Melvin jaunt offers special attraction
She’s run a lap at Churchill Downs in the days leading up to the Kentucky Derby, along the Las Vegas strip and is nearing the halfway point of her goal to run half-marathons in all 50 states of the country.
So why is Amanda Jones so intrigued about coming to Iola this week?
Jones, 36, is one of the runners who will be in town Friday night and Saturday morning for the second Charley Melvin Run For Your Life.
The 5-kilometer run starts at the stroke of 12:26 a.m. Saturday near the Iola post office, 105 years to the minute after the infamous Charley Melvin lit the fuse to blast to smithereens three local saloons.
“I’m personally thrilled for the opportunity to experience the Iola square after midnight,” Jones said. “I always had an 11 p.m. curfew back in high school.”
The inaugural event last year drew nearly 400 runners and walkers. A 3-kilometer walk will be held simultaneously with the run.
Organizers hope to draw even more this year, touting once again Melvin’s story, while also highlighting the unusual starting time.
The race holds a special appeal for Jones, a 1992 Marmaton Valley High graduate who now lives in Lawrence.
“I was so excited to learn that not only was there going to be a 5K close to my childhood home, but that it starts after midnight and is attached to a historic event I wasn’t even aware of,” she said.
The race’s unique nature is certain to appeal to more runners than it otherwise would have, Jones predicted.
“It will be an unforgettable experience,” she said.
MAKING running such a vital part of her life wasn’t originally in the cards for Jones, the daughter of Debra Haley of Iola and granddaughter of James and Mignonette Kelly of LaHarpe.
She participated in sports briefly in high school, but otherwise dedicated her focus to music and her studies. She went on from Marmaton Valley to earn a degree in general human ecology at Kansas State University.
From there, she started a career in market research and retail.
It wasn’t until her early 30s when Jones decided to take up running.
“I had reached a really low point in my life, so I reflected upon childhood memories, hoping to rediscover something that made me feel happy and free,” she said.
Running instantly came to mind.
“I’ll never forget that day, the day I slowly ran a mile and declared myself a runner for life.”
Jones ran recreationally for a few years before reading a notice about a full marathon — 26.2 miles — in Kansas City, Mo., in 2007.
She’d never run more than seven miles at a time before that. Signing up for the marathon, she admitted, was simply a matter of spontaneity.
“I thought I could wing it, and walk whatever I couldn’t run,” Jones said. “I didn’t take into consideration that 26.2 miles is a very long way, no matter how you do it.”
She finished the race, but paid the price physically and mentally for months afterward.
She waited a while — nearly a year — for her next event, this time a half-marathon in Lawrence.
It was a perfect fit. The 13.1 miles was much more to her liking, and completing it was just as exhilarating, she said, as the full marathon had been.
Five months later came wind of a half-marathon in Omaha.
“I ran that one and was hooked,” she said.
The Omaha run also satisfied Jones’ craving to travel.
Since then she’s coupled her love of the two activities to reach another goal: to run at least one half-marathon in all 50 continental states.
She’s at 19 and counting, most recently running a half-marathon in Seattle in June.
HER GOAL COMES with a bit of a sacrifice.
Jones had originally planned to attend graduate school, but instead used the time and money to work toward the athletic feat.
“I took a risk, but I have no regrets,” she said. “This journey feels really special, like it is all leading to something, beyond just fulfilling a commitment.
“Someone once asked me why certain things in life frighten me, but traveling around the country, often alone, to run a half-marathon is easy and exciting for me. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know I can’t wait to find out.”
Jones has also been afforded the opportunity to explore another passion: preserving animals.
Jones ran last September in Run For The Chimps, a fund raiser for the Kansas City Zoo. She’ll run this fall again in Kansas City for a “save the polar bears” event.
“I actually did decent at the zoo race, considering how excitedly distracted I was running among the animals,” she said. “It was so surreal and I pretty much forgot I was in a race.”
A lifelong dream, she noted, is to work with chimpanzees in a sanctuary setting.
JONES ISN’T looking to win any of her races; completing them is reward enough.
“I don’t want people thinking I’m some elite athlete who’s going to show up and win the Mad Bomber run,” she said. “I’m usually pretty well matched up with 60-year-old men, so they are the ones I’ll be competitive with.”
And she’s not joking.
“It’s true. Every race some 60-year-old guy tells me he’s pacing off of me and then we go head-to-head at the finish line.
The running has gifted Jones in other ways, she notes.
“Better health and nutrition are the obvious benefits, but what I didn’t expect was that I was going to learn so much about myself and meet so many incredible people along the way,” Jones said.
“I never get tired of hearing a runner’s story. People run and enter races for so many different reasons, yet we all come together to complete the same goal. The running community is the kindest, most supportive mass of people I’ve ever known. I’m accepted among this tribe of runners, and it’s because of these people and this sport that I feel like I am able to get through all the rough patches in my life.”
Jones has run alongside — well a bit behind — such running stalwarts as Kara Goucher, Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor, “which would be like shooting hoops with LeBron James or tossing a football with Drew Brees.”
JONES already is ahead of her original schedule. She wants to finish all 50 states by her 40th birthday.
Her original plan was to complete one race a month and allow for a two-month break at mid-year.
“But I’ve doubled up on some months,” she said.
As the mother of three sons, Jones usually limits her trips to two or three days for each race. She does allow for some sight-seeing.
“The courses I have run are typically designed to route runners by landmarks and scenic areas,” she said. “The races allow me to see places I wouldn’t have normally traveled to, or even known about.”
Jones also is fond of themed races. She plans to run a Martian-inspired race, and another dressed as a witch in Salem, Mass., this fall. A pirate race is planned next year in Outer Banks, N.C.
RUNNING A marathon, or half-marathon for that matter, is as grueling physically as it is mentally, Jones said.
“They seem to be intertwined,” she said. “I often have self-doubt that I will be able to complete a race, so I have to remind myself to trust that my training will take care of the physical aspect of the run.
“I also find that when I can get myself into a good place mentally, any physical ailments or negative chatter tend to disappear.”
Jones normally is critical of herself in everyday life; a perfectionist.
“Yet when I run a race, I treat myself the way I always should,” she said. “I compliment myself and have a continuous mental feed of positive reinforcements. No matter how long it takes me to run a race, I am always proud of myself, and in awe of what my body just accomplished.”
WHICH leads Jones to Iola this week, and its own set of challenges.
Jones figures running after midnight shouldn’t be much different than her pre-dawn training runs.
“The latest race I’ve ever run was at 7 p.m., so running at 12:26 will definitely be an exciting challenge,” she said. “I’m usually in bed by 11 p.m. so my body will probably be somewhat shocked. But I’m counting on the adrenaline of the event to pull me through.”
