Boardman marathoners finish seven-continent quest

June 29, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

“If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon.”

Emil Zatopek, 1952 Olympic marathon champion

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The suffering actually began days before they even attempted “Running’s Greatest Adventure,” the slogan chosen for the Antarctica Marathon over a more honest – but less marketable – option: “Exhausting, but expensive.”

It was early March and Boardman resident Frank Verhage, 68, and his wife, Velma, 67, had just boarded one of two boats bound for the Antarctic Peninsula in hopes of joining the “Seven Continent Club,” an elite group of fewer than 400 runners who had finished marathons on all seven continents. They had run their first marathon in 1989 in Cleveland and, nearly a quarter-century later, they were hoping it was going to end there.

To get to King George Island, they had to pass Drake’s Passage, a nasty stretch of water that connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean.

It takes two days. It can feel like two weeks.

“If you have never had seasickness,” said Frank, “I promise you will get it.”

Frank already was ailing by then, pouring herbal tea and Ricolas down his throat to battle a cough caused by (he thought) his exercise-induced asthma. Turns out, it was a lingering upper-respiratory infection he picked up in January that had stayed dormant for a few weeks. By the time they arrived on the continent, Frank realized he was too weak to run a full marathon, so he told Velma to go ahead with the full 26.2 miles and he’d run the half-marathon. It would cost him a chance to join the Seven-Continent Club, but, as he said, “Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. And the Antarctica Marathon is a real bear.”

Because Antarctica’s weather changes by the minute, the marathon course often changes, too. (Sometimes it even gets canceled, a devastating blow to runners because of the trip’s expense and difficulty.) On the morning of March 10, the marathoners expected to run from the Chinese base to the Russian base. Instead, they woke up to 8 inches of snow and new plans.

They changed the course, with Velma running up and down 36 hills through 40 to 45-mph winds in sleet, snow and mud while facing a seven-hour cutoff time for the marathon to be official.

She just made it, finishing in 6:42.11 to become the 138th woman to join the Seven Continent Club.

“It was,” she said, “quite an adventure.”

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“The difference between the mile and the marathon is the difference between burning your fingers with a match and being slowly roasted over hot coals.”

Hal Higdon, running writer and coach

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Frank and Velma got a late start on their running careers, finishing their first race, the Warren Turkey Trot, in 1984.

Frank ran the 10K in 48 minutes. He was 38.

Velma ran the two-mile in 16 minutes. She was 36.

They graduated to marathons in 1989 when they ran the Cleveland Marathon. From there, they did marathons in Columbus, Pittsburgh and Boston.

Then, at a road race in Philadelphia, they met someone attempting to join the Continent Club.

It sounded interesting.

“I thought, ‘If we could afford it, I’ve love to run in Rome,’” Velma said. “I had always wanted to go there.”

The Verhages ran the Rome Marathon in 2007, checking off Europe. Two years later, they ran the Safaricom Marathon in Kenya, checking off Africa.

“Everyone asks me, ‘Which is my favorite one?’” Velma said. “They’re all special, but running in Africa, with all the safaris, that was pretty neat.”

In 2011, they ran probably her least favorite, the Great Wall Marathon in Beijing, which is sometimes called the hardest marathon in the world. On the day before the marathon, the race organizers made the runners walk 10 kilometers of the course, up and down the wall.

“I’ll tell you, the next morning, all you smelled on the tour was Ben-Gay,” Velma said.

The marathon itself was worse. There’s an eight-hour time limit, which didn’t seem like a big deal at first (the Verhages’ best time was a 3:30.39 in the Cleveland Revco Marathon in 1993) but loomed very large by the end. They finished in 7:55.53, then were told afterward from people who had a GPS on their watches that the course was really 27 miles. Their 26.2-mile time was about 7:30.

“No, we did not stop for lunch,” Frank said.

In 2012, they ran on volcanoes in the Easter Island Marathon in Rapa Nui, South America. (“It might just be a small island, but the marathon itself was a mighty one,” Frank said.) And in 2013, they checked off their sixth continent by running through the desert in the Australian Outback Marathon.

“Running uphill was nearly impossible,” Frank said. “Running downhill was impossible.”

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“You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can’t know what’s coming. “

Frank Shorter,

1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist

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Frank Verhage has spent the last 48 years working for General Motors. A 1965 graduate of Champion High, he plans to retire in January 2017. He paid cash for every marathon, working extra 12-hour shifts to cover the cost.

Velma, a 1967 graduate of Newton Falls High, has already retired. They’ve run nearly two-dozen marathons between them — as well as a litany of half-marathons, road races, bicycle races and biathlons — and trained for every one at Mill Creek Park, often working out with the Youngstown Road Runners.

“We are very thankful for Mill Creek Park,” Velma said.

They’re also thankful for the support of their friends and family, especially their late cousin, Tony Naples, who was their biggest fan but who died of lung cancer in November of 2014, just before the Antarctica Marathon.

“It was very hard when we came home to know that we could not share this with Tony,” Velma said.

So, what now? The Verhages haven’t decided. They may have stopped running international marathons, but they haven’t stopped running. Or bicycling. Or working out on their rowing machine and Ab Lounge in their home gym.

“When you have been training and working out for almost 31 years, it just becomes part of your everyday life,” Frank said. “Running and racing have been a big part of our lives and always will.

“Try it. You’ll like it.”