Fifty-five years old and over the hill? Yes, the hills of Colorado — and the dales of Minnesota, the corn fields of Nebraska and Iowa, and the lakeshores in Wisconsin and Michigan. For eight weeks, at a clip of 30 miles a day, Paula Vaughan is running 1,451 miles, from Boulder, Colorado to Petoskey, Michigan. To Paula, running is both magical and life-affirming. She loves being outside and the independence of being under her own power. “Running has given me a sense of confidence and a belief in my physical capabilities, which I never much had as a kid,” she says. “The health aspects and losing weight is so not what running is for me. It heals every part of me. I also really like to see things on foot and I like the rhythm of my footfalls.” To date, she has run 28 marathons, including five Boston Marathons and two in New York City. Now, she is logging more than one marathon per day in her quest to run through six states. Vaughan has dreamed of a transcontinental run since about the late 1970s, but it wasn’t until several years ago that she decided on the starting and ending points of her run. Boulder and Petoskey were chosen because, “They’re two of my favorite places on earth.”
SIX HOURS PER DAY Paula spent most of her childhood in Petoskey, but Boulder has been her home since 1973. She and her husband, Kendall Miller, have two sons. When she retired in July 2006, Vaughan started training to make her dream come true. That means running at least six hours per day, roughly 17 miles in the morning and 13 miles in the afternoon, six days a week. The entire journey is expected to take about 55 days. With the help of her coach, Mark Plaatje, co-owner of The Boulder Running Company, she set up a training schedule. Since January, she has been running 100 to 120 miles per week. After each run she spent about an hour icing and stretching. The training has been intense, but rewarding. Weight that Vaughan has carried since her first son was born has melted off. And she has been completely free of colds and sickness. “It’s turned my body into a clean machine,” she said. The biggest bonus however, has been her sense of accomplishment. “It has shown me that I can do something I never thought I could do,” she said. Since August of 2006 Paula has kept a blog of her reflections and progress during training. To read her blog, go to pjsrun.blogspot.com. Training hasn’t been easy. As luck would have it, Boulder experienced one of its worst winters in recorded history with 61 consecutive days of snow cover. Only primary roads are plowed in Boulder, and Vaughan found herself “wading through snow and dancing on ice” to get to the main roads. Then, in December, her father, Paul Vaughan, passed away.
PLANNING THE RUN Over the past year, Paula meticulously mapped out her course and then divided the run into daily segments. She, Kendall and their son Paul each carry a daily map of the run. During the trek, Paula, Kendall and Paul live in a small motor home. There, they cook and eat most of their meals and usually sleep there. Each day, Kendall drives ahead to the pick-up point and Vaughan runs to meet him. Depending on the day, Paul either runs with her or bikes back to meet her. Members of various running clubs, such as the Missouri River Running Club and the Wausau Wisconsin Running Club, have members who have joined her for a portion of the run. At the conclusion of each segment of the run, Vaughan marks the finishing point with chalk. She also uses golf tees and markers that had belonged to her dad. On the run, she wears a water belt with one water bottle, food, a phone, a walkie-talkie and a “really loud whistle.” While she’s running, she consumes Gatorade, a fruitenergy gel called Gu, spicy gum drops, and protein bars — stuff she got tired of even before her long-distance run began. Each pair of running shoes lasts about 300 to 400 miles, and Vaughan constantly has four pairs in rotation. She has seven pairs of shoes with her on the run. By the time she reached Wisconsin, one pair was finished and a second pair nearly worn-out. Vaughan chose her route as the most direct path between Boulder and Petoskey, relying on roads less traveled and trails whenever possible. During her six hours of running, she engages in a lot of “free-form thinking.” Sometimes I do a little math to try to figure out where I am,” she said. “I also like looking at the sites. I enjoy seeing the flowers in bloom and hawks flying overhead.” She’s also seen bald eagles, and she keeps a count of various types of road kill, including a melted package of Velveta cheese.
SHE’S BOOKED After 1,451 miles, will Paula be burned out and willing to hang up her running shoes? “It’s never crossed my mind,” she said. In fact, she’s already signed up to run in the Boulder Back Roads Marathon in September and the Denver Marathon in October. When Vaughan finally arrives in Petoskey after many hot and dusty miles, the first thing she plans to do is have a tea party with her mom on her new deck. But also she admits to thinking a lot about her second favorite daydream: “I’m going to jump in Lake Michigan. I fantasize about that.” Vaughan is not running for any specific cause or organization and is running without the benefit of a major sponsor. But her run, as she sees it, is for middle-aged women everywhere. “It’s to prove that you should pursue a dream even if most people think it’s a little odd. If you have a hankering to do something, do it. Even if it takes you 30 years to get there.”
On the Homestretch:
Paula Vaughan is now in Michigan, completing her run from Boulder to Petoskey. She is running through the Upper Peninsula and had requested permission to run across the Mackinac Bridge, but was denied. Instead, she will ride on a ferry to Mackinac Island, run around the island and then take a ferry to Mackinaw City. She will then take a bike path skirting US 31 into Petoskey. She will proceed to the Bay Front Park, up through the tunnel, past the Basket Shop (her family used to own it), past Central School (where she attended elementary school) and on to her mother’s house. Her expected arrival in Petoskey is August 1. Everyone is invited to cheer her on along the final steps of her route.
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