Every Step of the Way

A marathon journey

previousnext

Jane and Charles Cutting graduated from Andrews University in June 1962. Jane earned a Bachelor of Science in home economics, and Charles completed a Bachelor of Arts in zoology. They had married with one year of undergraduate work left at Andrews, and after graduation and further education, they went on to careers as a dietitian and dentist, respectively. Over the years, Jane and Charles moved multiple times— including for military service, employment, and mission service. Their family grew to include three daughters: Cheryl Ann, Shelly Sue and Carey Lynn.

Jane and Charles also took up a long-term, long-distance interest: running marathons.

Charles and Jane at the San Francisco Marathon in 1983  Charles and Jane at a Missoula Marathon in Montana

I was born in Huntington, Long Island, New York, but moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, when I was 18 months old. I graduated from Battle Creek Academy and went on to Emmanuel Missionary College (EMC), which became Andrews University while I was there.

Charles was born in Los Angeles, California, primarily living in California except for a brief time in South Bend, Indiana, and Berrien Springs, Michigan. He graduated from La Sierra Academy and went to La Sierra College for a year and a half before also attending EMC.

Charles and I met at EMC, became friends and dated a little by 1959. During Christmas vacation that year, Charles hitchhiked to Florida to visit some longtime family friends.

My family spent every Christmas vacation in Florida with my grandparents. In 1959, we happened to attend a Friday evening meeting at the Seventh-day Adventist church in Orlando. Who should also be there but Charles!

My parents were happy to see him, and my dad offered him a ride with us back to Michigan instead of him hitchhiking. He gladly accepted. After that trip, we kept dating. We got engaged during the next Christmas vacation and were married on Sept. 3, 1961, in Battle Creek.

Charles was drafted into the Army and, after graduation from Andrews in 1962, we moved to Texas and Washington, D.C., for his service. In 1964, we returned to school—I did a dietetics internship while Charles attended Loma Linda University. He graduated from dental school in 1968, and we lived in Utah and Michigan before moving to Colorado. We had always been active and especially enjoyed hiking over the years.

In 1972, Charles attended American Medical Association meetings in Denver. One of the speakers was Kenneth Cooper, who had worked with the Air Force troops to get them running and later became the “father of aerobics.” Charles was so impressed with the presentation that he came home and said, “We have to start running!”

So we went in search of shoes. There were no running shoes available at that time. Instead, we got some tennis shoes and began running a mile around our neighborhood every morning—rain, sunshine or snow. We kept up the one or two miles a day for several years.

In 1974, we moved to Africa, having accepted a call to mission service working in dental clinics. We spent six months in Rhodesia, which later became Zimbabwe. Then we moved to Malawi for six years. The dentists remodeled and updated the dental clinic, and they trained their own national dental assistants. We also did a lot of “bush” clinics out in more remote areas, often under a big tree. During the years that we lived in Africa, we continued to keep up with our running.

In 1980, we moved back to California to be close to Charles’ mother, who was in poor health. We were living in the Loma Linda area, and Charles saw an advertisement for the Loma Linda Lopers. He decided to check it out and see what their fitness program involved. He found out they were training to do the Honolulu Marathon in December. He didn’t have any intentions of doing a marathon but thought it would be nice to have more people to run with.

I kept up with my two miles a day in our neighborhood. Then Charles told me it’s easier to go five miles than two miles because you are just getting warmed up in two miles. I started going farther and discovered he was right.

Charles had been putting in all the training to do a marathon so decided to go to Honolulu to do the marathon with the Lopers. I said I would go along and cheer them on because the farthest I had ever run was eight miles. But the Lopers talked me into doing the marathon, too. They said, “You’ve been running a lot, and you can finish it.”

Jane and grandson Caden at the 40th Los Angeles Marathon  Jane and Charles at a Los Angeles Marathon with Ron DuPreez who, in 2025, completed a 50K in 50 states in 50 days to encourage seniors to stay active

Honolulu leaves the course open until the last runner comes across the finish line. I had hiked Mount Whitney, which was 22 miles round trip at high elevation, so I knew I could finish the Honolulu route and agreed to give it a try.

I was able to run the first 15 miles and then alternated running and walking the rest. But I finished faster than some of the Lopers who had trained all year for it—my time was five hours and 35 minutes. I was quite sore after the marathon for a few days. Later, I decided to train for the following year’s Honolulu Marathon, and I completed it in four hours and 34 minutes.

We started doing other marathons, mainly around California. I did my personal best marathon in San Diego in 1985 with a time of 3:53:39. Charles’ best time was 3:46.

We qualified for the prestigious Boston Marathon, which didn’t begin until noon. By race time, it had been a long time since we ate. Back then, we didn’t have a lot of snacks or gels or electrolytes to use along the way. Charles was hypoglycemic and slowed down a lot. I ended up beating him by seven minutes. For the majority of the marathons we have done, he has beaten my time. But there have been a few times that I came in ahead of him.

At this point, we were going all over the country to do marathons in many of the major cities and also in some more remote areas. I liked doing a marathon a month to use it as a training run for the next marathon.

Then we decided to work on doing a marathon in every state. We spent a couple weeks in New England and got all those states. Our daughter and her husband were planning a trip to Alaska and Canada on their motorcycle in 2004. We thought that sounded like fun, so we got a motorcycle and went with them. It was about an 8,000 mile trip with frequent stops to rest and stretch and buy gas, etc., but it was fun. We put our bikes on the ferries and went up through the Inside Passage. We took time out to do a marathon in Anchorage, Alaska.

After we retired to northern Idaho in 2005, we were able to take marathon trips crisscrossing the U.S., doing several marathons along the way. It took a lot of planning to fit in as many as we could. We were also able to visit many friends and family on our trips in between marathons.

In 2008, we met our goal of completing marathons in all 50 states—Arkansas was our last state. That didn’t stop us from doing more marathons, though. We have done several marathons in Canada, including in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Niagara Falls. Auckland, New Zealand, and London, England, are the only two marathons we have done outside of North America, although we have been on all the continents and traveled in 85 countries.

When the Los Angeles Marathon started in 1986, the Loma Linda Lopers switched to training for that race instead of the Honolulu Marathon. We did that first Los Angeles Marathon and kept doing it every year because it was convenient and close by while we were living in Southern California.

Los Angeles Marathon medals (Jane’s on the right and Charles’ on the left) and a quilt made out of T-shirts from doing a marathon in all 50 states  Los Angeles Marathon Legacy Runners Charles and Jane  Oldest male Los Angeles Marathon Legacy Runner Claud and oldest female Los Angeles Marathon Legacy Runner Jane

When we retired and moved to Idaho, we had already done the first 20 Los Angeles Marathons. We decided to keep going back to LA each year for the marathon, and now it has been 40 years since it began! Unfortunately, Charles had some health issues which prevented him from doing the 40th year on March 16, 2025. But I was there. For the last four years or so, I have been the oldest female to have done all the Los Angeles Marathons. I plan to do the LA Marathon every year in March, and I will try to keep it up as long as I am able. There are still 86 of us who have done all 40 years of the LA Marathon. Ten of us are women.

We have done so many marathons, it is hard to say which one is a favorite. Joining the 50 States Marathon Club was fun because we would get to see a lot of the same people at so many of the races. Some marathons have beautiful scenery, like on the North Carolina coast, in the California Redwoods, in the mountains outside of Salt Lake City, in Coeur d’Alene, in Yakima Valley in Washington, at Big Sur in California, and along the Gulf Coast of Texas.

“Charles got started doing marathons before I did, and he has done 222 marathons and 50K races. I have done a total of 194 marathons and 50K races.”

Then others are very interesting because they take you through famous and historical places such as Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Boston, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, San Diego, Chicago, Seattle and Los Angeles. We sort of favor the Los Angeles Marathon because we have the history of doing it for 40 years. Its course has changed a number of times over the years, but it always includes downtown Los Angeles, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, Olvera Street and Hollywood.

It’s also been a joy to watch the athletes in the next generations of our family. Carey’s husband Greg has done several Ironman triathlons and a lot of marathons and other athletic events. He loves riding his bike and has done 100 and 300 milers for some events. Our grandson Kyler did his first marathon with us in Los Angeles when he was 16 in 2022, and he also did his first half Ironman triathlon here in Coeur d’Alene in June this year. Greg did that one, too. Our grandson Caden did the Los Angeles Marathon when he was 16 in 2025 with me. Cheryl’s husband Kent did a marathon in Singapore when he was about 17, while attending Far Eastern Academy. So we do have a few athletes in our family!

Charles got started doing marathons before I did, and he has done 222 marathons and 50K races. I have done a total of 194 marathons and 50K races.

We try to be an inspiration to others and encourage everyone to stay as active as possible for as long as possible so they can enjoy life to the fullest.

God promises to be with us always in everything that comes our way. And He has been with us all the time, no matter where we are. We thank Him daily for His loving and protective care and for solving issues so we can carry on with our lives and our duties.