Running With Her Heart

At one March marathon in Iowa, with a wind chill of 9 below zero, Allyson Hilliard’s ponytail froze. At another, she watched breaching whales along Hawaii’s coastline. A recent one in Illinois left her feeling exhausted; when she returned home, she discovered she had COVID-19.

Hilliard, 48, a family law attorney in Charleston, West Virginia, is close to joining the select circle, known as 50 Staters, who have finished 26.2-mile marathons in every state. She plans to complete her epic cycle, which started in 2009, in June in Anchorage. 

“My goal is always just to finish,” says Hilliard. “I have competed in every type of temperature and condition—snow, rain, wind, heat. Some have been absolutely miserable. You can’t think about being in pain or misery. You can’t run with your legs, you run with your heart.”

Her best time is an impressive 3 hours and 52 minutes; the average time for women in major marathon races is about 4:35.

Hilliard, one of only three fellows from West Virginia in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, has charted her own path in life. While attending Northern Kentucky University and studying criminal justice, she worked as a private investigator with the idea of going to law school and later becoming an FBI agent. 

After graduating from the Appalachian School of Law in 2003, she started the FBI’s orientation process but bailed because the agency wouldn’t guarantee she’d be assigned to undercover investigations. “I didn’t want to be a cop,” she says. 

After she finished clerking with Judge Charles E. King Jr. for two years, she was hired by Mark Swartz to work at his family law firm based in Charleston. “After I stopped pursuing the FBI, family law was the only topic that kept my interest,” she explains.

Swartz says he basically turned the firm over to Hilliard to manage about 10 years ago. “She is always well prepared, she’s not fearful, and she doesn’t quit,” he says. “And not quitting is part of the running thing as well. She’s got a goal and she achieves it.”

Hilliard started jogging in law school and was inspired to run her first marathon in Cincinnati in 2009 when a childhood friend decided to sign up for it. “I was very conservative with my time, because I was scared I wouldn’t finish,” she recalls. “When I hit mile 21, I sprinted to the end. It just felt good.”

Hilliard’s husband, David Epperly, who owns an accounting firm, accompanies her on her marathon trips. It’s usually a weekend thing: They fly out on Friday and return in time for work on Monday. He makes the travel arrangements, generally accompanies her to the starting line, returns to the hotel to work, then goes out again to greet her at the finish line. If possible, they squeeze in some sightseeing.

But at that frigid 2023 marathon in Des Moines with the subzero wind chill, Epperly did not leave the hotel room. “I didn’t have a coat; I was too cheap to buy one,” he says. “But I wasn’t surprised that she ran. She’s a badass. A little bit of weather isn’t going to deter her.”

Hilliard gets so focused that, when she traveled to Maui in January 2018 to run the marathon, she paid little attention to the widespread panic over what turned out to be a false alert that a ballistic missile was headed toward Hawaii. “My first thought was, ‘Are they still going to have the marathon tomorrow?’” she recalls with a laugh. “I didn’t think about a missile blowing up Hawaii.”

Running marathons, including the rigorous training she does between races, helps distract her from the difficult business of handling divorce cases, which she says has always been contentious over her 20 years of practice. “There are too many custody battles,” she says. “That’s the stuff I hate. This work does take a toll on you. Sometimes running is easier than dealing with clients.” 

Hilliard doesn’t plan to stop after she finishes all 50 state marathons. In fact, she intends to run 50 more, then join the even more select 100 Marathon Club. She has in mind doing at least one on each continent. “The next 50?” Epperly asks after a pause and a little laugh. “If her health holds out and that’s what she wants to do, I’m all for it.”

Hilliard’s Favorite Marathons

• Maui, with the added spectacle of whale-watching. 
• Missoula, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for the mountains, black bears and bison.
• Huntington Beach, California, where the scene is surfers, Volkswagen buses and partyers.
• Minneapolis and Cincinnati, where tons of spectators encourage thousands of runners. “It does make it better when there are more people together, cheering everyone on,” she says. 
• The Wineglass Marathon in Corning, New York, which is all downhill.