Glen Avery, International Marathon Runner.
International marathon runner, Glen Avery, faculty at Houghton for 28 years, will participate in the World Marathon Challenge in January. The challenge is to complete seven back-to-back 26.2-mile marathons, one on each continent. The challenge from start to finish must be finished in 168 hours. This provides an 8-hour window to complete each individual marathon. Avery will join 14 other runners as they board a plane headed for Antarctica. The event starts at Union Glacier in Antarctica where the runners complete their first marathon. From Union Glacier, the runners fly to Punta Arenas, Chile for number two. From Chile, to Florida, USA to Madrid, Spain to Marrakesh, Morocco to Dubai, UAE, these 15 runners will participate in an event that few people dare to try. Some challenges in the event include altitude and weather changes. The event ends with a midnight marathon in Australia.
Avery’s running career started long before he signed up for the World Marathon Challenge. On his 51st birthday in 2001, Avery began to be concerned about his physical health. He decided to start walking at the gym. In April 2002, he ran his first 5k in Geneva, NY. After this first event, he bought shoes and started running more. His first marathon was in Athens, Greece and what initially interested him in this race was of the history of the marathon. The Greek soldier, Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of military victory over the Persians in the battle of Marathon.
Avery and his wife, Margery travelled to Greece. This started a pattern of internationally traveling and running. Avery has run a marathon on every continent, twice. In his first tour of the continents, he completed races in Greece, NYC, Hawaii, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Thailand, and Antarctica. Avery explained that it is imperative to mind the penguins when running a marathon in Antarctica. His first cycle took 9 years and ended with running into the sunrise of Cheng Mai, Thailand on Christmas day, 2011. The second cycle took him 4 years. During the second cycle, he ran in South Africa, the Falkland Islands, Cuba, Spain, Antarctica, New Zealand, and the Philippines.
Avery recounted, “I’ve made connections and learned so much about culture from these experiences. That’s what I take away from all this.” He explained that one of his most impressionable intercultural experiences was in the Falkland Islands. Avery and 30 new friends from the Falkland Islands visited 1982 war sites of the 74-day war fought between Argentina and the Falkland islands. His new friends invited him for meals, visited battle sites, and cemeteries where he saw his friends grieve the losses of the causalities from the war. Because of experiences like this, Avery assures us, “I am going to continue to do international marathons. I can’t imagine my life without these experiences.”
This June, Glen and his wife Margery are retiring from Houghton after many years. Glen will retire from his current Instructional Technology Librarian position and Margery will retire from her current duties as head of Academic Records. When they are not working, the Avery’s enjoy traveling, reading, hiking, and serving others.
To prepare for the World Marathon Challenge, Avery intends to run four back-to-back marathons in the Western United States this summer. Avery continuously trains for events year-round. He states, “I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.” During his retirement, he plans on writing a book about all of his experiences as an international runner.