I'm not one, but a friend of mine who lives in PA is and he came down a couple years ago to run the National marathon in D.C. while I ran the half. He wore his bright yellow MM singlet while we were milling around waiting for the races to start, which attracted the other MMs, including one guy who flew in from the midwest where he ran another marathon the day before. He said the airline lost his luggage so he had to buy all new running gear as the expo was closing the night before the race, including the shoes, so everything was new and none of it was even washed before wearing. He said because of that he was going to have to take it easy and might keep it a little slower than 3:30 to head off any problems with his new gear. I immediately knew that I'll never have what it takes to be a MM at any level.

Thanks for the story, Steve. I've never met a MM myself, but now I'll definitely be on the lookout for yellow singlets. -PM

This may not qualify me as a Marathon Maniac, but in October/November of 1987 I ran a half-marathon, a marathon, a half-marathon, and another half-marathon in 22 days. The 3 half-marathons were all in the 1:17 to 1:19 range and the marathon was just under 3 hours (and qualified me for Boston). 2 weeks after the 3rd half-marathon, I ran (and won) and 8 mile race in PR time. By February of 1988, my body had broken down so much that I suffered a knee injury that kept me from running for close to 6 months. I never did get to run at Boston. But that 5 week time span in the fall of 1987 was a blast. Almost a permanent running high for weeks...

I am a MM. the group is awesome, and every time my friends or I think I am crazy, the yellow shirt (I don't look good in singlets) attracts someone who puts me to shame! Since last March, I have run 12 events of marathon distance or longer. I have run marathons in 9 states during this period, and I have run marathons on consecutive weekends. I just finished the Goofy Challenge (run the half marathon on Saturday and then run the marathon on Sunday) at WDW. There are definite ups and downs to this pace of marathon running. First and foremost, you cannot race every event, some of them have to be treated as training runs.

As for how to keep from getting lonely, during training, I run with the Baltimore Pacemakers on Saturday, there is noting like a no drop group of 30 to 50 people to keep your mind occupied with something other than the mileage. During races, the maniacs and the people trying to become maniacs occupy most of my time. At almost every race, I run into someone while running who is working to become a maniac, and they are great people to talk with during the race. At Disney I had a Team in Training coach run up behind me with her pupil and strike up a conversation about my marathon running. I hope I inspired the pupil to at least ry marathon number 2 (I think I did)!

In short, the yellow shirt is the best way to fight the solitude of the running, people are always willing to strike up a conversation.

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Thanks for the great information, 2056. I had heard of the pacemakers, but I didn't realize that the group was so large. (I've added their weekly track workouts to my calendar - more for the curious here: http://www.baltimorerunning.com/clubs_groups/Pacemakers/pacemakers.htm ) -PM