The following article appeared in the Key West Citizen today, July 10, 2008.


On The Run
Kalb wants to complete a marathon in all 50 states
BY RON COOKE
Citizen Staff
KEY WEST — By the 4th of July, Chester Kalb, more commonly known as the Southernmost Walker, had completed 40 marathons as part of his goal to walk a marathon – 26.2 miles – in each state.
If you remember your geography, that's 50 marathons. He intends to do 10 more long walks to complete his goal by late October.
In all, Kalb has completed 92 marathons, some as a runner before his knees went south, but most at a clip that would thrill a lot of runners. At 62, he has no intention of slowing down.
"In January 2002, I began counting my walking marathons. Two years later is when I started going for the states," Kalb said after a 5K practice walk. "My most challenging marathon so far was the Pike's Peak. I walked up, but did not walk back down because I decided it was going to be too hard on my knees. But I did do a May marathon in Fort Collins, Colo., and had my fastest marathon time in the last 60 I've completed. I walked it in 4 hours and 58 minutes. That put me in the top 50 percent of the finishers. I'm usually in the top 60 percent of the race, finishing ahead of 30 to 40 percent of the runners."
His favorite venue is the Disney Marathon, more specifically the Goofy Challenge. A person would have to be goofy to take on that challenge.
"I do the Goofy Challenge which is a half marathon on Saturday and a full [marathon] on Sunday," he said. "I've done it all three years they've had it."
Next weekend, along with wife Gerda Kalb, he will travel to cooler climes to compete in Montana, which will give his wife the chance to race in that state. After that, they travel to Michigan, California, Wyoming, Mississippi, New York, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Baltimore, Maryland, Bal Harbor, Maine and then Falmouth, Mass.
Just traveling to these places is an opportunity that most never dream of doing and the views while walking are great, he said.
"I just returned from Kona, Hawaii, and Anchorage, Alaska," Kalb said. "Kona was just like Key West and Anchorage was tough because it was seven miles on a tank trail, which was loose gravel and that's no fun, especially walking."
One has to wonder what would possess a person to do so many marathons instead of kicking back during retirement.
"I'm crazy. I belong to a club called the Marathon Maniacs," said Kalb as he grinned out of the side of his mouth. "That's a group of people that has to meet a certain criteria before they can join the club. They give stars for each level [of craziness]. I'm at the eighth star level and by October, I'll be at the 10th star level which is the highest you can get. So I'm as crazy a maniac as you can have."
rcooke@keysnews.com