Dust Bowl Marathon Series 2013

A marathon is a foot race of 26.2 miles, and whether run or walked it is a long way to go. There are hundreds of these events in the United States with hundreds of thousands participating each year. But for the more serious marathoners there are a few multi-day series. These events range from 2-7 days and runners start each day doing another marathon on the same course.

The Dust Bowl Marathon Series adds a new twist not attempted previously. In this series, runners and walkers will do a marathon then move on to the next town in a bordering state to run again in the morning. This will be a 5-day adventure encompassing Dalhart, TX, Guymon, OK, Ulysses, KS, Lamar, CO and Clayton, NM. These races will be particularly attractive to a couple of groups; one is the 50 States Club where members are out to run a marathon in every state, the other is the Marathon Maniacs. As their name implies, they are rather NUTS about running lots of marathons. Look for runners wearing shirts from these organizations.

For those who may be interested, it is not necessary to do all five days, nor does one have to do a full marathon. Runners and walkers may do just one day, or any combination and may choose to do just a half-marathon at 13.1 miles. MainlyMarathons.com of Las Cruces, New Mexico is organizing the event and local participants may contact them for special discounts.

Out on the courses will be runners who have done hundreds of marathons along with a few first-timers accepting the challenge to go the distance. Of the more experienced will be some who have achieved “Mega -Marathoner” status, finishing 300 or more marathons. For the most part, they are not fast, but are extremely focused, dedicated and interesting, having taken years to reach that mark.

The following Mega -Marathoners have registered and will be out there on the courses:

Bill Whipp, age 68, OH, walks his marathons and has completed 320, 294 on an artificial knee.

Henry Rueden, age 63, WI, 845 marathons.

Frank Bartocci age 61, MN, 505 marathons, he has run over 30,000 miles, and done all 50 states 7 times.

Chuck Savage, age 74, FL, ran his first of 307 marathons in 1979. One of Chuck’s goals is to run a marathon on all 7 continents, including Antarctica.

Mike Brooks, age 67, MD, 371 marathons, he did a 491 mile race in 10 days, has raised over $40,000 for critically ill children with his running.

Cathy Troisi, age 66, NY, 304 marathons.

Kazuki Watanabe of Tokyo, Japan, 270 marathons, age 53. Granted he is not yet a “Mega-Marathoner”, but at 53 he is just a youngster in a sport dominated by seniors and will hit 300 soon.

Two more that have yet to register but have shown their intentions to participate are:

Larry Macon, age 68, an attorney from San Antonio, TX, 980 marathons, holds the world’s record for most in one year when he completed 157 marathons in 2012. He has also done all 50 states 14 times.

Jim Simpson, age 70, CA, finished his 1000th marathon on New Year’s Day 2013. He is the USA champion for most lifetime marathons . He drives to most of his marathons, camping more than 200 night a year in Walmart parking lots. This has earned him the nickname in running circles of “Walmart Man”.

Of those who have registered so far will be runners and walkers from 30 states, Canada, England, Philippines and Japan.

The schedule for this year’s series:

March 18, Dalhart, TX, Rita Blanca Lake Park, start time 7:30am
March 19, Guymon, OK, Sunset Lake in Thompson Park, start time 7:30am
March 20, Ulysses, KS, Frazier Park, start time 7:30am
March 21, Lamar, CO, Willow Creek Park, start time 6:30am
March 22, Clayton, NM, Clayton Lake State Park, start time 6:30am