May 3—Jackie Van Allen didn’t start running to circle the earth.
She also didn’t start running to pile up miles. It’s just part and parcel of what has become a passion.
Some 63,000-plus miles later, Van Allen has run the equivalent to 2 1/2 trips around the globe (the earth’s circumference is 24,901 miles).
Although not as fast as she once was in her 30s, the 61-year-old Van Allen isn’t showing any sign of putting the brakes on what has been an ardor for more than three decades.
She admits she’s closer to the end than she was when she hit the roads and trails 37 years ago.
“I know a lot of recovered runners who can’t run anymore,” Van Allen said. “I’m fortunate that I’m still running.”
Van Allen will take to the streets of Spokane for the 49th running of Lilac Bloomsday Sunday morning. It will be her 37th time. Those aren’t consecutive races, but the number includes years she did Spokane’s favorite road race twice on the same day — on the north end of Monroe Street Bridge and jogging back to Riverside to head west for a second time around.
That’s just one example of many eye-popping feats accomplished by Van Allen’s feet. Consider these:
—A yearly average of 1,703 miles (although that’s up recently at about 2,000).
—Weekly average of 33 (although this goes up to about 40 when she’s training for longer races).
—73 marathons and 75 half marathons.
—Numerous age-group wins
That and more is documented in 38 running logs Van Allen has kept since immersing herself in running. She said her background in accounting is why she’s been meticulous in keeping track of her miles.
Van Allen admits she’s turned into a “mileage junkie.”
“I probably should be more diligent about doing things not for a number but to be efficient,” she said. “But I haven’t figured that out.”
Van Allen plans to do a 31-mile (50K) run next month and a marathon in June.
She has nothing planned for the second half of the year, but hopes to be at 80 marathons by year’s end.
Van Allen will be pushing 64,000 miles Sunday by the time she finishes Bloomsday.
She grew up in southern California. She didn’t do any sports in high school. She discovered running when her first husband was a geologist in North Dakota where he worked on oil rigs.
Then when he took a job at a small engineering firm in Spokane, running Bloomsday was something company employees did together.
“I thought I could do it with him,” Van Allen said.
Van Allen has balanced a career, two marriages and raising a son, Steven. He passed away unexpectedly at age 19 after complications from muscular dystrophy.
She found running almost by accident. And she’s forever grateful that she did.
Her first Bloomsday came in 1985. Three years later she did her first marathon after a co-worker asked her to start training with him.
Gone are the days she sets personal bests. She did the 2000 Bloomsday in a career-best 46 minutes, 5 seconds.
“I’ll never do that again no matter how hard I try,” Van Allen said. “It’s just not in the cards, but I can still do well in my age group.”
She finished third at Bloomsday last year in the 60-64 age group in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 14 seconds.
By the time Van Allen had done her second marathon in 1989 she was hooked.
“Then I thought I could run faster,” Van Allen remembers. “I qualified for the Boston Marathon. It just sort of blossomed from there. It’s probably like a drug in some ways. You get hooked. Once I got a little faster I thought I could break three hours.”
And she did. Her all-time best marathon came in Tucson, Arizona, in 1999 when she broke three hours (2:58:31).
She hasn’t been under three hours since and concedes it won’t happen again.
“As much as I’d like to break three hours again, I’d like to get under 3:30 again,” Van Allen said. “As you get older it’s a little different. That’s what is cool about an age-group win. Maybe I’m not top three overall in a race, but to win your age group is cool.”
Van Allen is 5-foot-10 and weighs 126 pounds. She weighed 150 when she started running.
She has won the Coeur d’Alene Marathon twice and runner-up once. She won in 2000 (3:04:16) and three years later (3:10.34). But the race was also memorable for another reason — it’s the only one she hasn’t finished.
Van Allen had never quit a race until 2002.
“I was having a bad day,” Van Allen said. “I thought I could have pushed myself a little more but I didn’t.”
She was so disappointed in herself that she signed up for a run that no longer exists — Let’s Climb a Mountain, a 34.2-mile race that started at the Riverfront Clocktower and finished at the top of Mount Spokane.
“I had never trained for that distance or the elevation climb,” Van Allen said. “I don’t know if I wanted to redeem myself after Coeur d’Alene or what, but in my mind I needed to get past that pain point. I had a great race and won the women’s division.”
Van Allen redeemed herself in Coeur d’Alene, too, by winning the marathon the following year.
She’s done the Boston Marathon five times and would like to do it one more time. She’s also done the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles marathons multiple times.
Van Allen has done one international marathon in Athens, Greece. She dreams of doing marathons in London, Berlin and Tokyo.
“There hasn’t been a marathon I’ve finished where I haven’t cried,” Van Allen said. “It’s emotional, you’re tired. You meet people in the race who are inspiring you and you’re trying to inspire them. It’s such a sense of accomplishment.”
Van Allen hopes to reach 100 marathons before her body tells her it’s time to stop. And she thinks it’s conceivable to reach 100,000 total miles.
“It sounds doable,” she said. “The way I’m still training I see myself as still competitive. I’m not ready to scale back. I still enjoy it. I’m hoping I’ll find a happy balance when I get to that point of pulling back. But I’m not quite there. Age does factor in now. If I go off and do a 20-mile run, I have to take a nap that day.”
The miles might increase once she retires from working. She retired briefly from her job at Gonzaga in 2023, but went back two months later.
Only two things have slowed her down — pregnancy (she had to stop running in the fifth month), and a stress fracture in 2019 kept her on the sidelines for six weeks.
She chalks up her longevity to warming up properly and listening to her body.
One race she won’t do again is the Death Valley Marathon.
“It was awful,” she said. “The entire course is below sea level. I thought it was going to be a road race, but the course was mostly on the shoulder of a road. I had the wrong shoes. It was tough mentally for me. I finished but it was one of my slowest marathons. I was so unhappy when I was done.”
The most challenging race came in 2016 at the Rut, a 31-mile multiple terrain race with a 10,000-foot elevation climb near Big Sky, Montana.
A snowstorm rolled in the morning of the race, forcing event officials to shorten it to 27 miles and essentially take out the most steep portions of the run.
“They wouldn’t let us go to the top — it’s called Lone Peak,” Van Allen said. “The first five miles were great, but the weather really turned. I got really wet, borderline hypothermic. They had these warming huts along the course. I went into one because I was so cold and was trying to change my clothes. I spent 30 minutes in the hut trying to get warm and deciding whether to finish. I just remember telling myself I’ve got to finish. It was really hard.”
In a steep stretch about a mile long through a rugged rock field, participants are rendered to almost a crawl — moving two steps and stopping.
“I still marvel that I finished it,” she said. “I thought I was done at about mile 10. It was so miserable and cold.”
Van Allen looked at her running partner immediately after the race and they knew.
“We had to go back the next year and do the full race,” Van Allen said.
Even with better weather the following year, the 20th mile took Van Allen 74 minutes to complete.
“It was really, really hard, but it was still easier than the prior year when I got so cold,” Van Allen said.
Van Allen wears her inspiration for running on her right wrist, but mostly in her heart as reminders of her late son.
“I always have a pink ribbon on my wrist and I replace it when it breaks,” Van Allen said. “And I pin a photo of him on the back of my shirt when I run.
“He had a challenging life. He’d ask me every time I came home from a run, ‘Did you have fun?’ He was always so inspiring to me. It amazed me that somebody could be dealt a really crappy hand of cards and still be happy.”
And he’s always remembered — every mile of the way.
Jackie Van Allen didn’t start running to circle the earth.
She also didn’t start running to pile up miles. It’s just part and parcel of what has become a passion.
Some 63,000-plus miles later, Van Allen has run the equivalent to 2½ trips around the globe (the earth’s circumference is 24,901 miles).
Although not as fast as she once was in her 30s, the 61-year-old Van Allen isn’t showing any sign of putting the brakes on what has been an ardor for more than three decades.
She admits she’s closer to the end than she was when she hit the roads and trails 37 years ago.
“I know a lot of recovered runners who can’t run anymore,” Van Allen said. “I’m fortunate that I’m still running.”
Van Allen will take to the streets of Spokane for the 49th running of Lilac Bloomsday Sunday morning. It will be her 37th time. Those aren’t consecutive races, but the number includes years she did Spokane’s favorite road race twice on the same day – on the north end of Monroe Street Bridge and jogging back to Riverside to head west for a second time around.
That’s just one example of many eye-popping feats accomplished by Van Allen’s feet. Consider these:
• A yearly average of 1,703 miles (although that’s up recently at about 2,000).
• Weekly average of 33 (although this goes up to about 40 when she’s training for longer races).
• 73 marathons and 75 half marathons.
• Numerous age-group wins
That and more is documented in 38 running logs Van Allen has kept since immersing herself in running. She said her background in accounting is why she’s been meticulous in keeping track of her miles.
Van Allen admits she’s turned into a “mileage junkie.”
“I probably should be more diligent about doing things not for a number but to be efficient,” she said. “But I haven’t figured that out.”
Van Allen plans to do a 31-mile (50K) run next month and a marathon in June.
She has nothing planned for the second half of the year, but hopes to be at 80 marathons by year’s end.
Van Allen will be pushing 64,000 miles Sunday by the time she finishes Bloomsday.
She grew up in southern California. She didn’t do any sports in high school. She discovered running when her first husband was a geologist in North Dakota where he worked on oil rigs.
Then when he took a job at a small engineering firm in Spokane, running Bloomsday was something company employees did together.
“I thought I could do it with him,” Van Allen said.
Van Allen has balanced a career, two marriages and raising a son, Steven. He passed away unexpectedly at age 19 after complications from muscular dystrophy.
She found running almost by accident. And she’s forever grateful that she did.
Her first Bloomsday came in 1985. Three years later she did her first marathon after a co-worker asked her to start training with him.
Gone are the days she sets personal bests. She did the 2000 Bloomsday in a career-best 46 minutes, 5 seconds.
“I’ll never do that again no matter how hard I try,” Van Allen said. “It’s just not in the cards, but I can still do well in my age group.”
She finished third at Bloomsday last year in the 60-64 age group in 1 hour, 3 minutes, 14 seconds.
By the time Van Allen had done her second marathon in 1989 she was hooked.
“Then I thought I could run faster,” Van Allen remembers. “I qualified for the Boston Marathon. It just sort of blossomed from there. It’s probably like a drug in some ways. You get hooked. Once I got a little faster I thought I could break three hours.”
And she did. Her all-time best marathon came in Tucson, Arizona, in 1999 when she broke three hours (2:58:31).
She hasn’t been under three hours since and concedes it won’t happen again.
“As much as I’d like to break three hours again, I’d like to get under 3:30 again,” Van Allen said. “As you get older it’s a little different. That’s what is cool about an age-group win. Maybe I’m not top three overall in a race, but to win your age group is cool.”
Van Allen is 5-foot-10 and weighs 126 pounds. She weighed 150 when she started running.
She has won the Coeur d’Alene Marathon twice and runner-up once. She won in 2000 (3:04:16) and three years later (3:10.34). But the race was also memorable for another reason – it’s the only one she hasn’t finished.
Van Allen had never quit a race until 2002.
“I was having a bad day,” Van Allen said. “I thought I could have pushed myself a little more but I didn’t.”
She was so disappointed in herself that she signed up for a run that no longer exists – Let’s Climb a Mountain, a 34.2-mile race that started at the Riverfront Clocktower and finished at the top of Mount Spokane.
“I had never trained for that distance or the elevation climb,” Van Allen said. “I don’t know if I wanted to redeem myself after Coeur d’Alene or what, but in my mind I needed to get past that pain point. I had a great race and won the women’s division.”
Van Allen redeemed herself in Coeur d’Alene, too, by winning the marathon the following year.
She’s done the Boston Marathon five times and would like to do it one more time. She’s also done the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles marathons multiple times.
Van Allen has done one international marathon in Athens, Greece. She dreams of doing marathons in London, Berlin and Tokyo.
“There hasn’t been a marathon I’ve finished where I haven’t cried,” Van Allen said. “It’s emotional, you’re tired. You meet people in the race who are inspiring you and you’re trying to inspire them. It’s such a sense of accomplishment.”
Van Allen hopes to reach 100 marathons before her body tells her it’s time to stop. And she thinks it’s conceivable to reach 100,000 total miles.
“It sounds doable,” she said. “The way I’m still training I see myself as still competitive. I’m not ready to scale back. I still enjoy it. I’m hoping I’ll find a happy balance when I get to that point of pulling back. But I’m not quite there. Age does factor in now. If I go off and do a 20-mile run, I have to take a nap that day.”
The miles might increase once she retires from working. She retired briefly from her job at Gonzaga in 2023, but went back two months later.
Only two things have slowed her down – pregnancy (she had to stop running in the fifth month), and a stress fracture in 2019 kept her on the sidelines for six weeks.
She chalks up her longevity to warming up properly and listening to her body.
One race she won’t do again is the Death Valley Marathon.
“It was awful,” she said. “The entire course is below sea level. I thought it was going to be a road race, but the course was mostly on the shoulder of a road. I had the wrong shoes. It was tough mentally for me. I finished but it was one of my slowest marathons. I was so unhappy when I was done.”
The most challenging race came in 2016 at the Rut, a 31-mile multiple terrain race with a 10,000-foot elevation climb near Big Sky, Montana.
A snowstorm rolled in the morning of the race, forcing event officials to shorten it to 27 miles and essentially take out the most steep portions of the run.
“They wouldn’t let us go to the top – it’s called Lone Peak,” Van Allen said. “The first five miles were great, but the weather really turned. I got really wet, borderline hypothermic. They had these warming huts along the course. I went into one because I was so cold and was trying to change my clothes. I spent 30 minutes in the hut trying to get warm and deciding whether to finish. I just remember telling myself I’ve got to finish. It was really hard.”
In a steep stretch about a mile long through a rugged rock field, participants are rendered to almost a crawl – moving two steps and stopping.
“I still marvel that I finished it,” she said. “I thought I was done at about mile 10. It was so miserable and cold.”
Van Allen looked at her running partner immediately after the race and they knew.
“We had to go back the next year and do the full race,” Van Allen said.
Even with better weather the following year, the 20th mile took Van Allen 74 minutes to complete.
“It was really, really hard, but it was still easier than the prior year when I got so cold,” Van Allen said.
Van Allen wears her inspiration for running on her right wrist, but mostly in her heart as reminders of her late son.
“I always have a pink ribbon on my wrist and I replace it when it breaks,” Van Allen said. “And I pin a photo of him on the back of my shirt when I run.
“He had a challenging life. He’d ask me every time I came home from a run, ‘Did you have fun?’ He was always so inspiring to me. It amazed me that somebody could be dealt a really crappy hand of cards and still be happy.”
And he’s always remembered – every mile of the way.
