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Marathon runner John Wallace poses proudly with some of his medals from races on Thursday. Wallace’s goal is to be the first person to compete in marathons in every European country.
SILVERTHORNE — John Wallace is a freak among freaks.
In a county where running over mountains is commonplace, the part-time Silverthorne resident stands out for his ingenuity.
To say that Wallace is a marathon runner is accurate, but it’s also an understatement.
At 61 years old, the married man nicknamed “Mad Dog” has run in 246 marathons. He’s run in at least one in every state in America, every province in Canada, on every continent and is only two countries (Bulgaria and Bosnia) short of running in every country in Europe.
The guy is obsessed.
Wallace started running at 33, when he put on weight upon quitting smoking. After a grueling lap around the neighborhood, Wallace threw up.
Maybe while staring into his own regurgitation, a paradigm shift occurred for the telecommunications sales director.
“I told myself ‘This is ridiculous,’” recalled Wallace, who spends the rest of the year in Longboat Key, Fla. “A 33-year-old man should be in better shape than this.”
And so that is what happened.
Wallace ran his first 26.2-mile race when he was 38.
Being a goal-oriented person, he began shooting for better times.
Then, while on the road for his job, Wallace started running in marathons in different states. After tallying each state, he started to strive for all 50.
That goal was reached in 1995. By ’97, he had covered Canada, and by ’98 he had run a marathon in every continent on Earth.
While living in England, the countries of Europe became the next obvious mission. It also proved to be the hardest.
First he had to establish all of the countries he needed to run in. Even that wasn’t easy. Is Northern Ireland a country? What about all those tiny countries that spawned from the U.S.S.R.?
After weeding through maps and peace treaties, Wallace set the number at 51.
But then he had to find out if these countries have marathons, when they are and how to get there.
“I’d say, ‘I’m John Wallace,’ and there’d be silence on the other end, because they don’t speak English, and I sure don’t speak Bulgarian,” he said of a typical inquiring phone call.
Fax machines became the best form of correspondence, and Wallace started crossing countries off his list. In one year, he ran in 31 marathons in 31 countries.
“Now I use the marathon as an excuse to travel,” said Wallace, for whom a good time these days is around three and a half hours. “I never would have gone to Moldova or Ukraine or the Faroe Islands just to go as a tourist.”
Through his travels, Wallace has made several key contacts around Europe. When locals find out about his goal, they treat him with the upmost respect and often go the extra mile for their special guest.
With help from a friend in Romania, Wallace blindly went to Rovna, Ukraine, for a marathon that only 12 people ran in. When he got off of a train, he didn’t know if there would be anyone there or even if a marathon was actually going to take place. But it worked out.
A Ukrainian English teacher accompanied Wallace for his three-day trip, which included a private dinner party in Wallace’s honor that ended with a serenade of sorts.
“They wrote a song for me,” Wallace said. “There’s a Ukrainian song about me!”
As the first American to run in the race, Wallace finished first in his age group, not an uncommon result.
Every time out, Wallace tries to win his age group. On his trip to the Faroe Islands, Wallace beat the two-year reigning champ to win the marathon.
Used to climbing mountains around Summit, Wallace had no problem on similar, but much lower, terrain. His climbing prowess is a direct result of his summer training.
“To do anything up here requires more energy,” Wallace said. “I run six to eight Fourteeners every summer. That’s the best training in the world.”
After hundreds of marathons, covering 26.2 miles may become old hat (Wallace said it took about 100 marathons to establish his in-race routine which he follows religiously), but it’s still not easy.
Injuries have plagued Mad Dog over the last couple years.
He ran three marathons, including one in Albania and one in Macedonia, with a stress fracture in his foot. To compensate for the pain, Wallace favored the opposite leg, which caused an injury to that knee requiring arthroscopic surgery earlier this year.
The injuries haven’t slowed Mad Dog down.
Wallace’s doctor recommended not running for four to six weeks after surgery. Instead, he ran a marathon just three weeks later.
A rigorous rehab and training schedule that he called “Mad Dog’s suicidal high-altitude training camp” has Wallace close to 100 percent, physically. Now he’s back to focusing on the globe.
Countries 50 and 51, Bulgaria and Bosnia, loom at the end of this mission. Wallace will finish his trek this year, but not without more difficult planning.
He is scheduled to run in a marathon in Sofia, Bulgaria, Oct. 9, but Bosnia has no marathons.
So from his home on the Blue River, Wallace will organize a marathon in the country he’s yet to visit. He and a running friend from Germany are working together to put on the race in either Sarajevo or Bihac.
Wallace said he expects between 10 and 25 competitors to run.
“We’re looking for something like a bike path along a river, maybe a five or 10K track that we can run back and forth on or in circles,” Wallace said.
His goal will be accomplished, but he won’t be done running. Two weeks after coming back from Bosnia, Wallace will get back on a plane and fly to Nepal, where he will begin a 16-day trek to the 17,000-foot starting line of the highest marathon in the world, on Mt. Everest.
Then, he’s finally done.
“I’m not going to set any more marathon goals,” Wallace said. “I’ve become too obsessive about them.”
Still, Wallace said he’ll run until he can’t do it anymore. He knows the way he pushes himself sometimes doesn’t bode well for his body, but his competitive juices won’t let him settle for anything less than the best he can do.
Simply stated, running is what keeps Wallace interested.
“If I can’t run anymore,” he said, “life sucks.”
Andy Frame can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 236, or at aframe@summitdaily.com.
In a county where running over mountains is commonplace, the part-time Silverthorne resident stands out for his ingenuity.
To say that Wallace is a marathon runner is accurate, but it’s also an understatement.
At 61 years old, the married man nicknamed “Mad Dog” has run in 246 marathons. He’s run in at least one in every state in America, every province in Canada, on every continent and is only two countries (Bulgaria and Bosnia) short of running in every country in Europe.
The guy is obsessed.
Wallace started running at 33, when he put on weight upon quitting smoking. After a grueling lap around the neighborhood, Wallace threw up.
Maybe while staring into his own regurgitation, a paradigm shift occurred for the telecommunications sales director.
“I told myself ‘This is ridiculous,’” recalled Wallace, who spends the rest of the year in Longboat Key, Fla. “A 33-year-old man should be in better shape than this.”
And so that is what happened.
Wallace ran his first 26.2-mile race when he was 38.
Being a goal-oriented person, he began shooting for better times.
Then, while on the road for his job, Wallace started running in marathons in different states. After tallying each state, he started to strive for all 50.
That goal was reached in 1995. By ’97, he had covered Canada, and by ’98 he had run a marathon in every continent on Earth.
While living in England, the countries of Europe became the next obvious mission. It also proved to be the hardest.
First he had to establish all of the countries he needed to run in. Even that wasn’t easy. Is Northern Ireland a country? What about all those tiny countries that spawned from the U.S.S.R.?
After weeding through maps and peace treaties, Wallace set the number at 51.
But then he had to find out if these countries have marathons, when they are and how to get there.
“I’d say, ‘I’m John Wallace,’ and there’d be silence on the other end, because they don’t speak English, and I sure don’t speak Bulgarian,” he said of a typical inquiring phone call.
Fax machines became the best form of correspondence, and Wallace started crossing countries off his list. In one year, he ran in 31 marathons in 31 countries.
“Now I use the marathon as an excuse to travel,” said Wallace, for whom a good time these days is around three and a half hours. “I never would have gone to Moldova or Ukraine or the Faroe Islands just to go as a tourist.”
Through his travels, Wallace has made several key contacts around Europe. When locals find out about his goal, they treat him with the upmost respect and often go the extra mile for their special guest.
With help from a friend in Romania, Wallace blindly went to Rovna, Ukraine, for a marathon that only 12 people ran in. When he got off of a train, he didn’t know if there would be anyone there or even if a marathon was actually going to take place. But it worked out.
A Ukrainian English teacher accompanied Wallace for his three-day trip, which included a private dinner party in Wallace’s honor that ended with a serenade of sorts.
“They wrote a song for me,” Wallace said. “There’s a Ukrainian song about me!”
As the first American to run in the race, Wallace finished first in his age group, not an uncommon result.
Every time out, Wallace tries to win his age group. On his trip to the Faroe Islands, Wallace beat the two-year reigning champ to win the marathon.
Used to climbing mountains around Summit, Wallace had no problem on similar, but much lower, terrain. His climbing prowess is a direct result of his summer training.
“To do anything up here requires more energy,” Wallace said. “I run six to eight Fourteeners every summer. That’s the best training in the world.”
After hundreds of marathons, covering 26.2 miles may become old hat (Wallace said it took about 100 marathons to establish his in-race routine which he follows religiously), but it’s still not easy.
Injuries have plagued Mad Dog over the last couple years.
He ran three marathons, including one in Albania and one in Macedonia, with a stress fracture in his foot. To compensate for the pain, Wallace favored the opposite leg, which caused an injury to that knee requiring arthroscopic surgery earlier this year.
The injuries haven’t slowed Mad Dog down.
Wallace’s doctor recommended not running for four to six weeks after surgery. Instead, he ran a marathon just three weeks later.
A rigorous rehab and training schedule that he called “Mad Dog’s suicidal high-altitude training camp” has Wallace close to 100 percent, physically. Now he’s back to focusing on the globe.
Countries 50 and 51, Bulgaria and Bosnia, loom at the end of this mission. Wallace will finish his trek this year, but not without more difficult planning.
He is scheduled to run in a marathon in Sofia, Bulgaria, Oct. 9, but Bosnia has no marathons.
So from his home on the Blue River, Wallace will organize a marathon in the country he’s yet to visit. He and a running friend from Germany are working together to put on the race in either Sarajevo or Bihac.
Wallace said he expects between 10 and 25 competitors to run.
“We’re looking for something like a bike path along a river, maybe a five or 10K track that we can run back and forth on or in circles,” Wallace said.
His goal will be accomplished, but he won’t be done running. Two weeks after coming back from Bosnia, Wallace will get back on a plane and fly to Nepal, where he will begin a 16-day trek to the 17,000-foot starting line of the highest marathon in the world, on Mt. Everest.
Then, he’s finally done.
“I’m not going to set any more marathon goals,” Wallace said. “I’ve become too obsessive about them.”
Still, Wallace said he’ll run until he can’t do it anymore. He knows the way he pushes himself sometimes doesn’t bode well for his body, but his competitive juices won’t let him settle for anything less than the best he can do.
Simply stated, running is what keeps Wallace interested.
“If I can’t run anymore,” he said, “life sucks.”
Andy Frame can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 236, or at aframe@summitdaily.com.
