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Alumna Runs a Marathon in All 50 States

Lauren Valentino ’00, ’06MBA has achieved something only a small percentage of the U.S. can claim – she successfully ran a marathon in all 50 states. Running a marathon in every state is an achievement more unique than climbing Mount Everest; about 5,300 have summited the Nepalese mountain, while only around 1,700 runners have notched a 26.2-miler in 50 states.

The idea came to Lauren in 2015, as she concluded that reaching this goal would satisfy her love of running and traveling.

β€œMy time at Iona definitely helped prepare me for my 50 states endeavor,” Lauren said. β€œThe rigorous, structured academic program at Iona equipped me with mental toughness, organizational skills, and military-like discipline. I intuitively transferred these abilities to running. It gave me confidence that anything was achievable through hard work and perseverance, regardless
of setbacks.”

Her next goal is to run a marathon in every state in under four hours, a goal accomplished by only 430 people. However, Lauren is already close to reaching this goal, having run sub-four-hour marathons in 47 states. She’d also like to finish the World Marathon Majors circuit – having already done the U.S. Majors (New York, Boston and Chicago) with London, Berlin and Tokyo on her to-do list.

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