J-E Editor
Last week, Providence native Jason Hughes earned the title of ‘Marathon Maniac’ by completing his third full marathon in just 66 days. He completed each of those 26.2 mile races in under four hours.
The most recent race was Mainly Marathon’s Riverboat Series race at Osage Park in Cape Girardeau, MO. Hughes completed the marathon in 3:51:38, then drove back to Providence to run with participants in the Run for God class that he teaches for Pleasant Valley Missionary Baptist Church.
In the previous 66 days he also competed in the 2015 Publix Georgia Marathon in Atlanta on March 22, finishing with a time of 3:53:45, and the Tallahassee Marathon on February 8 where he finished in 3:48:50.42.
Now that he’s qualified to be considered a ‘Marathon Maniac’, Hughes isn’t done. He has three running goals he wants to accomplish. First he plans to go on to complete a total of nine marathons in nine states before the end of 2015.
“One of my long term goals is to qualify for Boston, something that only about ten percent of marathon runners will ever do,” he said.
His other long term goal is a bit loftier.
“I want to join the 50 Sub 4 Club,” Hughes said. “To do that you have to run a sub four hour marathon in all fifty states. Only 63 people have done it. Right now there are about 300 people in the program working on it. You have to complete 10 sub four hour marathons in 10 states just to get into the program. I hope to do that by January of 2016.
When Hughes competed as part of the Providence High School Cross Country Team in the early 90’s, he had no idea that one day he would become a dedicated runner. In fact, he quit running in high school and wouldn’t take it back up again until he was well into his thirties. He started running again in 2010 at the age of 35.
Reach MATT HUGHES
at 270-667-2068 or
matt@journalenterprise.com
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