WORCESTER—Carol Kemnitz of Palmdale, CA, is more than halfway through her quest to run a 5K road race in each of the 50 states. For Massachusetts, she chose a race in the Heart of the Commonwealth—the Canal Diggers Road Race on Saturday.
Running 5Ks, which cover 3.1 miles, in all 50 states is not unusual, but doing it at Kemnitz’s age is. She’s 77.
“I’d like to think that I try to be inspiring,” she told the Worcester Guardian.
Kemnitz is obviously in great shape for someone her age, but she’s modest about that.
“I would be in much better shape if Cheez-Its didn’t knock on my door,” Kemnitz said.
She’s not running to raise money for charity or to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. She’s doing it for another reason.
“I felt that I wanted to challenge myself,” she said.
She’s paying all of her own expenses and she said she has no idea how much her journey is costing her. She’s certainly piling up her Marriott points and frequent flyer mileage.
With a time of 36:35, Kemnitz finished first among women aged 70 and older in the Canal Diggers 5K that began at the Worcester Hibernian Cultural Centre at 19 Temple St., on Saturday.
Kemnitz said she chose to run in Worcester because the Canal Diggers fit into her schedule. She plans to attend the 9-11 memorial ceremony in Shanksville, PA, for the second year in a row on Wednesday, Sept. 11. The ceremony honors the lives of the passengers and crew that were lost when Flight 93 crashed as they tried to regain control of the plane from terrorists who hijacked it.
So this weekend, she planned to run in Worcester on Saturday and in Westerly, RI, on Sunday. The following weekend, she plans to run in 5Ks in Fairfield Hills, CT, and Edison, NJ.
The Canal Diggers represented the 36th state in which she’s run. Kristen Luna, Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce director of membership, sales and services, delivered her bib No. 36 at her hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott, Thursday night.
“I think that’s cool,” Kemnitz said.
No other race has presented her with the bib number corresponding to the number of states in which she has run.
Traveling to all 50 states is nothing new to Kemnitz. She and her late husband, Ronald, finished visiting all of them more than 20 years ago. They traveled to Boston and Plymouth in Massachusetts, but this is her first trip to Worcester, which she has trouble pronouncing. Her husband served as a police officer with someone named Ben Worchester, so Kemnitz tends to add another syllable, as in “Wor-ches-ter.”
On Memorial Day weekend, Kemnitz ran races in Maine and New Hampshire. She also planned to run one in Vermont as a member of a team which would run 5K legs of a marathon. Unfortunately, when she arrived, the race organizers told her they couldn’t find a team for her.
“Luckily, I had run on the treadmill the night before at the hotel,” she said. “So I just counted that.”
Kemnitz said she finishes her 5Ks in 34 to 38 minutes. “I’m not a fast runner,” Kemnitz said.
She did, however, run fast enough in a 5K in Pasadena, CA, to qualify for the National Senior Games Association in Des Moines, IA, next June. It will be her sixth time at the senior games, which are held for people aged 50 and older.
Kemnitz began running in road races in 1993 when her son, Rick, came home from basic training in the military and he told her that she was out of shape.
Kemnitz decided on Mother’s Day in 2023 to try to run a 5K road race in all 50 states. She didn’t think that at her age she had enough time to run in all 50 if she started from scratch. So she chose to add to the 15 or 20 states in which she had already run.
Kemnitz isn’t very computer savvy, so her son helped her figure out how to locate road races online. That’s how she learned about the Canal Diggers 5K. Her son has accompanied her to some states, but she has traveled alone to others.
She flew from Los Angeles to New York and on to Worcester Airport by herself on Thursday, but she called her son when she boarded and departed each flight and when she arrived at her hotel.
Kemnitz called the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce months ago to ask about the Canal Diggers 5K and Luna happened to be a volunteer member of the road race committee. So Luna helped her register and find a hotel.
Luna also presented her with a Worcester T-shirt, a goody bag and Table Talk pies.
“I want her to remember Worcester,” Luna said. “Fifty states is a lot. So I hope we make a good impression on her.”
Kemnitz hopes to compete in all 50 states by the end of 2025 and for her final race she plans to dress in gold, the color associated with 50-year milestones.
Before traveling to Worcester, Kemnitz ran her most recent road race in Anchorage, AK, a couple of weeks ago. Hawaii is also checked off her list because she ran in her only marathon there in 1998. She still remembers that after she finished, her husband told her she could go shopping.
“That’s what every woman loves to hear,” she said with a laugh. “So that’s what I did.”
Kemnitz keeps a notebook with details of all her road races and she estimates she’s run in 270 of them over the years. She’s run several in costumes, including dressing as Super Mom for one and in red, white and blue for a patriotic race.
Asked to pick her favorite road race, she said they were all meaningful. Luna told her that Worcester would jump to the top of the list.
Asked before the race if she was going to win on Saturday, she replied, “In my age division, maybe.”
And she did.
Bill Doyle has been a professional journalist for 47 years, most of them as a sports writer for the Telegram & Gazette. He covered the Boston Celtics for 25 years and has written extensively about golf, boxing and local high school and college sports. He also worked for the campus newspaper when he attended UMass-Amherst. He can be reached at billdoyle1515@gmail.com
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