In 1984 I was recently divorced. I smoked two to three packs of cigarettes a day. My blood pressure was 180/120 and I was 30 years old. The future of my health  was not bright. 

I had a bit of an epiphany and decided to throw the cigs away and re-invent myself. I began to get up at 4 am and sneak to the local high school track. The first few laps were miserable and kind of pathetic. I guess my stubborn nature just wouldn't let me give up. After about six months, I could run 20 laps, and as they say, "the rest is history." Running became my meditation and my link to the planet. Running is a lifestyle not a hobby. All runners know this. 

My first marathon was on a dare. I had been running 10K races--not really fast but a respectable 40-minute average. My boss, the CFO at my company, had run the Boston Marathon several times and had a huge oil painting from the New York Marathon on his office wall. He knew I had been running a few races so he asked if I was running the Kansas City Marathon. I said I was running the 10K. He gave me that look--like "oh, the kiddie run." I couldn't let it go. When I went to get my packet, I changed to the marathon. It was October 1990. I recall I almost died. I said "never again." I ran one marathon a year for the next 6 years. 

After an 8-year hiatus I met my future wife, Vicki, and I hold her responsible for getting me running again.

In 2005 before we were married, Vicki signed me up for the Crater Lake Marathon. We had just recently moved to the Pacific northwest. As I mentioned before, I had taken a running break and I didn't run a marathon from 1997-2004. Vicki thought I was a bit cocky to take on Crater Lake (I was). She knew about Crater Lake--it isn't Kansas, that's for sure. Race start temperature was 35 degrees. By noon it was 87. The climb to Cloudcap (11,000 feet elevation) was a killer. The descent wasn't much better (Quadzilla). I somehow survived, met my first Marathon Maniac and pretty much started this incredible journey that ended with my 100th marathon in June 2015. That's 93 marathons in less than 10 years. I owe all this to my wife. She was always there, when I qualified for Boston, when I was cold and wet and suffering, when I almost didn't finish so many marathons --she always came out to get me. She ran 55 half marathons while supporting me and always brushing it off that she was "only doing the kiddie run." We have been everywhere to run marathons--Napa Valley, Kauai, Maui, Boston, Big Sur, and everywhere in Washington and Oregon. We always joke that I belong to the "50 in one state club," as I have 65 Washington state marathons to my credit. 

In the fall of 2006, Vicki and I decided to get married. We told everyone and planned a 2007 wedding. We decided to run the Las Vegas Marathon in December 2006. The race officials advertised a "marriage special" in which you could apply to get married at the marathon by the running minister. I applied just for grins and we were accepted! I thought it was a cool idea and that we could still get "officially" married later--Vicki did not agree. She said that someone would take our picture and our friends and family would find out. I said, "No way, we are old and they will focus on some other younger more photogenic couple." 

The marathon day came and we were married at mile 5 with the running Elvises as our witnesses! Three months later a colleague raced through my office waving a copy of a magazine. He said, "Our auditor is in Runner's World!" There we were on page 19 of the March 2007 Runner's World, 8 inches tall, getting married at the Las Vegas Marathon. Eventually, Vicki quit being angry about it and we sent copies of the magazine as our wedding announcement. After all, how many couples have 900,000 copies of their wedding photograph in print?

I never dreamed that I would ever reach this objective. Even when I had run 80 marathons, I really thought that I wouldn't attain my goal. There are a lot of marathoners who have run many, many, more ultras and marathons than I ever will. For me, reaching 100 was my lifetime achievement. My times have ever so relentlessly gotten slower and slower. I was never fast but I did manage to qualify for Boston 3 times.

In the last few years I became more and more fearful of being last or even not finishing! Fortunately, I have a great support crew (my wife) and run in the greatest place on earth (the Pacific NW). The marathons here (North Olympic Discovery Marathon, Tacoma, Yakima Canyon, Whidbey Island, Capitol Cities, Seattle, Eugene, Portland) are very runner friendly and supportive. Between my wife and those friendly local marathons, they nudged me along to that last finish line. I now feel serene and relieved.

The best thing about running is that it's free and the roads are always open. I still find the same fun and joy in running as I did when I first started 30 years ago.