Larry Burton was driving back home to Illinois in 2006 after running a marathon in Jackson, Tennessee. During the long drive with time to think, Burton decided to challenge himself as a long-distance runner.

“By that time, I probably had around 11 marathons, and I went to Tennessee by myself,” he recalled. “I was driving home, and I just kind of think of all kinds of different things. One thing entered my mind about, ‘Hey, I should do the marathon in every state.’ ”

Burton of Martinton had already run 11 marathons in six or seven states, including Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Minnesota. He thought running a marathon in each of the 50 states was attainable.

“I had a long journey to go, though,” he said.

Burton, 65, just completed that long journey on Aug. 6 by running a marathon in Juneau, Alaska. It took him 19 years to finish the remaining 43 states. It wasn’t an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

“There are several states where it was a fairly hilly course, like Maine, for example, was a hilly course, and probably a few other states, it’s more difficult,” he said. “If you are a runner, you probably realize that up and down hills, it can be a toll on a person’s body over 26 miles.”

Included in those more than 50 actual marathons (he’s run in some states multiple times) were the famous Boston Marathon and the Chicago Marathon. Boston was one of his earlier marathons, completing it in 1988 when he was 28 years old.

What made competing in the Boston Marathon special was that he had to qualify for it with a time of 3 hours, even for a male at the age of 28. He qualified for Boston with that time at Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota.

Burton ran the Chicago Marathon in 1985. It’s one of just two marathons he’s run in Illinois, with the other in Champaign.

His first marathon was run in 1982 in Terre Haute, Indiana, which was called the Marathon Marathon, sponsored by the Marathon Oil Company. In Indiana, he’s also run the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, as well as the well-known Mini Marathon several times, which is a half-marathon run during the Indy 500 weekend.

“It’s cool to run around the [Indy 500] track,” he said.

How it all began

Burton got his start in running while in junior high school in Sheldon, Illinois. In junior high, the longest distance event was the half mile, so he ran that event. And he kept running in high school at Sheldon High School, where he got to choose among half mile, mile and the two mile.

“By the age of 17, is where I really caught on to me and started running, started running to school and just kept on running,” he said. “Like Forrest Gump.”

His best time in the mile was 4:42, which was good enough for third place at the Watseka Regional in his senior year in 1979. He’s a self-motivated runner.

“I think it was just my inner drive,” he said. “Living up on the farm, I just started running out on the farm. It just caught on.”

Working as a financial representative full-time for Thrivent Financial allows Burton to set his own work schedule.

“That’s how I’ve been able to run 19 marathons in the last four years,” he said. “... I really stepped it up.”

He competes with a running group called Mainly Marathons, which coordinates the marathons across the country. That helped him complete the 50-state journey.

Keep running

Burton pretty much runs every day, including one long event a week of 18 to 20 miles and a tempo run of pacing the same speed for the entire six-mile workout.

“I’ve cut back right now because it’s more of a taper period or rest period for me,” he said.

He’s going to keep running marathons, and his next one is the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in December is Memphis, Tennessee.

Burton also couldn’t have completed the 50-state journey without the help of his wife, Denise.

“She’s been a great supporter of my marathon running,” he said. “It takes a good wife to help out. Over the last five years, I’ve run these; she’s probably been to 16 of the past 25 I’ve run. … She likes to visit every state.”