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This weekly regimen not for weak

Goal is 52 marathons in year for Virginian; Leadville is halfway

Pat Rooney, Special to the News

Published June 30, 2006 at midnight

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Dane Rauschenberg is going to run to the top of the world Saturday, and yet, once he conquers the crest, he will be only halfway to his goal.

As the saying goes, it will be all downhill from there.

Rauschenberg will compete in the Leadville Trail Marathon on Saturday, and once he crosses the finish line, he will be halfway toward the boggling personal goal he set for himself at the outset of 2006.

The 30-year-old is attempting to complete 52 marathons in 52 weeks. That is not a misprint.

Leadville marks marathon No. 26. For those runners who train for months just to complete one marathon, here is the annoying kicker - Rauschenberg says he feels strong and undeterred.

"People are always asking me what shoe I wear or what I eat because they are looking for that magic secret," the 6-foot-1, 225-pounder said this week in a telephone interview. "It's just that I train like (crazy) and my body is built for it."

Like most elite distance runners, Rauschenberg is remarkably self-motivated and receives additional encouragement from the charity for which he is helping to raise funds, the Mobile, Ala., chapter of L'Arche International, a group that runs homes for the mentally handicapped. He said he selected the charity after his second marathon this year, in Mobile, because he wanted to give to a smaller organization so he knew where the money was going.

He has raised almost $14,000 of his $52,000 - $1,000 a week - goal.

Rauschenberg, surprisingly, is somewhat of a newcomer to distance running. He ran track during high school in Titusville, Pa., but when he attended Penn State, he spent his free time playing rugby.

Once Rauschenberg started at Penn State's Dickinson School of Law, he was motivated to lose the weight he had gained in college and turned to distance running.

In 2005, Rauschenberg competed in eight marathons, six half-marathons, one 50-mile race and a "handful" of 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer races.

But it was at the Gasparilla Distance Challenge in Tampa, Fla., that year where he discovered he had a knack for tackling long distances while making quick recoveries.

In that event, competitors must run a 5K, 15K and a marathon within 24 hours. It was only the fifth marathon Rauschenberg had run and only the third time he had run races in succession.

"My cumulative time was the best I'd ever done," said Rauschenberg, who lives in Arlington, Va., and works full time in patent licensing. "I thought I'd try to do more of those types of things, but hundreds of people do those. I was looking for something more original."

So was born his brainstorm of tackling one marathon a week for a year.

Rauschenberg began his odyssey at the Walt Disney World Marathon in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 8 and has not looked back, logging 655 miles in 13 states, Ontario and the District of Columbia going into Leadville.

His personal best during the endeavor occurred May 21 in the Delaware Marathon, where Rauschenberg finished in 3 hours, 13 minutes, 52 seconds.

Last week, Rauschenberg finished in 3:16:58 at the Pacific Crest Marathon in Oregon, which could prove to be a good primer for Saturday's race.

The Pacific Crest was one of three Rauschenberg has run at altitude, including June appearance at the Estes Park Marathon, but none has matched the 13,000-foot altitude he will encounter Saturday.

Rauschenberg has achieved his personal goal of finishing each race in less than 4 hours, although he admits his chances are "slim to none" that he will continue that streak in Leadville.

"If the cards fall that well, it will happen," said Rauschenberg, who limits his training between races to 10 to 15 miles over two or three days. "I try to take each race like other runners would take a 5K or 10K. You can't go too fast in any half-mile because you won't finish the race. In this case, I won't finish 52 races."

In addition to his job and training, Rauschenberg spends much of what little free time he has working the phone to secure sponsors and donors for his charity.

"When you do it all yourself, you have no one else to blame," Rauschenberg said. "I've gotten a lot of feedback from the running community, and it's nice and disheartening at the same time. It's great when people take notice and encourage you, but you want them to donate $5 to the charity."

Marathon man

Date Marathon Location Time

Jan. 8 Walt Disney World Marathon Orlando, Fla. 3:48:18

Jan. 15 Legg Mason Funds First Light Marathon Mobile, Ala. 3:28:29

Jan. 21 Gold's Gym Orlando Xtreme Marathon Orlando, Fla. 3:40:06

Jan. 29 ING Miami Tropical Marathon Miami 3:31:30

Feb. 5 Ocala Marathon Ocala, Fla. 3:28:39

Feb. 12 Mercedes Marathon Birmingham, Ala. 3:27:35

Feb. 19 Washington's Birthday Marathon Greenbelt, Md. 3:30:59

Feb. 26 Bank of America Marathon Tampa, Fla. 3:26:36

March 5 Little Rock Marathon Little Rock, Ark. 3:22:50

March 12 Lower Potomac River Marathon Piney Point, Md. 3:22:29

March 19 Shamrock Marathon Virginia Beach, Va. 3:18:41

March 25 National Marathon Washington 3:16:31

April 2 Glass City Marathon Toledo, Ohio 3:25:45

April 8 Ocean City Marathon Ocean City, Md. 3:18:53

April 15 Charlottesville Marathon Charlottesville Va. 3:31:49

April 23 French Lick to West Baden Marathon French Lick, Ind. 3:18:16

April 30 Frederick Marathon Frederick, Md. 3:19:57

May 7 Potomac River Run Marathon Alexandria, Va. 3:14:39

May 14 Mississauga Marathon Mississauga, Ontario 3:16:39

May 21 Delaware Marathon Wilmington, Del. 3:13:52

May 28 Buffalo Marathon Buffalo, N.Y. 3:29:03

June 4 Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon Deadwood, S.D. 3:26:59

June 10 Hatfield & McCoy Marathon Williamson, W.Va. 3:16:24

June 18 Estes Park Marathon Estes Park 3:36:19

June 24 Pacific Crest Marathon Sunriver, Ore. 3:16:58

July 1 Leadville Trail Marathon Leadville

July 9 SEAFAIR Marathon Bellevue, Wash.

July 16 Paul Bunyan Marathon Bangor, Maine

July 23 Nova Scotia Marathon Barrington, Nova Scotia

July 30 San Francisco Marathon San Francisco

Aug. 5 Frank Meier Marathon Juneau, Alaska

Aug. 12 Paavo Nurmi Marathon Hurley, Wis.

Aug. 20 Silver State Marathon Reno

Aug. 26 Park City Marathon Park City, Utah

Sept. 3 New Mexico Marathon Albuquerque

Sept. 10 Erie Marathon at Presque Isle Erie, Pa.

Sept. 17 Rochester Marathon Rochester, N.Y.

Sept. 24 Quad Cities Marathon Moline, Ill.

Oct. 1 Johnstown Marathon Johnstown, Pa.

Oct. 8 Mount Rushmore Marathon Rapid City, S.D.

Oct. 15 Des Moines Marathon Des Moines, Iowa

Oct. 21 Niagara Falls Marathon Niagara Falls, Ontario

Oct. 10 Marine Corps Marathon Washington

Nov. 5 TBA

Nov. 12 Richmond Marathon Richmond, Va.

Nov. 19 TBA

Nov. 25 Mississippi Coast Marathon Waveland, Miss.

Dec. 3 Cayman Islands Marathon Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Dec. 10 TBA

Dec. 17 Jacksonville Marathon Jacksonville, Fla.

Dec. 24 TBA

Dec. 31 Run for the Ranch Marathon Springfield, Mo.

For more information about Rauschenberg or to donate money as a sponsor or to his charity, visit his Web site, www.Fiddy2.com.