#1799

I'm a maniac... maniac on the road and I'm running like I've never ran before.
That's right. I'm taking creative liberties to change the lyrics of a cheesy ass song to suit my needs.

Well folks. It's official as of yesterday. I'm Marathon Maniac #1799. (It only took me two months to pony up the $58.95 for membership and the yellow singlet). I'm pretty psyched to be apart of such a crazy group of runners. What I like about the Maniacs, is that they're about quantity over quality. Sure, I've ran 7 marathons... but a couple of those have been in the 5+ hour. But do they care? Hell no. All they care is that you finish the races. Finally... a racing a community I fit into.

So, my qualification for Marathon Maniac status was running The Grizzly Marathon and the Madison Marathon in consecutive days. That enters me in at the 4 star level, which is the Iridium level.

To be honest, I didn't even realize that running back-to-back marathons would qualify me for Maniac status. But the morning I was leaving to fly to Montana, I ran a 5k and I mentioned to my friend Melanie that I was running back to back marathons the next weekend and she said... Oh! You'll be a Maniac. And at first... it completely flew over my head. Sure, I'd seen the singlets on people at marathons, etc. But, you see, to me, running back to back marathons didn't seem like such a crazy feat. I forgot all about her comment until later in the week. And when I looked it up, I was psyched that it qualified!

So, naturally... now, I wanna move my way up the Maniac ladder and I think I've picked the route I wanna take... here are the choices for the 5 star status:

Five Star: Ruthenium

1. 26 - 30 Marathons within 1 calendar year.

2. 4 Marathons on back to back weekends (within a 9 day window).

3. 3 Marathons in 3 separate US states, Countries, or Canadian Provinces (any combination) within a 9-day time span.

4. 13 Marathons in 13 different US states, Countries, or Canadian Provinces (any combination) in one calendar year.

Can you guess? I bet you can...

3 Marathons in 3 separate US States, Countries, or Canadian Provinces (any combination) within a 9-day time span.

Ruthenium, I've got my eye on you.