If you run into Jim Anderson of Cable, you’ll probably find him training for a marathon or other long-distance race. The 73-year-old has run dozens of marathons and other races in every state and on every continent except Antarctica, and his 47 American Birkebeiner races put him in the top 10 of participants in the Wisconsin cross-country ski race.
“After I ran in my 50th state, my wife asked me, ‘What are you going to do with all this?’” he said. “We got the idea that I should write a book.”
That’s now blossomed into three books, with the publication last spring of “This Golden Ager Takes on the World.” It was preceded by his 2015 debut title, “Discovering America One Marathon at a Time” and “Pedal Pole & Pant Canada & Beyond” in 2018, all from Badger Valley Publishing.
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Anderson joined WPR’s Robin Washington on “Morning Edition” to talk about his races, including a charity run he started to provide goats and wells for villages in Gambia.
The following was edited for clarity and brevity.
Robin Washington: Before we get into the details of your races, why do you do them?
Jim Anderson: I did my first Grandma’s Marathon in 1979 as part of a bunch of guys doing something on a bucket list. That was two years after doing my first American Birkebeiner. I just kept trying to do events like those.
RW: What other sports do you do, in addition to running and skiing?
JA: There was a quite popular 50-mile cycling race called the Grand View Firehouse 50 that I would do each year. And there’s the Chequamegon fat tire mountain bike race that I joined not long after it was started and still do today. I’m always looking for something new.
RW: Have you combined sports and done a triathlon, perhaps?
JA: I have done triathlons, but not the kind where you swim, which isn’t cut out for me. I have done biking, running and kayaking, as well as skiing, biking and running.
RW: You’ve run in Africa, and you have a run for Africa, as well, that’s called George’s Goats for Grammas. But it has nothing to do with Grandma’s Marathon.
JA: No. It’s named for a local quadriplegic man named George who had heard there was a need in Zambia to help grandmothers who were trying to take care of little ones whose mothers had died from AIDS. A goat goes a long way; it provides milk, and later, they can sell the goat.
George wanted to raise enough money for 1,000 goats, and (a common friend) asked me, “Why don’t you help start a race?” And we did and ended up raising enough for 2,000 goats before George passed away. It’s held in Cable the last weekend in April each year.
RW: When do you think you’ll stop racing?
JA: I’ll keep going as long as I can. My mother lived to 97, so it’s a possibility I could be around for a while yet. And with the Birkie, if you do 50, it’s considered a big deal. It’s just a number, but we’ll see.
