Kasey Kuker has run a marathon in 49 different states and will check off the 50th in June with the Anchorage Mayor’s Marathon in Alaska. Kuker’s tattoos illustrate her journey. Kuker is pictured Tuesday, May 30, 2023, in Rochester.
June 06, 2023
Running around the world is something Kasey Kuker takes in stride.
Kuker, of Rochester, has completed the six World Marathon Majors — Boston, New York, Chicago, Berlin, Tokyo and, finally on April 23, London. Along the way, she faced food poisoning, pandemic delays, and even a lockdown after the infamous bombings when she completed the Boston Marathon in 2013.
While its no small feat to complete these six prestigious marathons, especially since entry frequently requires being chosen in a lottery. Kuker is on the verge of completing another marathon goal — running a marathon in all 50 U.S. states. She’s completed marathons in 49 states and is scheduled to run the Anchorage, Alaska, marathon on June 17.
“I’m on track to be the 34th woman in the world to finish a marathon in all 50 states under four hours,” Kuker says. “That would also make me the 158th person to ever do so.” Completing the goal will have taken her 12 years.
In all, Kuker has finished 64 full marathons and 39 half marathons. Not counting the training, that’s a bit more than 2,189 miles. That’s longer than a straight-line distance from the west coast to the east coast across the U.S.
Kuker works as an instructor of graduate medical education in transfusion medicine at Mayo Clinic. She also owns and sings in the band Branded: Hot Country, performs frequently in musical theater and serves as a mentor with Bolder Options.
After she got her job at Mayo Clinic, she met “some wonderful people who loved running.” Despite the fact that running had been a punishment in Kuker’s high school tennis-playing days, the running community she met encouraged her to complete in 5K and 10K races nearly every weekend.
“I loved the challenge, and it was a good feeling to get faster and faster, as well as more fit and healthy,” she says.
On May 1, 2011, Kuker ran her first marathon — The Big Sur International Marathon in California. She says the course is still ranked in her top three for beauty and difficulty since it includes steep rolling hills and ocean views with whales breaching.
“My friend registered me for the race, as a surprise. … I thought she was joking,” says Kuker.
The longest training run Kuker completed before running her first marathon was nine miles. Kuker completed the marathon with her friend as a charity runner raising funds for the Team America Cancer Society.
“It was very meaningful to run the race for the American Cancer Society,” says Kuker. “Those who donated to the charity were given ribbons to write the names of loved ones who were battling cancer, or in memory of those who had lost their life to cancer. I put all those ribbons in my race day bag and took them to the start line with me.”
While that first marathon could have been her last, somehow completing marathons turned into a habit for Kuker.
“After finishing my first marathon, which I guess I didn’t believe I could actually do, I decided I had to run another one,” she says.
Kuker completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota in Duluth and remembers thinking how much fun it was to cheer on the runners who completed Grandma’s Marathon there.
“It dawned on me that I could be one of those runners, and Grandma’s had to be my next and final marathon,” she says. Little did she know when she completed her second marathon in June 2012, she’d qualify for the Boston Marathon.
To commemorate each marathon she completes in a new state, Kuker gets a tattoo.
“I was only ever going to run one full marathon, and only ever get one tattoo,” she says. “I failed miserably at both.”
For her first marathon, Kuker got a tiny Highway 1 road sign and 26.2 tattooed on her right ankle. For Grandma’s Marathon, she got a Highway 61 road sign. Then, when she completed the Boston Marathon, she got its symbol, a unicorn, as a tattoo.
Kuker is currently working with tattooist Bruce Schwartz who works near her family’s home in Upper Michigan to complete a full-length left side tattoo that starts at her foot and extends to the top of her rib cage. “With the pandemic, I’m a few appointments and about 15 tattoos behind, but there will be more ink coming this winter,” she says.
The running community is what keeps Kuker fired up about marathons. “It’s all the amazing people I’ve met, all the forever friendships I’ve made, and the experiences we’ve all shared over the years, that gives me so much joy,” she says. “I have friends in every state, and all over the world because of this passion.”
Kuker has been giving back to the running community by serving as a pacer since 2015. She’s paced 25 half marathons or 10-mile races so far. She holds a sign on a stick while she runs with a finish time on one side and a minutes to mile ratio on the other.
“Runners who have a goal of finishing their race at or around that time will run with me,” she says. “I point out aid stations, distract them with funny stories, sing songs by request, and yell out motivational phrases as we climb hills or battle wind on the course together.”
While challenging, finishing a marathon is also a rewarding feat. “I strongly believe anyone can do it,” Kuker says. “It’s a process that will test your physical and mental limits, and make you realize you can do much more than maybe you thought you could.”