Marathon Maniacs June 2004
Doctors, Lawyer’s, Rocket Scientist, oh my!!! CEO’s, President’s,
Aero Space Engineers, oh my!!! I don’t think were in Kansas anymore Toto!!!
Marathon Maniacs is like a freight train barreling down the mountain with no
breaks!!! Hard Core Marathoners from everywhere are joining!!! The Marathon
Maniacs offer a safe refuge for these crazy individuals!!! For example Brenton
Floyd of TN. Who at 19 years old has run more than 225 marathons and has met
the highest level of the Maniac Criteria by completing 52 marathons in one
calendar year, he ran 17 Sat. and Sun. races last year alone. He started
running marathons with his Grandmother at the age of 10!!! Then there is David
Knapp who is going to be joining us soon but he’s a little busy right now, he
is running 40 marathons this year to commemorate his 40th
birthday!!! Are you getting a better picture of our members now?
Who would have thought an email written to the Dead Runners Society would have such an impact on the Marathon community.
A year go in Coeur d Alene was my second marathon in 2 weeks, my buddies Steve and Chris were flying to Rock n Roll S.D. the following week and I thought I would try to run 3 in a row also so I signed up for Newport, it went well and it was my fastest of the three!!! The Maniacs were really starting to evolve. What started as a silly nickname for the three of us has become a Marathon Club growing in popularity across the U.S. We are at 70 members with more Maniacs joining weekly.
The Marathon Maniacs caters to the very extreme marathoner and we felt that only extreme
marathoners should be in such a club called Marathon Maniacs, so we sat down
and created a criteria that had to be met to get into the club. Needless to say
there are a lot of Maniacs out there wondering about with no club to turn to.
We have a saying we use often “ Welcome to the InSane AsyLum where the InSane
can feel Sane and be treated as normal human
beings!!! In January we got a few members who’s names I’m sure you will
recognize, Bob & Lenore Dolphin, Steve Barrick then in February we got the
one and only Tenacious Turtle J. Ellis!
This year is really getting out of control! I am in the midst of a
streak of 13 marathons in a row possibly 15 In 13 weeks.
It’s Friday May 27th week 7 of my streak and as I write
this I am on my way to Boise for the Great Potato Marathon assuming I finish I
will be back in the car and off to Coeur d Alene the next day for my 8th
marathon in 7 weeks. My buddy Chris is laughing at me right now telling me “
man you’re a runner not a writer “! He’s right!!! But I’m gonna try anyway.
Saturday May 28th: We are now back in the car heading
to Coeur d Alene Marathon were we will hook up with brother Steve Maniac Yee.
The Great Potato was a lot of fun!! I ran with my friend Rian
Rosenthal of Seattle whom I met in Boston, we were going to try and get her a
Boston qualifier!!! It went really well until just before mile 24 I missed an
arrow painted on the grass and took a left instead of a right and I took us
over 2 miles off course!!! Well we found out after the race a lot of runners
got lost including Chris Maniac Warren who was ahead of us. There were too many
turns in this race; I never really knew where I was. We obviously didn’t get
her a BQ so we are going to give it another go in a few weeks. I’ll let you
know how it goes.
May 30th Now on my way back to the North West from
Couer d’ Alene I have worked on the web site a bit and picked up where I left
off, Chris is driving and I’m writing. Coeur d Alene went good I ran with
fellow Maniac Steve Supkoff for 19 miles then picked up the pace and had a
strong finish. Surprising myself I felt relatively good for running a marathon
the day before, I think your body does adapt to the stress of all this
craziness! And Steve Maniac Supkoff broke 3:30 for the first time and he had
just run the Green Bay Marathon the week before!!! There was a big showing of
Maniacs here, Steve Yee, Chris Warren, Doug MacLean, Terry Watanabe, Mel
Preedy, Sue Fauerbach, Barb Bumann, Dennis Spurlock, Diana “Slug” Robinson who
is running 3 marathons in 3 states in 8 days!! You can Do It!!! Anything is
possible!!!
Friday June 4th: week 8. Picking up where I left off
last week I’m now on the plane to San Diego with Chris and Steve for the Rock n
Roll Marathon it will be our 3rd Rock n Roll this year, which
qualifies us for the coveted Triple Crown Medal. This is going to be my 9th
marathon in 8 weeks, weather outlook is for lows in the 60’s and highs in the
70’s (great sandals weather), I’m feeling pretty good from last weeks double
and hope to have a good race, a good time with the other Maniacs is certain.
I’m sure will hang out at the expo and chat with all the familiar people we
have met from all over the US. I am planning on running in BITE Sandals this
weekend. Fittingly being this close to the beach eh…
Now on the plane home I
think I’ll finish up my Marathon Maniac article for the IRC. Rock n Roll was
exactly that a whole lot of bands and thousands of runners! We met up with
Maniacs from all over the country before the race, had some laughs, took a few
pictures and headed to our perspective corrals. I thought the course was kinda
hard, Chris thought it was easy and Steve seemed to think it was moderate.
There you have it, a detailed professional opinion from three crazy
marathoners!! I did run in BITE Sandals and had a BITE PR by 10 minutes, which
was an added bonus to the race. We also went to Sea World and hit the last of
the 3 Hooters in San Diego today, yes I said Hooters and if you dig deep enough
on the Maniacs web site you will find us with Hooters girls from all over the
country!
We are working with Marathonguide.com on a database that will soon
automate the InSane AsyLum, Score Card and the Manaics Race Calendar. At the
rate we are growing we need all the help we can get after all we do have to
train occasionally and sleep. I am sponsored by BITE Sandals and have run 6
marathons in their sandals ( www.biteshoes.com ), BITE also just became an
official sponsor of the Marathon Maniacs and Brooks has approached us and we
could soon have them on the Maniacs team. All in all it’s about having fun!!
And that we are!!! The IRC defiantly knows how to have fun too and there is a
link permanently affixed on the Maniacs web site to IRC’s site.
I have to agree with Chris on this, I am a runner and not a
writer.
Hope you enjoyed reading a bit of “The Adventures of The Marathon
Maniacs!!”
Ya all come see us sometime now ya here!!
www.marathonmaniacs.com
Tony Phillippi
Maniac #3
A.K.A. The Sandals Guy