and just plain friendly. He runs typically with many, many different people in every race. He has a most excellent sense of humor and you can hear his laugh about three blocks away.

Larry is also a very good listener, who talks little about himself or his job (which he loves). But then he absolutely never talks about his legal practice. Most of his conversations are about running, recent races, travel, and common friends. And if you didn’t know that he was so really sharp, I don’t think you would guess that he was. In fact, Larry’s only fault that I can find is that he is a Democrat.

Once a race is over, he usually goes immediately to his hotel room to work on cases he is preparing for trial or rushes to catch a plane for the next race. I recently came in only five minutes behind him in Casper, Wyoming, and he had already flown from the scene.

What is Larry’s secret? I think it’s that at his usual pace, the distances take almost nothing out of him. In typical multiple-day marathons, he runs several of the initial miles just out of sheer high spirits and then walks a lot of the rest with spurts of running. But he is a very fast walker.

He doesn’t get stiff or sore from day after day of doing the 26.2 and rarely gets blisters, cramps, sunburns, or stomach upsets. Larry does occasionally get injured but recovers fast and soon he is back at it. He has the usual problems with doctors demanding that he take it easier, but he just sloughs off their demands like a lot of us do.

How fast does Larry actually run? Well, most of his times are between five hours and 6 1/2 hours. Thus he averages between 11-minute miles and 15-minute miles. (His fastest marathon time is 4:18.) Are these times fast? Well, he is substantially faster than all of the runners who are anything like his American competitors for numbers of marathons. And he can run faster if he needs to. There was the time at the NipMuck Trail Marathon (a particularly demanding race) in Connecticut where he missed the start by an hour (when his map and Garmin both failed due to a leaky bottle of Gatorade) and had to run really fast to make the three-hour cutoff at the halfway point. The race director didn’t want to let him start after looking him over, but Larry persuaded him to let him try. The race director’s attitude really made him mad, which might account for his performance that day. Frank Bartocci, who has done more than 600 marathons, tells me that on that occasion Larry passed him like he was sitting still. On that day, Mr. Macon ran between eight- and nine-minute miles for the whole race!

Because he runs so many races, sometimes he has been forced to run small, obscure, and carefully hidden marathons. Sometimes he has been lost in finding these races and sometimes lost in the races themselves. From my own experience, there is nothing worse than being lost in a small trail race when you haven’t seen another runner in the last hour. (Of course, you don’t know where you took the wrong turn.)

Then there was the time Larry was in such a rush to get to the start line that he left his rental car running throughout the whole marathon! He wondered why he couldn’t find his keys, only to find them locked in the car. (I can relate to that. Once I was in such a rush to catch the start that as I swung into a parking garage near the start of the Long Beach Marathon, I failed to notice what the parking garage looked like. After finishing, I had to hunt through five parking garages next to each other for my car. I was already dead tired before I started the hunt, and it took me an hour to find my car.)

Scheduling races is hard because there are so many. Usually Larry schedules one for Saturday and two for Sunday in case there are problems with flights, weather, or driving conditions. It certainly helps that he doesn’t mind driving long distances by himself.

Marathons are his specialty, but he has run many, many 50-kilometer races because marathons are not available every day. As far as I know, he has run few races longer than 50 kilometers. As of now, he has run races only in the United States.

Larry has also actually won a marathon! Many of you will know the Bear Lake Marathons on Saturday and Sunday in June. (Bear Lake is on the border of Utah and Idaho.) He and six of his friends persuaded the race director to put on another marathon on Friday before the double, and Larry beat everyone that year!

To give you a flavor of what his schedule looks like and so you can see if you have run some of the same races, here is Larry’s schedule of completions for the year 2011:

No. Date Marathon or Ultra Location State 711 1/01/11 Texas Marathon Kingwood TX 712 1/02/11 Kicking Off the New Year Marathon Long Beach CA 713 1/08/11 Mississippi Blues Jackson MS 714 1/09/11 — First Light Mobile AL 715 1/15/11 Charleston Charleston SC 716 1/16/11 Rock ’n’ Roll Phoenix AZ 717 1/22/11 Hilo to Volcano (50K) Hilo HI 718 1/23/11 Maui Oceanfront Lahaina HI 719 1/29/11 Desert Classic Surprise AZ 720 1/30/11 Callaway Gardens Pine Mountain GA 721 2/05/11 Icy-8 Hour Trail Lake Anna State Park VA 722 2/06/11 Melbourne Beaches Melbourne FL 723 2/12/11 Louisville Lovin’ the Hills (50K) Fairdale KY 724 2/13/11 Rock ’n’ Roll Mardi Gras New Orleans LA 725 2/19/11 Myrtle Beach Myrtle Beach SC 726 2/20/11 Washington’s Birthday Greenbelt MD

No. Date Marathon or Ultra Location State 727 2/21/11 Presidents’ Day Playa del Ray CA 728 2/26/11 Post Oak Lodge (50K) Tulsa OK 729 2/27/11 Post Oak Lodge Marathon Tulsa OK 730 3/05/11 Touchstone (50K) Laurel MS 731 3/06/11 Little Rock Little Rock AR 732 3/12/11 Land Between the Lakes Grand River KY 733 3/13/11 Lower Potomac Piney Point MD 734 3/19/11 New Jersey Ultra Long Valley NJ 735 3/20/11 Wilderness Park Trail Lincoln NE 736 3/26/11 Chicago Lakefront (50K) Chicago IL 737 3/27/11 Bataan Memorial Death March White Sands NM 738 4/02/11 Trailbreaker Waukesha WI 739 4/03/11 Athens Athens OH 740 4/09/11 Eisenhower Abilene KS 741 4/10/11 Go Saint Louis St. Louis MO 742 4/16/11 Olathe Olathe KS 743 4/17/11 Glass City Toledo OH 744 4/18/11 Boston AAU Boston MA 745 4/23/11 Lake Waramaug (50K) State Park CT 746 4/24/11 Easter Bronx NY 747 5/01/11 Cox Sports Providence RI 748 5/07/11 Shiprock Shiprock NM 749 5/08/11 Kalamazoo Kalamazoo MI 750 5/12/11 Three Days at the Fair Augusta NJ 751 5/13/11 Three Days at the Fair Augusta NJ 752 5/14/11 Three Days at the Fair Augusta NJ 753 5/15/11 Wilmington Wilmington DE 754 5/21/11 Fargo Fargo ND 755 5/22/11 Dirty German Endurance Philadelphia PA 756 5/28/11 Run for the Kids Hoover AL 757 5/29/11 Vermont City Burlington VT 758 5/30/11 Darkside Peachtree City GA 759 6/04/11 Ridge Runner Cairo WV 760 6/05/11 Casper Casper WY 761 6/10/11 Bear Lake Fish Haven ID 762 6/11/11 Sand Hills Valentine NE 763 6/12/11 Swan Lake Viborg SD 764 6/18/11 Grandma’s Duluth MN 765 6/19/11 Vancouver Vancouver WA

No. Date Marathon or Ultra Location State 766 6/25/11 Wyoming 12 Hour Laramie WY 767 6/26/11 Ghost of Bellevue Bellevue WA 768 7/02/11 Run 4 Troops Dyersville IA 769 7/03/11 Freedom Gresham OR 7710 7/09/11 Aspen Valley Aspen co 771) (7/27/11 Madison Ennis MT 772 =7/30/11 + +Frank Maier Juneau AK 773 «7/31/11 ~~ Bearfest Wrangell AK 774 8/06/11 Grizzly Choteau MT 775 8/07/11 Blister in the Sun Cookville T™ 776 8/13/11 Mount Sneffels Ouray co 777 8/20/11 Park City Park City UT 778 8/21/11 Drake Well Titusville PA 779 8/27/11 Eisenbahn West Bend WI 780 8/28/11 Timmy’s Challenge North Bend State Park WV 781 9/03/11 Pocatello Pocatello ID 782 9/04/11 Flatlanders Fenton MO 783 9/05/11 Turtle Roswell NM 784 9/10/11 Little Grand Canyon Huntington UT 785 O/11/1 Stumpy’s Newark NJ 786 9/17/11 Bismarck Bismarck ND 787 9/18/1 Fox Cities Appleton WI 788 9/24/11 Akron Akron OH 789 9/25/1 Vermont (50K) Brownsville VT 790 10/01/11 New Hampshire Bristol NH 791 10/02/11 Maine Portland ME 792 10/08/11 Prairie State Libertyville IL 793 10/09/11 Steamtown Scranton PA 794 10/15/11 Hartford Hartford CT 795 10/16/11 Mount Desert Island Bar Harbor ME 796 10/22/11 Mankato Mankato MN 797 10/23/11 On the Road for Education Mason City IA 798 10/29/11 Hoover Dam Boulder City NV 799 10/30/11 Cape Cod Falmouth MA 800 11/05/11 Monumental Indianapolis Indianapolis IN 801 11/06/11 Manchester Manchester NH 802 11/10/11 Marine Corps Birthday Boone NC 803 11/11/11 11-11-11 Marathon of Sarasota Sarasota FL 804 11/12/11 Louisiana Trails Shreveport LA

No. Date Marathon or Ultra Location State

805 11/13/11 Rhode Island 6 Hour Warwick RI 806 11/18/11 Ultra Centric (32 Miles) Grapevine TX 807 11/19/11 White River Marathon for Kenya Cotter AR 808 11/20/11 Flying Monkeys Nashville TN 809 11/24/11 Wattle Waddle Seattle WA 810 11/25/11 Wishbone Run (27.5 Miles) Gig Harbor WA 811 11/26/11 Ghost of Seattle Seattle WA 812 11/27/11 Seattle Seattle WA 813 12/03/11 Baton Rouge Beach Baton Rouge LA 814 12/04/11 Dallas White Rock Dallas TX 815 12/10/11 Rehoboth Beach Rehoboth Beach DE 816 12/11/11 Tucson Tucson AZ 817 12/24/11 Christmas Eve Pensacola FL 818 12/26/11 Savage Seven Number One Pensacola FL 819 12/27/11 Savage Seven Number Two Pensacola FL 820 12/28/11 Savage Seven Number Three Pensacola FL 821 12/29/11 Savage Seven Number Four Pensacola FL 822 12/30/11 Savage Seven Number Five Pensacola FL 823 12/31/11 New Year’s Eve Allen TX

Mr. Macon has been in the Guinness Book of Records several times and is in the current volume as running the most marathons in a single year (239 in 2013). He has also completed the 50 states more than anyone else (he routinely does it twice a year), so he was the first to do the states for the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th time.

There are now at least 900 different marathons (and hundreds of ultras) in this country. His record number of completions is possible only because there are multiple-day events such as the Manly Marathon Series of Clint Burleson. But this total will almost certainly never be equaled again because of rule changes (changed by the 50 States Marathon Club) that prohibit including races with fewer than 10 finishers and other restrictions. Remarkably, in 2013, Larry was sometimes running two marathons per day for multiple days! Of course, no one can be sure of this, but it may well be that no human being may ever run 255 marathons again in one year!

Do you think that it’s easy to get from one race to another? Once in South Dakota, he was swept off the road by a wave of water and his rental car became a submarine. Larry was at Boston when the race was bombed. He got stopped at 25.5 miles, waited for hours, yet still managed to get a plane out wearing only shorts