Oaks Marathon draws prolific runner

RALEIGH -- Steve Hughes plans to stop for a moment today, his 63rd birthday, and take stock of the many miles he has come in three years.

The Arkansas native was among the 3,800 runners pounding the pavement Sunday morning in the Raleigh City of Oaks Marathon, Rex Half Marathon and two 10-kilometer races.

He ran the marathon in almost five hours. The 100 on his race bib was an appropriate number to mark his 26.2 mile trek along the hilly course through North Carolina's capital.

Since turning 60, Hughes has completed 100 marathons. That's at least 2,620 miles in three years.

He has run a marathon in all 50 states. Two times around and counting.

Some of his races were ultra marathons - 30 to 50 miles.

Just on the traditional 26.2-mile marathons alone, Hughes could have gone the full length of Interstate 40 - from Wilmington to Barstow, Calif. - and logged 60 miles on the return trip.

The maniacal marathoner (he is an official member of the Marathon Maniacs) could have gotten a real kick, going from Chicago, where his wife Donna lives and works, to Santa Monica along Route 66. Even then, he has put in hundreds more miles than the entire Mother Road of kitschy Americana.

"It's a hobby for him," said Ron Wahula, the race director. "More than that it's also a lifestyle. ... It's a beautiful thing."

Why on Earth would anybody spend most weekends running a marathon or two? Hughes has simple replies.

"Obsessive compulsive," he says about himself. "I get to see my friends," he adds. And, of course, "the endorphin rush."

Overcoming the pain

Hughes ran his first marathon in 1978, when he was 33. The next year, he completed another. But his knees hurt. Sometimes, as he noted in training logs, "real bad."

Hughes had progressive degenerative osteoarthritis and the pain from that sidelined him from the sport for more than two decades.

During that time he focused on his work as a lawyer, raised his two sons with his wife and satisfied his hankering for sports as a scorer at minor-league baseball games.

Then, in his 50s, when in agony from the arthritis, Hughes saw a doctor who prescribed Vioxx, an anti-inflammatory drug that since has been taken off the market.

Hughes was a fan of the medication. Three days after the former high school sprinter and long-jumper started taking it, he was free of the nagging nightmare that forced him to stop running.

He tested the road, and started going for longer and longer runs. He took up one marathon, kissed the ground, and walked away proud of his accomplishment, thinking he was done.

Three days later, he was searching for his next race. He did a 50 kilometer race - five miles longer than a marathon, then a 50-mile event.

Now he sees no real finish line in sight.

Maniacal obsession

Marathon Maniacs, an elite group of hundreds who have run at least two marathons within 16 days or three marathons within 90 days, often go from city to city to get a fix.

There are also 50-staters, of which Hughes is one, who have run at least one marathon in each state. He is on his third tour, a venture that costs him about $25,000 a year, and Alaska ranks among his favorite places. While there, he got a hand-written note from Sarah Palin. He also had to make a detour mid-race twice because a moose and her calf were blocking the road.

The City of Oaks Marathon, with its many hills, was a bear, Hughes said. "There's not one part that wasn't challenging."

Hughes, who lives and works in Little Rock, Ark., miles away from his wife of 40 years, an accountant with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Chicago, usually finds people to run with and talk to as he navigates a course.

He fantasizes about running a marathon with Bill Clinton, who once said he was up for the challenge, and George W. Bush just for the conversation that might occur.

"Usually what I do now is run with the younger girls," Hughes said. And how he defines "younger girls" will make women of a certain generation quite happy. "Fifty and younger," Hughes said.

A surprising gain

They chat about a range of topics, including how they have difficulty in keeping their weight down during marathon season.

Hughes, 5-feet-5, says his ideal running weight is 135 pounds. But he might pack on 15 pounds during marathon season because he eats a lot before a race to keep up his energy and then again after a race because he's hungry. Typically, Hughes burns about 1,000 calories on a course.

These days, the aches and pains are coming back despite his pre-race routine of popping anti-inflammatories. His hip also has bothered him recently. Still, Hughes hopes to complete his third tour of the 50 states in Little Rock, Ark., in 2012. After that, he hopes to get to his 200th marathon. He has run 161 since 2005.

Next weekend, he plans to be in Shreveport, La., one marathon closer to his goal.

But, unlike the finish lines at the races that occupy most of his weekends these days, Hughes' personal finish line continues to shift.

"There's always something else," he said. "You get to 200 and you think, 'Why not 230? Or why not something else?' "