Marathon Maniac #4532...

That's right, I reached a big goal for the year!!  Last night I officially got registered with the Marathon Maniacs as Maniac #4532.  I still kind of can't believe it.  Last year as I was training for my first marathon (the Napa Valley Marathon 3/6/11) I had never even heard of this group.  I started hearing about them from people in the Good Guys vs Bad Girls Running Competition on Facebook and couldn't believe it.  The MINIMUM requirement to qualify is 3 marathons in 90 days!!  When you are working so hard for 4 months to train for your first marathon running 3 of them in just 3 months sounds impossible!  Even if it is possible, why would anyone want to do that to themselves?!?!  After fighting my way through that first one I knew I wanted to run more of them, but the Maniacs still seemed like an impossibility.  Maybe in a few years I could manage it.

I had made some good friends (Ron & Bobbie Ruhs) through the Facebook competition that are both Maniacs and I was always so amazed by the races they would run.  They come down here to where I live to run races quite a bit so I was getting to spend a good amount of time talking to them about running and they constantly encouraged me to keep pushing myself.  As time went by I decided to go ahead and set a goal.  I knew if I set a goal and worked hard on it I could do it.  I selected 3 races, the Patriots' Run 9 hr 11 min race on 9/11, the Blue Springs 50k on 10/30 and the Route 66 Marathon on 11/20 in Tulsa.  This was going to be HARD!!  Not only had I only ever run one marathon, I had gotten a stress fracture in my foot in the process!!  I missed almost 8 weeks of running shortly after Napa due to a stress fracture that started there.  So let's get this straight; the first guy that ran a marathon died, the first time I ran a marathon I got my first broken bone in my life from it.  Yet I still wanted to try to run 3 (2 of which were actually Ultras) in just 70 days.  What Was I thinking??

As I said, I missed almost 8 weeks of running due to a stress fracture so I had lost much of the benefit of the training I'd done for the Napa Valley Marathon.  I was basically starting from scratch.  I would have to build up quickly to get ready for Patriots'.  I did my best, but come race day the furthest I'd run since Napa was just 14 miles.  I managed to fight out the necessary 27 miles before heat problems forced me to stop.  Then a hitch in the plan came up in late September.  I wasn't going to be able to run the Route 66 Marathon after all.  Just before we were going to register some things came up that would prevent us from being able to afford the travel.  That was a tough blow, I was looking forward to meeting some of my Facebook friends there.  Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches, so I found the Pilgrim Pacer Marathon here in town to replace it.  On 10/30 was the Blue Springs 50k which Team Ruhs came down for and another friend Lindsy was doing to get herself into the Maniacs as well.  That was another tough one, I struggled with over hydration issues, but I  fought through again and got it done.  After having such a hard time getting through those my confidence was shaken.  I felt like the Pilgrim Pacer was going to be a disaster, but I had to fight through to accomplish my goal.  I had the opposite experience, things went great!

I'd done it!!  2 ultras and 1 marathon in 62 days!!  I sent in my info and got registered with the Maniacs!  Not only was it possible, I had done it!  2 years and 12 days after first becoming a runner I was not only a marathoner, I was Marathon Maniac #4532!!  After accomplishing that, who knows what the future holds for me!!!  Right now I've pretty well wrapped up the races for 2011 so I'm now training for the Louisiana Marathon on 1/15/12 to kick of the next race season.  I plan to work on improving in marathons in the early part of the year with Louisiana, the Oz Marathon and the Lincoln Marathon.  Then I'll get back to ultras in the fall by running the Patriots' Run and Blue Springs 50k again.  This year was awesome, but 2012 will be even better!!