I’m a Maniac

And I’m running like I’ve never run before

No, I’m not Flashdance fanatic (I’m fairly positive I’ve never seen the whole movie), but I am a fan of digging deeper in to the subcultures of the running community. When I ran my first marathon I was with the 4:15 pace group for the first 18 or so miles. There was a man in that group from New York City who was wearing a bright yellow shirt & told me about this running club he was in. This was the first time I heard about the Marathon Maniacs. After a little research I decided that this was something I was adding to my list of goals.

Gaining membership to Marathon Maniacs means having your race schedule meet certain criteria. Membership is broken up in several different levels. I qualified for a 1 star membership by running 3 marathons within a 90 day time frame.

10/28 – Marine Corps Marathon

12/1 – St. Jude Marathon

1/13 – Disney World Marathon

3 marathons, 77 days Woohoo!

After submitting my race information to the Maniac Gatekeeper I was approved for membership at Marathon Maniac #6639.

What benefits come along with membership? Mostly it is the access to forums and contact information for other runners and meet ups at race weekends. Some races offer discounts on registrations for Maniacs or alternate medals and ribbons to match the yellow and black Maniac color scheme.

I have seen MM shirts at every big race I’ve been to and look forward to sporting my own at the Rite Aid 2013 Cleveland Marathon.