Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Ryan Snyder, Marathon Maniac #3204

Run Wild Missoula member Ryan Snyder's recent long-distance running fit reached a fever pitch during a Thanksgiving weekend visit to Seattle, when he couldn't stop himself from running two marathons in two days and was committed to the Seattle-based Insane Asylum for Marathon Maniacs. His Mania has advanced to the Iridium level. Snyder finished the Ghost of Seattle Marathon in 3:35:43 (8th place overall)on November 27, and ran the Seattle Marathon the next day in 3:57:04.

Snyder's diagnosis as a Marathon Maniac comes as no surprise to people who willingly run a day in his life before that year, he ran the entirety of Bridgett's Infamous 40+ Mile Birthday Run just months after running his first race, the Missoula Half Marathon. His first full marathon was the 2010 Missoula Marathon, which he completed in 4:11:51 after imbibing of whiskey ("just one shot, man") at the halfway point, and his deterioration after that into full-fledged Mania was rapid, influenced in part by Vo von Sehlen, whose own Mania, while not officially diagnosed, has been highly evident this year. Snyder soon began filling his time running half marathons backwards and doing two long runs each weekend, always with ahappy-go-lucky smile and positive attitude belying the seriousness of his condition.

The condition appears to be hereditary; Snyder's baby has already completed a half marathon in the company of its mother, Leigh Griffing, and the kid hasn't even been born yet. Snyder's commitment in the Insane Asylum is lifelong (provided he pays the annual dues).

Marathon Mania, first identified in 2003, affects a small but rapidly growing portion of the running population. Information about the condition is available at http://marathonmaniacs.com/.
(Congratulations, dude!)
~Kelsi Camp

3 comments:

Rye said...

Some of the text seems to have been accidentally deleted somewhere along the way. Kelsi's original text should have been as follows at the beginning of the second paragraph:

"Snyder's diagnosis as a Marathon Maniac comes as no surprise to people who know him. He first began exhibiting symptoms in 2009. Having never willingly run a day in his life before that year, he ran the entirety of Bridgett's Infamous 40+ Mile Birthday Run just months after running his first race, the Missoula Half Marathon."

Many thanks to Kelsi for doing such a great job of making me sound a lot more interesting than I usually am!

Run Wild Missoula said...

Thanks, Ryan. Somehow the best part of the article got deleted. Congratulations on being a maniac!

Andrew A. Hunt said...

To further support signs of his condition, Rye will spontaneously begin running backwards and start shouting encouragement to the (many) slower runners trailing him.

We all hope for a very long and slow recovery from this ailment.