Hawaiian makes Prairie Fire end of his yellow brick road

It didn’t take long for Ed Loy to realize he was onto something.

Loy ran his first marathon in 2007, the apparent culmination of a weight-loss mission that saw him drop from 280 pounds to 200. He ran another marathon 10 months later, and by the end of 2009 he had competed in 11.

Most of those were in Loy’s native Hawaii. But Loy also covered Chicago, Kansas City and San Francisco among his first 11 races, and that got him thinking big.

“After the first few states, I probably knew I could do it,” Loy said.

“It” is running a marathon in all 50 states, and Loy has one more to cross off – Kansas. When he competes in Wichita’s Prairie Fire marathon on Sunday, Loy will become part of an exclusive, but growing, club.

According to 50statesmarathonclub.com, 3,551 people have earned membership into that group. For Loy, a 35-year-old who works in Hawaii’s state government, competing in all 50 states has been just as important as seeing them.

“I love to travel,” Loy said. “You figure if you’re just traveling and knocking them off, it became a very real goal of trying to complete the whole thing, just one state at a time.

That’s not exactly how it has worked out, as Loy has covered several states twice. Wichita will be Loy’s 73rd marathon, experiences from which he shares on his marathonmaniacs.com page.

Loy stayed relatively close to home for most of his initial marathons, though receiving time off work and pooling enough money to travel from Hawaii were constant obstacles. He didn’t hit the Eastern time zone until running in Baltimore in late 2010, his 21st marathon in state No. 9.

Loy’s list has grown quickest over the last two years, when he’s run in Hawaii three times but also in 18 other states. His last race was in Shroon Lake, N.Y., as the Empire State became No. 49.

“I figured I’ll be the youngest 50-state-finisher from Hawaii,” Loy said. “I just hit 35 right now, and the rest of them are in their 40s-plus. So I can lay claim to that for now.”

Loy conquered many Midwestern states fairly early, running in Illinois, Missouri and Texas by marathon No. 13 and hitting Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska before the end of 2012.

He purposely missed Kansas on those trips, though, because he was saving it for last thanks to an iconic movie set here that Loy found was relatable to his own story.

“It’s the ‘Wizard of Oz’ thing where Dorothy goes to the Yellow Brick Road,” Loy said. “And how my journey from weight loss to marathoner to 50-stater is the ultimate thing on that journey.”

The end of Loy’s 50-state journey isn’t the end for him as a competitor. In fact, he’s starting on a new list, unofficially, that will be much more difficult to dent – countries. His next race, after Wichita, is scheduled for Amsterdam, Netherlands next weekend.

Loy will be breaking protocol somewhat for that race, spending time in Europe sightseeing. He usually gets on a plane the night of a race or the morning after to head back to Hawaii and begin training and planning for the next trip.

Loy also has some other trips in mind, like Boston and New York City, races for which he would have to qualify. He has never finished a race in under six hours, but the competition is secondary to his personal accomplishments.

“You have so many friends that try to egg you on and try to get you to go faster,” Loy said. “It just depends on the situation. I just have fun with it. Being out there and being active is the most important thing, rather than just being on the couch.”

This story was originally published October 8, 2014 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Hawaiian makes Prairie Fire end of his yellow brick road."