Bruce Allen as he runs through the streets of Cartagena, Columbia.
Courtesy photo
Allen holds the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal flag after finishing the first of seven marathons in seven days in Wolf’s Fang, Antarctica in November. With him is fellow runner William Maunsell of Ireland. Maunsell had just finished a 2:14 marathon in Dublin a month earlier and came on the trip to set the world record of completing the 7-7-7 the fastest. While he was ahead of pace to do so, Allen said Maunsell was unfortunately injured in the 6th marathon and chose to drop out.
Courtesy photo
Allen’s family cheered him on as he ran the last leg of the Great World Race. With him are Amos Jones, his daughter, Marilyn Allen, son, David Allen, and nephew, Charles Sherburne, of Apple Valley, MN.
I wanted to quit after the second or third marathon. I hurt so bad. But I learned I can do more than I give myself credit for.”
Bruce Allen, runner in The Great World Race
Carleen Wild, Enterprise staff
It’s not unusual to treat yourself during the holidays, but Bruce Allen’s recent gift to himself will change him forever.
Allen, as many know, just completed The Great World Race — seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.
The challenge was grueling, especially since Allen began the journey injured.
“I wanted to quit after the second or third marathon. I hurt so bad,” he said. “But I learned I can do more than I give myself credit for.”
Allen ran in Wolf’s Fang, Antarctica; Cape Town, South Africa; Perth, Australia; Istanbul, Europe and Asia; Cartagena, South America; and Miami.
Surprisingly, Istanbul marked his fastest marathon this year, completed in under four hours.
“Before this, my best so far this year was like 4:15 or something,” he said.
“I did this one in under four hours, and it was after I ran three other marathons. My body just released I think, I didn’t stop once, I just ran.. ran.. ran.. just felt so good. I think my body just accepted the fact that it was getting beat up, and the conditions probably helped. We had a few hours extra rest.”
Cartagena posed the biggest challenge due to 118-degree heat with 92% humidity. Antarctica and Istanbul were far more enjoyable. But Miami, where family waited for him at the finish, was his favorite.
Allen is already looking to go back and do it all again, if not with The Great World Race, another program designed to get runners across similar finish lines. And, he’s already pushing himself to finish the series in less than 30 hours — nearly five hours off this year’s time.
Allen also hopes to use his running to continue raising awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.
“It’s the challenge now too, I had a lot of positive response wearing that shirt and that’s a big part of it too. I appreciated that people asked questions, most people had no clue. Even people from the U.S. had no clue. When we’re doing walks, a lot of people don’t pay attention to it. Crimes against Native American Women have a six times chance of never being investigated or even looked at. It’s alarming. I’m not saying it’s because of prejudice or racism, maybe it’s because of lack of funding and jurisdiction. But a fact is a fact. They don’t know who is going to check on the case because the state doesn’t want to, the county doesn’t want to. The local city doesn’t want to, because they think it’s a BIA issue, so no one is looking at it. We need more people to be aware of it. It was neat that people cared enough to ask.”