I Moved Up On the Minnesota List

In 2015, I ran my 300th marathon or ultra.  That made me eligible for inclusion in the World Megamarathon Rankings.

The megamarathon list is maintained by a running club in Japan.  It’s a ranking of every runner in the world who has completed at least 300 marathons or ultramarathons.  There’s a corresponding list that ranks runners from North America.

I was first included on these lists at the end of 2015.  At the time, I ranked 463rd in the world and 103rd in North America.  Among runners from Minnesota, I ranked seventh.

Most of the runners on the North American list are from the United States.  There are 50 states, and there were about 100 runners ahead of me, so that’s an average of about two per state.  You’d think there would only be one or two runners from Minnesota who were ahead of me, yet there were six.  That wouldn’t be surprising if I was from a large population state, like California or Texas.  Minnesota isn’t a large population state.  It’s about average.  It was amazing how many runners from Minnesota had run more than 300 marathons.

In the years since then, my position on the worldwide and North American lists has fluctuated, but I’ve usually moved up.  I wasn’t too worried about my position on these two lists, but I really wanted to move up among Minnesota runners.

At the end of 2025, I ranked 345th on the worldwide list and 50th on the North American list.  Among Minnesota runners, I had moved up to fourth.  The three runners ahead of me were Frank Bartocci, Tom Perri, and Peter Butler.

Two weeks ago, I ran my 580th lifetime marathon at the Mt. Charleston Marathon.  That moved me into a tie with Peter Butler for third place.  This past weekend, I ran my 581st marathon at the Albuquerque Marathon.  That moved me ahead of Peter into third place by myself.

Now that I’m in third place, I’m not likely to move any higher.  I’m no threat to catch up to either Frank or Tom in the foreseeable future.  Frank has run more than 1,000 marathons.  That’s a pretty high bar.  As for Tom, he’s run about 770 marathons, and in recent years, he’s been running them more frequently than I have.

It’s more likely that I’ll drop back to fourth place again.  I run a lot of marathons, but there are a few runners in Minnesota who race more often than I do.  I can think of at least one Minnesota runner who could catch up to me in just a few years at the rate he’s going.