Marathon Maniacs really cross the line

Special to the Democrat-Gazette/CLYDE SHANK
Carol "Ponytail" Fenelon Earles of Ravenden Springs and Tracey "From NJ" Newenhouse of West Long Branch, N.J., cross the Broadway Bridge before dawn along with other early starters March 2 in the Little Rock Marathon. It was Earles' 200th marathon.
Special to the Democrat-Gazette/CLYDE SHANK Carol "Ponytail" Fenelon Earles of Ravenden Springs and Tracey "From NJ" Newenhouse of West Long Branch, N.J., cross the Broadway Bridge before dawn along with other early starters March 2 in the Little Rock Marathon. It was Earles' 200th marathon.

Carol Fenelon Earles of Ravenden Springs ran her 200th marathon March 2 in Little Rock.

“Ponytail” (as she is known) set out at 6 a.m. with the Little Rock Marathon’s 626 early starters, and so the 44-year-old fifth-grade social studies teacher was able to go the full 26.2 miles even though bad weather disrupted the race.

She finished in 6:14:31.

“If I did not do the early start I would have been in the group that either got rerouted or bused back,” she said. “I would not have been fast enough to not have been caught in that. But I didn’t do it for fear of the storm. I did it because I wanted to take my time.

“Some racers say you’ve got to go out there and give it your all, but when you’re doing one every single weekend or two, you can’t go out there with that attitude because you’re not recovered from the last one. You’ve got a different mentality when you’re doing numbers.”

Earles belongs to Marathon Maniacs, an international club for people who run numbers of marathons. Besides hundreds of strangers, she was surrounded by many fellow Maniacs, some of whom joined the early start specifically to share in her milestone.

“There are nine levels of Maniacs,” Earles says, and each level is represented by stars and metals.

To qualify for the bronze level (one star), runners must complete two marathons within 16 days or three within 90 days.

Maniacs at the highest level, titanium, get 10 stars. They must - within any 365-day period - do 52 marathons or more; or 30 marathons in 30 states, countries or Canadian provinces; or marathons in 20 countries.

In between lie various criteria for silver, gold, iridium, ruthenium, osmium, palladium, platinum.

Earles ran her first marathon in 2005. She has been a titanium Maniac for three years.

“Last year, in 2013, I did 44. Four fulls that I was scheduled to do either got canceled or I couldn’t get there because of weather. So I was signed up for four more than I did. The year before that I did 50 marathons.”

Why?

“That’s so hard to answer. I don’t know. And trust me, when I’m out there, Mile 17, I am definitely asking myself that: ‘Why do I keep doing this? This is terrible, this is awful.’ And I’m looking around thinking, ‘Why are y’all doing that? This is stupid. I mean, we’re all stupid.’

“I’m not saying it, but it’s in my head, and I’m just giving people looks like ‘What in the world are we doing out here ?’

“And then you kind of hit 20 miles and everything starts changing. And then you cross that finish line and, I hear the jokes and it’s true: You’re already figuring out what’s next,” she said.

“Driving home, that’s all I can think about: Where’s the next one?”

That and “Ice! Aeegh!” But hazardous transit is part of the adventure.

Maniacs are by definition running tourists, and like other tourists - say, Good Sams in their RVs - they become friends with fellow travelers.

Another Maniac, Douglas Dahlberg, travels about doing marathons and ultras every winter after he boards up Crabby Mike’s restaurant on the beach at Hampstead, N.C. He has finished 62 marathons - 63 counting his 6:01:16 finish March 2 at Little Rock.

He says 247 Maniacs signed up for the Little Rock race. “That’s out of 8,000 Maniacs and Half Fanatics, who run the half-marathons, but I think it says something about this race.”

He planned to start with Earles and cheer for her, as did Steve Hughes, who was a pacer for the 6-hour group in the early start. “There’s a whole lot of us,” Hughes said. “A lot of people like Ponytail.”

Count among them Elaine Bickel Green of Carmel, Ind., who changed her bib number at the Health & Fitness Expo so she could start early with Earles. The mother of five adult children, Green says being a Maniac is “my second life.” She has run 162 marathons, four at Little Rock.

She, Earles, Tracey “From NJ” Newenhouse and Jackie G. Ong of Washington raced in matching pink and yellow outfits. “Carol’s closest girls are all going to have Wonder Woman panties, our secret weapon,” Green said.

Earles says all this marathoning is just another example of how people get pulled into their friends’ hobbies.“The same year I did 50, Steve Hughes did 100 for his 60th birthday,” she said. “And the reason I did 50? Because of him. He wants everyone to join him in his ‘addiction.’”

Before this Little Rock Marathon, Hughes had already put 307 of the long races (and ultras, which are even longer) on his feet, literally. “I’m falling apart,” he said. “My feet are shot, my ankles are shot. I’m having to tape my feet and ankles every time I run.”

One of his three doctors in Chicago tells him he’s “affecting the quality of my lifestyle for the rest of my life because everything’s so bad. I have no cartilage in my feet anymore. My toes don’t bend. It’s stage four osteoarthritis.”

Could he ever give himself permission to walk away from what has become a painful hobby?

“You have to have 333 [finishes] to qualify for the Maniac Hall of Fame,” Hughes said, “otherwise I was going to stop after this marathon. But I’ve got that carrot out there to go a few more.” He figures he can reach the Hall of Fame by the end of the year.

In other words, no.

Earles says she’s healthier today than she used to be when she was trying to win her age division in Arkansas Grand Prix events. Her only complaint is that she turns her ankles easily, “but that’s always been the case. That was true when I was a high school cheerleader and it was true when I was an awkward girl and would trip over a pine cone.”

One time Hughes persuaded a race to keep its finish line open late so she could finish after breaking an ankle. She had planned to do another marathon the next day, but she didn’t. She’s not nuts.

Tuesday, having survived a six-hour drive home from Little Rock on icy roads, Earles noted that “this was the third race that I did this year that I had trouble getting home because of snow.” But hazard is part of the adventure.

“I love just being out there. I love the people. I like the atmosphere, I like the traveling. I like just knowing I did it.And I even like thinking that I can do all this and make it to work. I can’t tell you how many times, not because I planned it that way but because of airline trouble, I’ve gone directly from the race to my classroom, no sleep in between.”

With unrelenting positivity, she said, she knew that the harder it was for her to get home safely, the less likely it was that she was missing work.

“As crazy as it sounds,” she says, “I have a great time.”

ActiveStyle, Pages 23 on 03/10/2014

Upcoming Events