Marathon Maniac or Just a Little Crazy?

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I don't have an addictive personality.. or do I? Is it that I have a hard time balancing my life's content or am I just gravitating toward one particular thing that brings me joy? Am I obsessed or dedicated? Am I taking this too far? Or am I just pursuing my passions? ...and it's okay to do that, right?  Or is there some or prescription drug being offered these days for  the "crazy" people who want to pursue their dreams..

My friend Barco is on the second half of an incredible challenge right now. 52 Marathons in 26 weeks. My numbers might not be exactly right but since I deactivated my facebook account December 1st and I have nothing to reference. We spoke on phone briefly yesterday as he was on the road heading to Houston, Texas to run a marathon before making his way to Orlando for what he described as the next big section of marathons called the "Savage Seven". Seven marathons in a row! I cannot even imagine.

Barco is a certified "Marathon Maniac" and has been trying to get me to join the rankings too. I have declined up until now. Barco saw a photo on FB of a group of us that just finished the Seashore Nature Trail 50k and posed the question... and I paraphrase "If any of you ran the OBX Marathon on the 11th of November, all you have to do is run one more marathon distance event before January 11th to qualify for a one star bronze level Marathon Maniac status - 3 marathons in a 90 day period."

This peaked my interested as he included a couple choices for those of us so incline to indulge in this not-so-direct challenge to the group. One of the choices: The Frosty 50K on January 5th. Just 2 weeks from now and only three weeks from the last 50K I did. Could I do it? Am I conditioned enough to run another 50K that I can be proud of? The event is being held around the Salem Lake in Winston-Salem, NC. It's a 5 hour drive from the Outer Banks. I have some family in High Point, NC and my wife pulled up their address in relationship to the lake... 12 miles apart! One other thing that was drawing us was that the event was also hosting a 25K and my wife is very interested. Her longest run so far is 13.1 miles, so this would be a PR distance as she has started to set her sight on completing a full marathon in the near future.

We signed up!

But upon looking at the membership criteria on the Marathon Maniacs website, I encountered a possible snowballing situation...

According to the criteria to go one step further to be a two star silver level maniac, you must complete 6 marathon distances within a six month period... which basically means that I only need to add 1 more marathon by April 11th or just upgrade my already scheduled Shamrock half marathon in March in VA Beach to qualify. I am running the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February and  the Graveyard 100k in March, so.. what's so crazy about one more marathon.. or another 13.1 if I upgrade the Shamrock?

I mean, c'mon.. we're talking Marathon Maniac status here.. wait, "Maniac"  and "crazy" are the same thing, aren't they?







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