Rose Polyakova

Age: 56
Home: Shelburne, VT
Profession: Innkeeper and Real Estate Agent 
Family: Husband, Anatoly Polyakov, and Son, Marcus Harold
Primary Sport: Running

This January, Rose Polyakova visited her 50th state. That might not be so noteworthy except that Rose’s journey wasn’t just about sightseeing. She ran a half marathon in every state of the union.

It all started in 2011 when friends asked her to join them for a half marathon in Orlando. Rose didn’t consider herself a runner and had no interest in Disney World, but she wanted to spend time with her friends, so she went. “I had a fantastic experience,” she said, and promptly began looking for other half marathons to run, initially sticking to ones close to her Maryland home. The following year, Rose ran 13.1 miles in 12 different states. “I began to realize this might take over my life,” she said, “so I decided to get organized and do the states in the order in which they entered the union.”

State number 14 was Vermont. Rose ran the Mad Half Marathon in Waitsfield and instantly fell in love with the landscape. She jokes that she called her husband that night and told him to sell their home because they were going to move to Vermont. “It was a little more than that,” she admits, “but I loved the beauty of the state, the vibe, and the possibility of having a better work/life balance.” Deciding that they wanted to work for themselves, the couple purchased the Heart of the Village Inn in Shelburne in 2014. 

Rose continued running, trying as much as possible to do the states in the order they entered the union. She admits she didn’t always manage to keep to that schedule, tackling Colorado a bit early because she was visiting friends. Whenever she could, she minimized travel by combining races, running in Wisconsin on a Saturday and crossing the border to Michigan the following day. Her last half-marathon was in Hawaii this January. In addition to covering the US, Rose also ran a marathon in Greece to celebrate the 2,500th anniversary of the original marathon.

Moving to Vermont put some constraints on Rose’s running because the Heart of the Village Inn is busiest between May and October, making it difficult for her to take time off. “It was pretty complicated,” she said “but the closer I got to home, the easier it got. I got to Texas before we moved but when we became business owners, that changed the dynamics.”

Rose credits her family with helping her achieve her goal. She refers to her husband as her anchor, adding that he often joined her when she traveled to races. Her son, now 40, spent some time in the military and Rose felt that as long as he was putting his life on the line for his country, it behooved her to see the full extent of the land he was defending. 

Up until she finished her 50th state, Rose’s answer to which race was her favorite was always “the next one.” Now that she’s done, she thinks Hawaii was probably her favorite. The race was in Maui and went along the ocean, so she was able to see migrating whales and sea lions. “It was absolutely beautiful,” she said. In a similar vein, she was blown away by the breadth and beauty of Alaska. Despite over a dozen years in Vermont, Alaska is the first place where she saw a moose. “Alaska stole my heart,” she said. 

Two other favorites were full marathons in Maine (Mount Desert Island) and California (Big Sur). “When a state had an ocean shore, I tried to find a race that included it,” Rose said. “When you finish at the ocean it’s like nature’s ice bath.”  A fan of cooler weather, Rose tried to run in the colder states in the summer and the warmer ones in the winter.

Rose said there was something to love in each of her half marathons. Some weren’t as well organized as they could have been and might not have had all the services that were advertised, but the more races she ran, the less she expected from the organizers. She learned to bring her own water and snacks and to study the course ahead of time to prevent wrong turns. 

The first five years Rose and her husband ran the Heart of the Village Inn were great but then Covid hit. Although the business has started to recover, Anatoly was in a bad accident, which created additional financial strain. The family needed another source of revenue and Rose began to look for a job that provided flexibility so they could continue being innkeepers. She recently began work as a real estate agent for Coldwell Banker.

Thanks to working double duty, Rose doesn’t expect to be running quite as much this year. During her 50-state quest, she ran 20 miles a week and raced between two and four times a year. This year, she is just looking to retain fitness and keep herself healthy. “That’s the beauty of running,” she said. “You can meet it wherever you’re at.”

Rose stressed that she has never been a particularly fast runner. “I knew I’d never qualify for Boston,” she said, “but that wasn’t the point. I approached this after a health scare. I just wanted a healthy lifestyle.” Rose said that when she started running, almost every race was a personal record, and she conceded that there were times she pushed a bit to increase her speed. “I wanted to get my body up to the next level,” she said. “I worked with a chiropractor, watched videos, and did a lot of reading to find out about this crazy world I’d stepped into, but eventually I found that it was more about improving the experience than the speed.”

As part of that experience, Rose liked to dress up as something related to the state where she was running. In New York, she was a Rockette, in Vermont a mad cow, a salmon in Alaska, a lumberjack in Maine, and a flying monkey in Kansas. She has incorporated movie themes, running with her friends as the Blues Sisters after the Blues Brothers movie in Mississippi, and as Chief Margaret Gunderson in Fargo, North Dakota. She celebrated the Day of the Dead in New Mexico as a skeleton.

Rose has friends who have tried to run all 50 states in one year, but she didn’t want to rush through the process. Her original goal had been to complete all 50 before her 50th birthday but she soon shelved that because of financial and time constraints. She noted that many states have the same hotels and restaurants, but she tried to find something unique everywhere she went and to appreciate the experience of traveling to new places. In addition to her 50-state quest, Rose took part in the VT 251: The Race Less Traveled challenge, which required her to run races in as many Vermont municipalities as possible and in those where it wasn’t, engage in some kind of run or walk of at least a mile. The challenge is an unofficial one for which no records are kept. It appealed to her because as an innkeeper, guests frequently ask her about other parts of the state with which she isn’t familiar.

Rose volunteers at races including those run by the Shelburne Athletic Club and at the Vermont City Marathon. “It’s an informal rule,” she said “that if you race a lot, you benefit from volunteers so you should volunteer for something. It’s a great experience.” 

While half marathons are her most frequent distance, Rose has pushed the envelope with two ultra races. At the Richmond Ultra Trail Festival, each participant is required to bring food and staff an aid station for an hour. She deliberately chose her time slot to be in the morning of the second day of running to make sure she wouldn’t drop out beforehand. Rose raves about the ultra community. “In the road community the people at the front often don’t care about the people in the back,” she said, “but an Ultra race is often a loop, so you see each other more.”

“Running is the best way to meet people,” Rose said. “You can go anywhere in the world, and you’ll find people to talk to. You can get on a plane and land anywhere and not know a soul, but you’ll find people with whom you have something in common.” Rose noted that runners have different goals and reasons for running but she finds the community to be overwhelmingly positive. “I’m sure there are mean people,” she said, “but I haven’t met them. Runners are just friends I haven’t met yet.”

For people who don’t think they are “real runners,” Rose has some advice. She thinks that sometimes our culture makes us think we have to excel at everything but that’s not true. “Anyone can run,” she said. “You don’t need specialized equipment. Don’t be intimidated. You can get distracted by gear and nutrition but it’s a fabulous way to do something good for your body, meet people and get out into fresh air.”

You can usually find Phyl Newbeck outdoors, cycling, swimming and kayaking, and skiing and skating in winter. She moved to Jericho in 1995 and although still a flatlander, she stacks a mean woodpile. Phyl (vtphyl72@gmail.com) has written for regional newspapers and magazines and is the author of Virginia Hasn’t Always Been for Lovers: Interracial Marriage Bans and the Case of Richard and Mildred Loving.