The Six Star Finisher Medal. I head about it after finishing the NYC Marathon in 2016. The medal is big and obnoxious. I am small and obnoxious too (so I have been told, and I’m working on it). I wanted it, and on November 6, 2016 I joined thousands of other (crazy) runners that were aiming to get one.
In the NYC Marathon I qualified for Boston 2018 with a 3:18 finish (45-49 age group). I ran the 2017 Miami Marathon in January, right around the same time the 2017 NYC Marathon lottery was going on. After the race in Miami, a friend told me that my time qualified me for the 2018 Chicago Marathon. That same month, I got really lucky and received a lottery entry to the 2017 NYC Marathon (which I would soon find out, could be deferred one time – to 2018).
In February 2017 I started thinking to myself – I have entries to three World Marathon Majors for 2018, has anyone run all six in the same year? If nobody had done it, then I could hold a world record if I could finish all six in 2018!
I headed to the source of all knowledge, Google, to find out. All knowing Google told me a guy from Australia did it, but his average time was 4:50……Google then brought me an article about Michael Wardian (who along with Dean Karnases, are the two best ultra-runners of all time), who set the record for the WMMs in the same calendar year in 2016 – 2:38 minute average.
My fantasy of holding a world record in a little known race series challenge was out the window. Through my mastery of Google’s power (I can press a mouse button like nobody else), I quickly found out that a number of people had already attempted this challenge – but how many?
Off to the Abbott Six Star Finisher website, where there is a list of about 3,000 finishers……and began to count using the “find” feature to highlight years (2018, 2017, etc…) and scroll though the finisher list. I counted about 25 that finished in the same calendar year, and another 30 or so that had finished the circuit in consecutive races.
I talked to the record rules committee (me) and we quickly excluded the consecutive finishers since these folks either avoided the most challenging part of the circuit (Boston Marathon on Patriot’s Day followed by the London Marathon 6 days later) or having to run 3 marathons in 6 weeks (Berlin, Chicago and NYC).
Even if Wardian had the record (Goal A+++), there was hope for an age group “record” (Goal A) or just joining this select group (Goal B) – flexibility on goals being the first thing a marathoner learns about since your time on race day is so dependent on external factors. But the question in my head was – could I do six marathons in the same year, trying to do my best in each?
I decided that if I could run “back to back” marathons without getting injured I should be good to go (very scientific). Why was this the measuring stick? Well, if I could do two back to back, then adding a couple more with some additional recovery time should be no problem, right?
The A1A Fort Lauderdale marathon was two weeks after Miami (two weeks MUST be the same as one week, I scientifically concluded). Signed up, I did. (I love Star Wars, and Yoda is my favorite character, followed by Salacious Crumb (not we are getting into the weeds on Stars Wars, sorry!)
Two weeks later, I run A1A on a balmy day – 73 degrees to start, climbing to 85. Not optimal but hey, let’s just see how long I can go with the Miami marathon pace of 7:20 I did two weeks ago on a pleasant 55 degree day in rainy conditions. Mile 1 good, 2 good, etc…..Mile 13….hmmmmm I am getting tired…..Mile 15 (why I am slowing down so much)…..Mile 20….let’s give this Jeff Galloway run walk thing a shot now…….Mile 26.2….that sucked, but I am done.
Now the big test, will I have an injury in coming days……and I didn’t. I passed the scientific test I had laid out to see if I was ready for six racing marathons in the same year. Now the hard part, how do I get in to the other three?
Tokyo Marathon
After a few days I started to research. I thought Tokyo would be easy to get into – who goes to Tokyo to run a marathon, that’s on the other side of the World. Apparently, lots of people – the race is harder to get into than NYC!!! How about a qualifying time – oh, 2:45 minutes. Hmmmm, that’s way faster than my best HALF marathon pace. I am beginning to see a problem here.
London Marathon
I knew this was hard to get into, but no problem, that 2015 Disney World 3:11 race still counts as a qualifying time according to the website. And the Brits love to drink, so I must have a shot at getting what they call a “Good for Age” entry. I checked and my 3:11 time was enough for my age group. Awesome!!!!!
Oh wait, what’s that little asterisk over there. “You must be a resident of the UK for a Good for Age entry.” Really London Running Club?!?!?!? What if the BAA or the NYRR did that to you guys? Are we so far removed from WWII to have the courtesy of at least letting Americans use the Good for Age Entry?
This should have been written into the world war two peace treaty just like France included an agreement that only sparkling wine from Champagne could be called Champagne (ask Google if you don’t believe me – those sly Frenchies – although they are still kicking themselves about not copyrighting the term “French Fries”). So I am SOL for London also……
Berlin Marathon
Isn’t there still a wall in the middle of the city? Sounds like one of those “tough mudder” marathons so I am sure nobody signs up for this one. But again I am wrong and I didn’t qualify for a guaranteed entry. Ugh.
Choices
Things looked bleak and I now realized why there were so few WMM calendar year finishers.
Alternatives:
-
Lottery. Getting entries in three marathons via lotteries is a remote possibility. Only my wife, Katie, has a shot (as proof: she’s married to me and she has two incredible kids – which 23 and Me recently confirmed are mine….I had no doubt of course!)
-
Ask someone to give you an entry. I got an entry through ASICS through my shoe store for the 2016 NYC marathon. This may be an option – talk to them and to ASICs, I buy lots of their shoes….
-
Charity. US$5k for London, worst case, and tax deductible (my kids can skip college, it is overrated). Berlin is another US$2k so not so bad compared to London. Tokyo is a bargain at 850US$! But of course, there is an asterisk…..you have to be Japanese……the Tokyo Running Club were in obvious cohoots with the London running club. Unbelievable.
-
And then I remembered, a tour operator may be able to help. And the folks at Marathon Tours whom we had met at various expos seemed like a terrific group of people – and time proved this observation to be right.
After being shut out of (a) and (b), I discussed my plan with Jeff Adams, President of Marathon Tours (and all-around terrific guy) and I decided that taking a chance of getting in with them was the way to go. Plus, I aspired to get the Seven Continents Club Marathon Medal one day too with MT. Jeff and team helped me get to Tokyo, Katie and I to London, and finally to Berlin. I also highly recommend their package for Boston, it is a value and the bus ride to the start (with a potty on the bus!) is worth it. They also have an incredible number of adventure marathons all over the world. They do an incredible job and you won’t be disappointed from any of their offerings.
As you can see, signing up for the six WMMs in the same year is very hard, but not impossible. And it also doesn’t really break the bank, even if you go the charity route, the tour route or a combination of both. I am not saying it is cheap either, but if you plan on doing the three overseas races anyway, you are going to end up spending the same thing, and the Marathon Tour Packages are great value for the money, even when there is a slight premium charge for the guaranteed entry. For what you get, it is worth the money.
You also need to have the time to do it. At least three weeks of vacation or a job that is flexible and you can work remotely (like I did). Oh and the time to train, which I hadn’t considered at the time. But most importantly, you need a support team because the training and travel take up time and people will have to listen you talk about the training and travel for countless boring hours……I am thankful to have the best support team in my wife and my kids and my inlaws. Their patience, generosity and support would allow me to give this challenge a try.
Once I got in, the next step was to go back to Google and cull together some kind of training plan (since Master Google couldn’t find me one). I settled on the plan “more running miles per week” and I would build up to 60-70 miles per week for the peak Tokyo Marathon training period of December 17 and January 18. My previous training max was 45-50 miles per week. All I needed to do now was stay healthy (a long shot to be sure given my past history of knee, hammy and foot issues, including a fractured foot – but that was years ago I hoped.)
I decided I would start the training with the 2017 Chicago Marathon (meaning I would train under my old “wing it” plan to get my legs up to 50 miles a week and running 20 milers on most Sundays) which I completed in a healthy fashion in October 2017 in 3:13 (my tenth marathon and 4th in 2017). As I embarked on my journey, I had completed the following 10 marathons since my first in January 2014:
2014 Miami Marathon (3:35)
2014 New Jersey Marathon (3:33)
2015 Disney World Marathon (3:11)
2016 Disney World Marathon (3:55)
2016 Boston Marathon (3:30)
2016 NYC Marathon (3:18)
2017 Miami Marathon (3:15)
2017 A1A Marathon (3:40)
2017 Paris Marathon (3:18)
2017 Chicago Marathon (3:13)
Six WMMs on the schedule would get me to a total of 16 marathons; a nice number if my body decided it had enough with running marathons after I was finished. For anyone else interested in doing this and has little formal running training, I decided to keep a monthly journal of what I was doing and how I was feeling.
I also decided to run for charity since I felt pretty lucky that I had the opportunity to go to these places and try to accomplish this challenge. Although at the same time I felt apprehensive, since I had no idea if I would be able to finish all six (plus, I set an A goal of trying to finish all six under the BQ time for my age group (3:25). I didn’t want to ask for donations, even for great causes, if I couldn’t finish. Let’s see how it goes.
Finally, I put together a list of the persons that have finished this challenge, as well as the current age group record holders, excluding elite runners like Wardian for the age group records. I have a link above to the records.
