A marathon task: Runner logs 50 miles visiting library branches in one day

For a guy who once ran 51 marathons in 50 days in 50 states, Thursday's venture should have been a Sunday stroll for ultramarathoner Sam Thompson. If only the snow hadn't gotten in the way.

Thompson, who has been running for 15 years, had plans to run to all 27 Seattle library branches in one day. And to have his library passport stamped — presuming the branches were open.

"I heard about the library-passport program and thought it was really cool," said Thompson, 28. "I love going to my library. It's such an incredible resource. My goal is to get people excited about visiting their local branch."

To celebrate completion of the 27 new and remodeled branches of the public library, the library created a "library passport," which visitors can take to each branch and get stamps unique to the individual library.

Thompson, who works for a nonprofit company that makes charity gift cards, planned to start at his local branch in Broadview and work his way south, visiting West Seattle and southeast Seattle before finishing at the Montlake branch about 8 p.m. In all, he figured the run would have been 60 miles.

Along the way, he had some company. Michael Hanson, a photographer friend, ran part of the way with him. Another man, whom he'd never met before, joined him for a while.

The weather slowed him down a bit, particularly once it got dark and the mercury started dropping, he said.

After leaving the downtown central library, his 13th stop, close to 4 p.m., he found out all branches would be closed at 4:30 p.m. because of the snow.

"At that point, I decided basically to be smart and not risk injury or anything bad happening," he said. "If the libraries were all closing, I should follow suit."

So, he ran to six more branches, all closed by then, "and so I just snapped photos at each one and just kept moving along."

He finished at the Montlake branch, as he had planned, but about 90 minutes ahead of schedule. Then he headed for home.

His accomplishment? He got stamps for 11 branches. He logged about 50 miles. And he says he'll visit the remaining branches and get the rest of his stamps "when the weather clears up."

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054

or sgilmore@seattletimes.com