RRT125: Extreme Marathon Maniacs and 50 States Club

Extreme Marathon Maniacs and 50 States Club

Join the fun on Tuesday, June 12th  at 9:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 Central, 6:00 Pacific as we have a great discussion!

Last November for Runners Round Table #120 we met some members of “The Marathon Maniacs.” The Marathon Maniacs are a club of like minded extreme athletes looking to run as many marathons as their schedules, finances, personal commitments and legs will allow. And on this show, we meet some of the most extreme of the extreme. All of the panelists tonight have recently earned the highest status in the Marathon Maniacs running club. This is known as the “Titanium” or “10-Star” level, which requires either running 52 marathons in a year or running a marathon in 30 different states in one year. Fewer than 2% of the members of reached this status. Several of members of the panel are also actively trying to run a marathon in every state in the USA to qualify as a “finisher” member of the 50 States Marathon Club.

The Panel:

Elysa Barron, Marathon Maniac #4054, known by some as 'Pyxie, began training for her first marathon in 2006. A few years later, with 5 marathons under her belt, she took on a bigger project: Completing a marathon (or longer) in every state & DC within one year to raise money & awareness for a non-profit called First Descents (www.firstdescents.org). She succeeded with 52 marathons in 342 days, finishing January, 7th 2012 (www.racethestates.com). Elysa became a 10 star maniac in Washington in July 2011. This year her goals are smaller. She is training to run one fast marathon (preceded by one 1/2 marathon). And, again, she's raising money for a worthwhile cause - Washington Fire Relief (http://washingtonfirerelief.blogspot.com/). In addition, she is working on the 2nd year of putting on a marathon in DE (www.fortitude4fd.com). Her current blog is more everyday life with running thrown into the mix - http://journey2zen.wordpress.com/

Galen Garrison, Marathon Maniac #1381, has completed over 90 marathons and 15 ultras in 21 states. He earned his 10th marathon maniac star - completing 52 marathons or ultras in 52 weeks - at the Columbia Marathon in South Carolina this past March (2012) setting a PR at the same time. The most fun he has had of late was running 9 marathons in 9 days during the 2011 Christmas and New Year's holidays with other extreme Maniacs such as our co-host, Daniel Lieb, Wayne Sherman a/k/a "Manimal," and Angela Tortorice. Galen is followed numerically by Maniac #1382, Hideki "Kino" Kinoshita, but listens intently to Kino's sage advice on increasing speed and completing ultra distances. Galen lives in St. Petersburg, FL and when he is not running maintains MarathonMedals.com, a web site with pictures of finisher's medals from runners around the world.

Hideki Kinoshita, more commonly known as "Kino" in the running community, who discovered the joys of marathon running just three and a half years ago. Since then, he's combined his love of the sport with philanthropic efforts to raise roughly $60,000 in funding and awareness for causes ranging from cancer research to combating homelessness to taking care of the health of 9/11 First Responder veterans. He achieved the Marathon Maniacs 10-star Titanium level in 9/2011 by running 104.79 miles at the USA Track & Field 24 Hour National Championships at North Coast 24 in Cleveland, OH, after completing a marathon or ultra in 30 states and countries within a calendar year. On June 3rd, Kino finished his 100th marathon/ultra by completing the famed Comrades Marathon, a 56-mile ultramarathon in South Africa dubbed, "The Ultimate Human Race". Kino is also 9 states away from completing a marathon or ultra in the 50 States, 3 continents away from finishing the 7 Continents, and a little more than halfway through his 50sub4 goal of finishing a marathon in under 4 hours in all 50 states. You can follow his progress at RunKino on facebook, twitter, or on his blog at RunKino.com. Additionally, Kino is actively involved with three fundraisers: WTC Health Program Fundraiser: https://philanthropy.mountsinai.org/kino ; PanCAN Charity Fundraiser: http://tinyurl.com/runkinopancan ; Back on My Feet NYC Launch Fundraiser:
http://tinyurl.com/runkinobomfnyc

Edward Masuoka, Marathon Maniac #2910, began running on a treadmill in 2007 to lose weight. By his first road race, a 5K in Baltimore, MD on October 11, 2008 he was 45 pounds lighter and had run over 4,000 miles. His second road race, a half marathon was an hour after the start of the first. He ran his first marathon a month later and has completed 63 marathons and 9 ultras since then. He earned his 10th star in May 2012 at the Carmel marathon. Now he is focused on training for upcoming 50 and 100 mile races.

Wayne "The Manimal" Sherman, Marathon Maniac #3215, has run 64 marathons and ultras, as of 20 May 12. His first marathon was the Baltimore Marathon on 16 Oct 2010 and qualified to join Marathon Maniacs after his second marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon on 31 Oct 2010. He earned his 10th star at the Too Slow For Boston Marathon in Apr 2011. From 30 Apr 11 to 29 Apr 12, he ran 54 marathons and ultra-marathons. On 4 Jun 2012, he will run his 52nd marathon/ultras since 3 Sep 2012 in Cork, Ireland. He is working to complete a marathon in all 50 States and plans to join the 100-Marathon Club in 2013. One of his most memorable marathons was the Marine Corps Marathon in 2011 where he retired from the Navy following completion of the marathon. Wayne resides in Springfield, VA. His Facebook page is www.facebook.com/MarathonManimal.


The co-hosts of the show are:

Daniel Lieb, Marathon Maniac #248, has run nearly 150 marathons and ultras. He earned his 10th star at the Death Valley Trail Marathon in December 2010. That year he ran 53 marathons and ultra-marathons. Having had so much fun, he continued to run 56 marathons in 2011. This year Daniel is planning on a more "manageable" number of races, "30-something." Since he is not running so many marathons this year, Daniel has recently started to play duplicate bridge and is approaching the game with the same “go hard or home” attitude that he used to complete 109 marathons and ultras in two years. Daniel lives in Charlotte, NC. His twitter handle is @danultrarunner.

Mark Ulrich, Marathon Maniac #2058. Unlike the Runners Round Table counterparts, Mark is a lightweight in terms of volume, having run only 22 Marathons since 2004. Many of Mark’s friends are fellow avid marathoners, and he trains with Sean Wade's Kenyan Way program in Houston, Texas. Mark has qualified and run Boston twice, most recently in 2010, and his marathon P.R. is 3:19. Mark is happily married and his daughter recently graduated from college – so he has much to celebrate! Within the past few months Mark has been delighted as his wife for the first time in their 27-year marriage has joined him on several runs, Texas road cycling trips. Mark's running blog is http://RunInAmerica.com

Click here to listen to RRT 125