When Gwen Jacobson stepped up the starting line of a 5k road race in 2010 to support a charitable cause benefiting a co-worker’s husband who had cancer, she had no idea her feet would eventually take her on an amazing journey through the next 13 years of her life.
In her pursuit of running, she has traveled across the United States and the world, accomplished goals she never knew existed before, made hundreds of new friends and gained a whole new outlook on life.
It has all come at a dizzying pace for the Rochester resident. Jacobson has packed more into the past dozen years of running than most runners achieve in a lifetime. She has already run more than 100 marathons, including all 50 states, 10 straight Boston marathons and all six major international races.
Even though she is turning 65 in June, she hasn’t slowed down the pace or scaled back her ambitious goals. She set a marathon personal record (PR) earlier this spring and now has her sights set on running all seven continents.
“You’re never too old to find something that challenges you do to something you’ve never done,” she said.
First race reels her in
Before that charitable impulse in 2010, Jacobson never thought she would ever be traveling abroad, much less for a marathon, as she hadn’t been involved in running or sports before. She had been “busy being a mom for 20-some years,” she said, but once her children left home, she decided to take on something new when some co-workers approached her about the charity run. After that first race, she was hooked.
“So I trained for that 5k race and after I got done, I just started looking for a race every month to benefit whatever it was, but I figured if I had a race every month I would keep running and then the distances started getting longer,” she said.
In June 2011, she ran her first half-marathon — Grandma’s in Duluth. She decided that since she was halfway to a marathon, she would try a marathon next.
Her impatience with achieving running goals already showed up as she set her sights on the Twin Cities Marathon in the fall. The only hitch was that it had filled up, so she took part in the marathon training classes offered through the running club because she could get an entry into Twin Cities.
She appreciated the class as it prepared her for the marathon, everything from nutrition to race day expectations, but, more importantly, it introduced her to the Rochester Running Club, which was the Rochester Track Club at the time, and the Saturday morning training runs, in which she still regularly participates to this day.
She finished the Twin Cities Marathon on Oct. 2, 2011, in 4:06:46. “Somebody told me after I finished that I had just missed qualifying for Boston by a few minutes,” she said. “That’s when I learned qualifying for Boston is a big deal.”
That revelation soon turned into a goal. It wouldn’t be the last time she quickly set a goal after learning something new about the sport of running.
She decided to go back to Grandma’s in 2012 to run the full marathon. However, she couldn’t get it done in under four hours, something that would happen just once more over the next 101 marathons.
“I trained to the point that I overtrained,” she commented. “I didn’t know it, but I went into that with an injury and it took me over five hours to finish that marathon. It was eye-opening to learn that you can overtrain and it’s going to cause injury.”
Prior to the marathon, she had a little pain in her hip, but couldn’t pin down what it was. She speculated that it might have been a stress reaction that turned into a fracture around mile 13, which was the point in the race in which she could hardly run. Following the marathon, she went into the medical tent and then into the hospital with a stress fracture in her left hip. She came home from that marathon on crutches.
“Lesson learned,” she said. It wouldn’t be the last lesson she learned from her new passion of running.
First of many sub-four-hour marathons
She recovered from her injury and ran the Twin Cities 10-mile race that fall. She distance trained again for Grandma’s Marathon in 2013, although she ran fewer miles in training and mixed in more cross-training, such as biking and swimming. Her new routine worked as she remained injury-free and finished in 3:58:42, a sub-four-hour marathon that qualified her for the Boston Marathon, which she ran in 2014.
“It (Boston) was amazing,” Jacobson said. “I think to this day it still my most memorable race because it was my first Boston, it was the year after the bombing and the city was just so supportive and happy the runners were there that when I ran down Boylston Street the cheers were so loud, I couldn’t hear. There was nothing like that feeling. I’ve crossed the Boston finish line nine more times since then. They are always great, but that first one is going to stay with me forever.”
Although the race went well for her, the aftermath was a different story as she unexpectedly ended up with severe dehydration after the race.
“I learned another lesson in that race – how important hydrating is because I was pretty sick after that race. It took me a couple weeks to recover. But I still went back to running marathons. I’m crazy,” she laughed.
She also learned something else in her Boston debut, which qualified her for the next Boston Marathon. Someone told her about a Boston Marathon streakers club for runners who have participated in 10 consecutive Boston marathons, which includes a policy that allows members to register for future marathons ahead of the other runners.
Of course, that became a new goal for Jacobson, who achieved it in April at this year’s Boston Marathon.
Jacobson ran just three marathons inn 2013 leading up to her first Boston Marathon, but her marathons would rapidly increase in number after that, all due to another quest she learned about in her conversations with other runners.
Marathon running expands to 50 states
“Along the way, I met these crazy people who talked about doing a marathon in all 50 states” she said.
She also got to talking to Deb Thomford, who she knew as the woman in her age group who she could never beat in Rochester races. She learned Thomford had run all 50 states with times under four hours. So, her goal became, not just to run in all 50 states, but also to run each one in under four hours.
Then, she learned about another club in which members run all 50 states in Boston qualifying times. That meant a new goal, although it would be almost the same for her since the qualifying time for her age was four hours.
Her three marathons inn 2013 jumped to eight In 2014 and continued going up from there. The most she has done in one year is 14 in 2018 when she was getting close to her 50-state goals. She had only one state to redo because she didn’t reach her goal of four hours. That was Wyoming in a rainy race at altitude.
She saved Iowa, the Des Moines Marathon, for her last one because it was close to Minnesota.
“What meant the world to me is, No. 1, a lot of my family came from Minnesota, including my three children, and a ton of Rochester Running Club members and Team RED members made the trip and did the half, or the relay or the full so I was able to celebrate that accomplishment with a lot of the people that I had put all the training miles in with, which made it super special – running friends in the community as well as my family were able to be there,” she said.
New goal leads to world medal
She didn’t rest on that achievement for long as she soon had another goal or two in mind. Someone told her about the Six Star Medal introduced by the Abbott World Marathon Majors in 2016 to honor the runners who complete all six major marathons. Since she had already run Chicago, New York and Boston in the United States, she decided to go for it. She also decided she wanted to complete 100 marathons by the time she reached age 65.
However, the pandemic soon spread around the globe, altering plans for everyone. She had previously qualified for the 2020 Berlin Marathon, but the race was canceled. Jacobson was able to defer two years to 2022, which turned out to be a good decision because she qualified for the London Marathon in 2021 when Abbott debuted age group world championships. In London, which was deferred from the spring to Oct. 3, 2021, Jacobson set a new PR with a time of 3:20:41, good enough for third place in her world championship age group.
“I was hoping I would place in the top three. When I finished the race, I didn’t know for sure that I had, but I was going to go to the championship ceremony anyway, and I got called up on stage, and it was unbelievable – to walk up there and get that,” she said. “That was pretty fun.”
From London, she flew to Boston, which was also deferred from the spring to the fall. She had a few days to recover from jet lag and on Oct. 11, 2021, she ran a 3:23:08, which was good for first place in her age group. Although it was her second fastest marathon ever, she realized that medals all depend on who shows up on a given race day.
“I was fortunate I was the fastest person in my age group that year,” she said. “That was not something I ever dreamed I could ever do.”
Her final major marathon was in 2023 at Tokyo, which had been canceled or closed to overseas runners for three years.
“2023 was the big year that everybody was trying to get into Tokyo and I knew that my only way in was charity so I submitted a bid for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Tokyo and I got in. So I was a charity runner in Tokyo,” she noted.
Like Thomford, who also earned her Six Star Medal in Tokyo this spring, Jacobson was part of a Guinness world record. Nearly 3,000 runners earned their Six Star medals March 5, 2023, a record number due to covid precautions delaying their progress for several years.
Prior to Tokyo, Jacobson ran her 100th marathon at Rehoboth Beach in Delaware in December 2022. Coincidentally, she ran her 100th BQ marathon at the Boston Marathon in April 2023. During all those marathons, she only had three that weren’t BQs — her first two and that one in Wyoming.
At Boston last spring, she finished in third place in her age group, the last time she will run in the 60 to 64 age group. She also ran her fastest Boston Marathon with a time of 3:18:44.
“This is crazy,” she said. “I don’t know how I did that. I feel incredibly blessed to be able to run marathons faster as I’m older. I can’t really explain it.”
She didn’t take much of a break after that one, though, as another bucket list goal was to do Boston to Big Sur in California. This year, the two marathons were 13 days apart, which made it a bit easier.
“The Big Sur Marathon, I would say, of all the marathons I have done, is the most beautiful, but the the most challenging because of the hills – and you do Hurricane Point over Bixby Bridge; there’s a reason they call it Hurricane Point. This year, the race director said this is the worst wind we’ve had in 15 years. We had 20 miles per hour sustained with 35-mile gusts. So, you’re going uphill into the wind, but the views are so incredible, you just do what you have to do.”
New challenges in running, coaching
She isn’t done with her goals, though, as she was inspired by Thomford again to take on a new challenge — running all seven continents. She has four to go: Antarctica, Africa, South America and Oceania, which is Australia and New Zealand. Her goal is to finish this goal before she turns 70. She is already on a wait list for Antarctica for 2025.
For good measure, she has another indirect, or secondary, goal to run a second round of sub-four marathons in 50 states. She already has 22 done and nine more scheduled for this year.
Another long-term goal of hers has been getting involved in coaching. Recently, she started coaching with Girls on the Run, serving as an assistant coach in the Willow Creek after-school program.
“I am absolutely loving it — working with these young girls and showing them that you can do anything you put your mind to and age isn’t even a defining factor – it doesn’t stop you from being active if you want to,” she said. “It’s not only training them to run a race, it’s also teaching them life skills and building their self confidence in all areas of life, which is what I really enjoy – watching the girls grow.”
She will also get the opportunity to watch her oldest son run a marathon. He will be doing his first 26.2-mile run in the Twin Cities this fall. She will run the 10-mile race and then go cheer him on.
“It’s kind of cool that his first marathon is going to be the same one that mine was,” she said.
Lessons continue
Along the way to her 100+ marathons, Jacobson learned another lesson as she had another stress fracture in November 2021. The diagnosis for this one was osteoporosis. She was successfully treated and has regained some bone strength. Since then, she has added strength training to her cross training and running routine. She thinks the strength training has not only contributed to keeping her healthy, but also is responsible for her times improving as she has aged.
“To me it feels like it is slowing my aging process down,” she said. “It’s keeping me healthy and given me the opportunity to travel and make friends across the whole United States that I would not have met.”
Although she has so many impressive achievements, she noted that “the friendships and the camaraderie with my fellow runners is the thing that has given me the most satisfaction.” She still loves going to Saturday morning group runs and always makes new friends at the many races she attends.
“I don’t think I have ever felt like I have been alone at a race because there is always somebody that I’m going to know or someone I’m going to start talking to. Runners are the friendliest people you’re ever going to meet,” she said.
Her setbacks have also kept her unassuming. “I enjoy the distance and I never take it for granted crossing a finish line,” she said. “And, I don’t run with music. I take it as a 26.2-mile tour of these beautiful places I get to run in.”
Always willing to help other runners, she has three tips: Do cross-training, such as swimming or biking, make sure to get in some strength training and don’t forget to build in some rest days.
It isn’t surprising what tip is the hardest for her to follow.
“I sometimes have a hard time taking that rest day,” she said with a laugh.
Written by David Phillips, who is featuring the stories of local runners on an occasional basis for the Rochester Running Club.