My Bucket List Goal Makes Fitness Fun

By Lori Ott | Published: October 15, 2012

I don’t travel much, in fact the only time I’ve left the country is to hang out in Canada for a little while.  But shortly after I started running a couple of years ago, I thought it would be kind of fun to incorporate running when I travel into a little Bucket List goal.  I was in Atlanta with my husband for a little R & R and knew it would be easy to blow off any chances I might have to run.  Instead I decided it would be a great time to add “running in other states” as part of my fitness routine.  So I decided during that trip that I was going to make it a Bucket List goal that before I died I would run at least a 5K distance in all fifty states.

I just started running in April of 2010 and since then I’ve been able to run a 5K distance in five different states.  If I keep this up it’ll only take me 20 years to get to my goal.  And this weekend I’ll add one more.  Every October I meet up with about a dozen other moms of twins in some far away destination for four days of running away from home to laugh, relax and have a great time.  On Thursday I leave for Phoenix and since I’ve never been running in Arizona, I’ve already lined up a running partner who will stop kicking up her feet and relaxing long enough to help me get at least one 3.1 mile run in.

Not only does this goal insure that when I do travel I make sure I pack my running clothes and shoes, but I figure when I get down to the end of reaching my goal and have a few states left then my husband will just have to listen to me when I say “But honey, I’ve run in 48 states!  I’m just missing Hawaii and Alaska!  We have to go! “


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Lori Ott Lori Ott
I'm a stay-at-home mom of three very energetic boys, 9 year old twins and a 4 year old. I played basketball and volleyball in junior high, then a little rec softball in college, but since then I hadn't done much in the way of sports until my friend convinced a bunch of us to train for a 5K together so she could cross it off her bucket list. Considering the thought of running more than a minute straight seemed like an impossibility I wasn't sure I'd be able to. But we used the Couch to 5K program and in 9 weeks time I was able to run 3.1 miles without walking. My first 5K and I was hooked. After that my husband and I teamed up to compete in some adventure races and found that we absolutely loved working as a team and using those opportunities to have really fun and exciting dates. Now I just keep increasing my distance and training for more interesting and challenging races. I hope to get more into biking and eventually do a duathlon and then someday a triathlon. I especially love the more creative and fun races like mud runs, Zombie dashes, the Scaredy Pants 5K adventure race. The crazier the race is, the less I feel like I'm working really hard.

2 Comments

  1. Lorri Romesberg Lorri Romesberg
    Posted October 18, 2012 at 9:19 am | Permalink

    What an absolutely fun idea! We need a map to see where you have been so far. Love it!

  2. Rick Thomas rick thomas
    Posted October 20, 2012 at 1:25 am | Permalink

    The marathoners have the fifty state club, and so do you. How cool! I am not sure about fifty states, but I may try something simple like racing a 5k or 10k in whatever state I visit. Thanks for sharing a great idea!

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