She took advantage of the recent three-day weekend to travel to South Carolina, the final state on her list, for the Charleston Marathon. When she returned to Anchorage, it was with her usual haul of souvenirs -- a medal for Cropper, and classroom materials for her students at Chester Valley Elementary School.
Cropper, 50, claimed a medal in Charleston by winning her age group in 3 hours, 33 minutes. The effort not only completed her goal of 50 marathons in 50 states, it put her in rare company.
According the 50Sub4 Marathon Club, which keeps track of such things, Cropper is the 22nd runner and just the third woman to break the four-hour barrier in every state. A three-time winner of what used to be called the Humpy's Marathon, Cropper has won marathons in 12 other states and collected awards in almost all of them.
"Debbie's running resume is very impressive," club record-keeper Jeff Hill of Katy, Texas, said in an email announcing Cropper's achievement. "She has either an age-group or overall placing in all but 12 states and has managed to do this while living and training in Alaska."
Cropper is something of a natural. She didn't begin running until she was 35, but she had immediate success, winning an age-group award at a 10-kilometer race in California. In 1999, at age 37, she tried her first marathon, the Maui Marathon, and clocked 3:58.
"The rest is history," she said.
She isn't kidding about the history part.
Cropper is the kind of teacher who likes to go the extra mile -- or the extra 26.2 miles -- and so almost every one of her marathons becomes a learning experience for her students.
The trip to South Carolina, where she visited the home of founding father John Rutledge and took a boat ride to Fort Sumter, will inspire lessons about the Civil War and U.S. Constitution. A trip to an Ohio marathon provided a show-and-tell opportunity about buckeyes. A trip to a Minnesota marathon yielded a lesson plan about the Great Lakes.
"I always went to the visitor's center," Cropper said of her many journeys. "People would tease me and say, 'Just relax,' and I'd say, 'No, I've gotta learn.' ''
Though the goal of running a marathon in every state has driven Cropper for more than a decade, she said it stopped being about running years ago. It's about making new friends, seeing new places and learning new things.
"It's been amazing," she said. "Part of me is grieving because that goal is gone, and it changed my life."
Cropper said she doesn't know when or where her next marathon will be, but she admits some ideas are taking shape.
"My next goal is the continents, because I want to keep learning," she said. "My absolute bucket-list marathon is the Great Wall of China."
Cropper has run 59 marathons in all, plus the 50-kilometer Little Su winter endurance race. On her list of 50 sub-4:00 marathons in 50 states, her slowest time is the 3:58 in Maui and her fastest is a 3:09 at the 2010 Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee.
2010 was her banner year -- 10 marathons, including the personal-record in Wisconsin. "It was a total PR year," she said, "a lot of 3:12s, 3:15s."
2009 was her crazy year -- nine marathons, including three in eight days.
The original plan, Cropper said, was to do two in eight days -- Iowa, followed by Minnesota.
"But the friends I saw in Iowa said I could knock off South Dakota the next day -- only a two-hour drive -- so I did," she said.
On that trip, she clocked 3:27 in the Marathon to Marathon race in Storm Lake, Iowa; 3:36 in the Swan Lake Marathon in Viborg, S.D., and 3:25 at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minn. -- where she also did the homework for that lesson plan on the Great Lakes.
The busy years of 2009 and 2010 took their toll in 2011, Cropper said. Her times dipped a bit, she's a little anemic and she said she almost hit the wall in last Saturday's Charleston Marathon.
As Cropper was catching her breath at the finish line of that race, a photographer tapped her on her shoulder. Cropper turned and was surprised to see a big group of people cheering and applauding.
"It didn't dawn on me at first," she said. "It was my family."
Surprising her at the finish line was her mother, who had never seen Cropper run a marathon; her father; all four of her siblings; a handful of other relatives and her best friend from high school whom she hadn't seen in 21 years. All live on the East Coast and traveled to Charleston to celebrate Cropper's 50th state.
The next day, a local newspaper ran a story about Cropper's accomplishment. While she was out on a brisk walk, a stranger stopped her.
"Are you the one in the paper today?" he asked. "You inspired my whole family." Then he gave her a hug.
"Just to hear those words -- that's the dream come true," Cropper said. "That's what I want my life to stand for. Not how fast I've run. Just inspiring people."
Reach Beth Bragg at bbragg@adn.com or 257-4335.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.