So, how did I get to 10 marathons in 2010?

If you had to guess how many marathons were held in Wisconsin every year what would you say? Five, ten? Well there’s Cellcom, Lakefront, Madison, Whistlestop, Paavo Nurmi, Journey, Lake Geneva, wow.

A few years ago I read an article in Marathon & Beyond by Adam Gould who had run all of the Wisconsin marathons in a few years. At that time there were ten marathons in Wisconsin and that sounded like a pretty cool idea, “To run all of the marathons in your state”, very cool.

Being 50 years old at the time I realized that I couldn’t do just one per year, I would be 60 by the time I finished. And, what would happen if they cancelled one of the races before I got to it? That just wouldn’t do, so after running Whistlestop in 2009 I decided to try to run all 10 Wisconsin marathons in a fiscal year with Whistlestop being the first of the year so I wouldn’t have to run on that muddy rails to trails course ever again. So I started doing my research and laying out my assault plan.

The best place to do research on Marathons (or so I thought) was Marathon Guide ( http://www.marathonguide.com/ ). I did my search and uncovered 15 marathons in our beautiful state. Some of them are even held on the same day, May 2, 2010 has races in Eau Claire and LaCrosse and on May 8 there is the Journeys and Lake Geneva Marathons. One race is indoors, and there are several trail marathons. What if I limited the marathons to just road races? No, that wouldn’t do, I didn’t want any asterisks like Mark McGuire or Sammy Sosa, Flintstone vitamins my butt. Obviously May was going to suck, and I would now have to spread my quest over two years, 10 marathons in 2010 (very symmetrical) and 5 in 2011. So I ran the idea past the control tower, my lovely wife Chris who has had to put up with my Type A personality for over 30 years, and she approved. Did I mention that I’m fully insured?

So I on January 1, 2010 I committed to this goal and posted it at work on our goal board. It’s supposed to be an incognito posting but there’s only one person at PAi who runs at lunch regardless of the weather, so this quest is no longer a secret, it’s a must do event. I also told my Saturday running buddies Teresa, Scott and Michael to make sure I locked it in. This quest means I would have to pass on Boston this year, but Sean Ryan brought Bill Rodgers to Green Bay to run with us so I checked that off of the bucket list.

Let’s get this party started!
To get this quest under way I thought that I would start with what I thought would be the toughest race psychologically, the InStep Indoor Marathon. This Milwaukee race is run on an indoor track that circles the Olympic Speed Skating oval at the Pettit Ice Complex. It offers two half marathons and a marathon relay on Saturday, and the full marathon on Sunday. The full marathon is 95.6 laps around the ice, yuk! I registered on-line only to find out that the marathon was full, but having committed to my quest I called the race director to push my case. It didn’t work, but he suggested finding someone to run the first lap then I could do the rest as a relay team and extra lap for the full marathon, plus I would save $30. Done deal, my son would run lap 1 and I would run 94+ laps. Sounds like fun and I get to share the event with my son.

Race Day, Indoors in Milwaukee
Having spent so much time speaking with race director Chris Ponteri I sought him out to thank him for getting me into his event. While speaking to Chris he introduced me to another race director as “The crazy guy who is going to run every marathon in Wisconsin this year” I had to qualify it and say “Chris, I’m only doing 10 this year and I’ll save the other five marathons for 2011” the other race director chimes in and says “You do know there are 22 marathons in Wisconsin don’t you?” But I checked MarathonGuide.com I pleaded! He replies check Running in the USA, (http://www.runningintheusa.com/ ) , hoping he’s wrong I told my son I’ll check when I get home.

As usual I flame out at mile 20, but still finish, hurting like I’ve never hurt before. 95+ laps on a thin layer of rubber on concrete turning left all of the time are rough. But this race has many pluses, the race director, and the volunteers who make sure that they greet you at every lap with a smile, dance and your fluids. The other runners who you see over and over again and their families who even though they have never met you before cheer you on every time that you pass them. You make many friends at this event because you see them so often. For those facts I can recommend this marathon, but I think that I would prefer the marathon relay instead.

There really are 22 marathons in Wisconsin
When I finally got home late Saturday night I Googled Running in The USA and found that there are indeed 22 marathons in Wisconsin. If you want a spreadsheet that lists all of the marathons and the races that I will do in 2010, 2011 and 2012 just send me an e-mail.

Now What!
On Thursday February 4, I found out Middleton just added a marathon, that makes 23 in Wisconsin, and since it's the inagural running of this event I just have to do it. Do you think Wisconsin race directors will stop at 26?

Next Reviews
March 27 was Trailbreaker in beautiful Wakesha, and this coming weekend(4/17) is Navarino