Pam and Bubba Begnaud running a half-marathon in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 19, 2025. It would be Bubba’s last race.
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Pam Begnaud, holding photo, celebrates her 50th half marathon in 50 states with running friends on May 11, 2026 in South Sioux City, Neb.
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Fifty state map created by Pam Begnaud to commemorate her and her husband Bubba’s half marathons run in all 50 states. Pam Begnaud ran the last two in Hawaii and Nebraska after her husband’s death.
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Love of running got Pam and her husband Wayne “Bubba” Begnaud competing in half marathons all across the United States.
Love has kept her going — on her own.
Several years ago, the Lafayette couple set a goal: they would compete in 50 half marathons in all 50 states.
“We’d done half marathons in h and Texas,” Pam said. “Bubba started about 10 years ago and I joined in about five years ago.
“We were running in the Little Rock marathon and I said I’d seen people who’d run in all 50 states. It blossomed from there.”
At first, Bubba, able to maintain a faster pace, would run ahead, complete his 13.1 miles and come back to find Pam so they could cross the finish line together. Eventually, his bad knees and her pace found a lock step as they crossed the past 20 finish lines together.
“We’ve done Mount Rainier, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Grand Teton,” Pam said. “If Bubba was close to any famous sports field, he would want to see it.”
A half-marathon this past Oct. 19 in Des Moines, Iowa, marked their 48th state. That left just Hawaii and Nebraska to be checked off their list.
Unfortunately, Des Moines was the end of their racing journey together.
On Nov. 6, as they were preparing to run in Lincoln, Nebraska, Bubba Begnaud died in his sleep at 66. An autopsy eventually revealed he died of ventricular fibrillation, a deadly condition when the heart stops pumping blood normally.
“He was an organ donor in Nebraska and h,” Pam said. “It took two weeks to get his body back. I wanted an autopsy. No one could tell me (at first) what happened to my very healthy husband. It took about a month.
“Looking back,” Pam said, her voice quavering, “I’m so grateful what we were able to accomplish and the time we were able to spend together.”
The question soon became how Pam, who retired from her job as a radio station market manager in Lafayette for Townsquare Media at the end of 2024, would spend her time. How she would find something to fill her days, and that unfillable void, in her life.
“When I came back, I wanted to quit running,” Pam said. “I was done.”
Still, plans had already been made for Pam and Bubba to run in Hawaii, their 49th state, in January.
After much thought, Pam decided to go. To complete another important milepost on their quest.
Accompanied by two of their three children, Jaden and Anais, Pam made the solemn but determined trip across the Pacific. On Jan. 18, she ran the Maui Oceanfront Marathon.
Race organizers awarded a medal, posthumously, to Bubba.
“They said he finished his race,” Pam said.
That still left one race to go to complete the 50. One in Nebraska. Pam couldn’t bring herself to go back to Lincoln, where Bubba died, so she found another event.
On May 11, Pam ran in South Sioux City, Nebraska, surrounded by the racing friends she and Bubba made through all their trips around the country.
Would this be the end of Pam’s running journey? She decided it was not. Soon, Begnaud set off on a quest to complete 100 half marathons through a racing company she and Bubba worked with called Mainly Marathons. Runners who reach the 100-event mark get recognized as being part of the 50-state marathon half-marathon club.
“I know this is what he would want me to do,” Begnaud said. “To keep busy. I’m not sitting on a sofa crying 24/7. I’ve talked to other widows who said they’re no better off than when their husband died. I couldn’t do that.”
Pam is currently in the midst of her race to 100, taking on back-to-back racing series in the northeast, a total of 11 races in 11 days. She started Wednesday in Bear, Delaware, then ran through Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Sunday found Begnaud running in Montgomery, New York. If all goes as scheduled, after events this week in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, Begnaud will run her 100th race this coming Saturday in Sanford, Maine.
“It’s pretty much rinse and repeat,” Begnaud said. “Run, take a shower, grab your luggage, drive to the next state. It’s ‘Groundhog Day’ every day.”
She runs alone now, but then again, not really. Not with all the running friends Pam and Bubba made over the years. Not with all the memories.
“They’re like a family,” Pam said earlier this week. “I went to packet pickup today and everyone knew I lost my husband. That he was a runner. They’re kind, like-minded people.”
“No doubt,” Bubba would want Pam to keep going, she said. She’s living his favorite phrase: “I got it.”
“That’s the only reason I’m doing it,” Begnaud said. “To honor him. I know he’s watching.”
If her words remind you a bit of “Forrest Gump,” you’d be right. Once in a race near the Four Corners of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, Pam and Bubba trekked down a highway traveled by Tom Hanks’ character in the famous movie as he thinks of his beloved Jenny.
“I know this is where I feel closest to him,” Pam said.
After Maine, what's next? Begnaud hasn’t decided, just that she plans to keep running.
For herself. For Bubba.
“He’s still running right beside Pam,” David Clark, a fellow runner, said at a gathering back in January in Hawaii.
Love doesn’t have to end with the grave.
It certainly doesn’t end at the finish line of a race.