this race right, he would complete his six-year quest of running a marathon in under four hours in all 50 states. But everything was going wrong.   A race course error made the track a half-mile too long. His body was exhausted from running a marathon the week before in Vermont. The elevation was high and the heat was stifling. And a failed attempt in 2016 to finish this route in under four hours haunted him.   But by this point in his quest, Barry had run through it all. Driving rain storms, steaming heat and biting cold. And so, with the western sun beating down on him, Barry kept running in Wyoming, determined to complete the race in under four hours this time. And he did, crossing the finish line in a nail-biting three hours and fifty-four minutes. He took a deep breath at the finish line and enjoyed a well-earned chocolate milk and Dr Pepper. “You have to be able to put that all aside and put down the left foot and then the right foot and keep running,” Barry, 50, said. And then he went to Yellowstone with his family and “did nothing for three days.”

posted Thursday June 21st