After suffering a broken leg at age 36, Richard Potts’ doctor told him he’d better get moving if he wanted to heal properly. Little did he know, what started as therapeutic jogging would lead to 68 marathons, one in all 50 states. A marathon course is 26.2 miles.
Richard and his wife Linda have lived in Llano for 8 years. Linda recently reached out to a local quilting group for advice on something she is working on, a quilt made from the 50 state marathon t-shirts her husband has collected. One of the quilters, Wilma Holt, contacted The News about their story - and we are glad she did.
Richard started running at age 37 and ran his first marathon at age 38. While he was training for that first marathon, his sister was diagnosed with and passed away from cancer. Running and training during that difficult time was therapeutic and motivational, he said. He went into the race, The 1996 Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, thinking that was it. A week later, he was planning for the next one.
He honed his craft and love for running while living in Dallas, where he had a 20 year career as a Controller for The Boy Scouts of America. He trained alone at first, but joined up with a Dallas running group after completing 10 marathons, which was the requirement. His work colleague and fellow running club member was inspired to do the 50 states, and when Richard realized that he’d already run in 10 states, he was all in to meet the challenge.
One of his favorite marathons was The Boston Marathon. “Boston was cool - it’s a cool city, you have to qualify for it, bonding with a group of people that we would travel there with and spend the whole weekend. Just the whole experience.” Potts recalled. He’s run the Boston Marathon four times. “They put you on a bus when it’s still dark and they haul you from Boston out 26 miles to Hopkinton … which is a little burg no bigger than Llano and all of a sudden 30,000 people are there. They put you in this little space and say ‘OK, we take off in 4 hours. Good luck.’ So you’ve got to try and figure out what to do… so we found an open field, laid a tarp down, sat down and ate and drank and talked and got to know one another and just bonded.”
Another memorable race was the 2001 Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC - just 6 weeks after 9/11. The pentagon was on the course, which had been closed to the public since the attack. During that stretch of the race, Mr. Potts recalled “there wasn’t any crowd there, (just) 1000 runners and literally all you could hear were footsteps and breathing.” Another cool one, he said, was running through the boroughs of New York City.
At first, his least favorite marathon was hard to say. “They were all cool.” Linda clears her throat, her husband looks over, “Were you going to say Anchorage?” he asks. Yes, Anchorage, and they recall how when he passed her on the course Richard said “I didn’t know you had to be a billie goat to run this course,” referring to the hilly and rocky terrain.
His running shoe of choice? Hoka.
And running music? 70s rock, contemporary rock and worship music.
What used to be changing CDs on a Walkman during a run became bluetooth headphones and GPS watches. “Linda could call me on a run. It was comforting to just get to talk to her and take your mind off what you’re doing for a while,” he said.
While personally unable to imagine having a conversation while running a marathon, Richard said, “if you can’t talk you’re running too fast. If you can sing you’re running too slow.”
Richard’s fastest time was 3 hours 20 minutes in Austin, the first time he qualified for Boston. He ran 5 marathons in one year. He has run in the freezing cold (Birmingham, AL and Kiawah Island, SC) and extreme heat (Crazy Horse, SD and Steamboat Springs, CO). He witnessed a couple stop running to get married on the course in Maine, ran through the infield at Churchill Downs in Kentucky, finished at the Motor Speedway in Indianapolis and in Detroit, ran under a river and through Canada. In Maryland, Linda had to undergo an emergency appendectomy in the middle of the night. The day after, she was there to support Richard during the race. “It was quite the experience,” she said.
Linda has been a support system and cheerleader for Richard at 60 out of 68 races, at least. His “sag wagon,” they say - which refers to a vehicle that follows a group of cyclists to provide support, carry supplies, and pick up riders who fall behind. “One of the big roles was navigating new states, studying the course, and getting around to see him at various points in the race,” Linda said. They recall the time Richard asked for a peanut butter sandwich during a race, to which Linda replied, “see you in 5 miles!” She rushed to the store, made the sandwich, and met him there, knowing roughly how long it would take him to run 5 miles.
Richard’s last marathon was in Albuquerque in 2021. Meniscus injuries required two surgeries, one just before his 49th race and another before his 50th. His doctor said “I’m OK with you running this last one, but I’d highly recommend that you don’t do that anymore.” He has also had back surgery, rotator cuff surgery, and spent a lot of time on the massage table.
During their careers, Richard and Linda would travel on the weekends for marathons.
Now in their retirement, they enjoy taking their travel trailer back to their favorite marathon cities that they didn’t get to explore the first time. They love taking their electric bikes on trips, and Richard has a few top secret Hill Country roads that he likes to ride.
The collection of finisher’s medals is impressively displayed on a custom rack in the guest bedroom of the Potts’ home. They are all unique and interesting, and some have a story. The Utah medal is crafted from cores of polished red rock so no two are exactly alike. Arkansas went for the biggest medal. “I didn’t really want to carry it back to the hotel,” Richard said. When deciding which races to run, Linda would ask “well what does the medal look like?”
Newspaper clippings, race numbers and photos are organized by state in a scrapbook, and Linda’s t-shirt quilt will become the newest piece of marathon memorabilia. “My first and last quilt,” Linda says laughing. The shirts are well preserved and you can see the decades progress in the design trends from 1996 to 2021. One day, they hope their granddaughter will think it’s pretty cool.
