Dane Rauschenberg

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Dane Rauschenberg (pronounced RAU-Shen-Berg), born May 31, 1976 is an amateur athlete who, in 2006, became the fastest person ever to successively run a certified marathon every weekend for a calendar year (in a highly publicized quest entitled "Fiddy2"). Currently single and residing in Arlington, Virginia Rauschenberg has:

Won the Presque Isle Personal Endurance Classic (October 18, 2003) - a 12 hour race in Erie, Pennsylvania where he broke the course record with 84 miles. The record still stands.^[1]
Won the Inaugural Drake Well Marathon (December 23, 2006) - a 26.2 mile race where participants ran 105.5 times around a high school track in Titusville, Pennsylvania.^[2]
Won the PT Cruiser Challenge (February 5-6, 2005) - an event consisting of a 15k, 5k and marathon all in 24 hours in Tampa, Florida.^[3]
Ran the fastest average time in history for 52 consecutive weekly marathons.

1 Overview
2 Racing and Endurance
3 Fiddy2
4 Awards & Recognition
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Overview

Rauschenberg grew up the youngest of two children in Titusville, Pennsylvania in a working-class family. With his father crippled in a hunting accident before his birth, Dane's athletic endeavors were achieved mostly without hands-on guidance. While he succeeded in some aspect in all sports growing up, Rauschenberg took up swimming in 10th grade and found his niche. He succeeded in garnering several high school records and awards.

Eventually turning to track, Dane fared well on the small but stellar Titusville track team which went 10-0 his senior year with its closest meet being 101-49. But, according to Dane: "I was just another 5 minute miler on a team of half a dozen of us." With his last track meet, Rauschenberg assumed his brief running career (he only joined the track team as a junior in high school) was over.

Rauschenberg then played rugby sparingly at The Pennsylvania State University where he scored a try the first time he touched a ball in a game. He never scored again. Having beefed up his frame to play rugby from the slight athlete he had been in high school, Rauschenberg said: "Running was what we did when we messed up at practice. I never thought of it as a sport to itself. That was for the 140lb guys who ate whey and wore funny colored socks."

Dane went on to achieve a B.A. in History in 1998 before he received his Juris Doctor from The Dickinson School of Law in May of 2002. While studying for the bar exam and applying for clerkships, Dane scored a 1-1 amateur boxing record. When he began clerking for the Honorable John J. Trucilla in the 6th Judicial District of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, he had to give up boxing because "I liked remembering things."

[edit] Racing and Endurance

Rauschenberg's first foray into marathon was extremely unimpressive as he posted a 4:12:07^[4] at the Harrisburg Marathon. Learning his grandmother had died during the night before the race left a bittersweet taste in Dane's mouth about running.

Not running another marathon for 2 more years, Dane took a stab at the Erie Marathon and lowered his time to 3:29:04^[5] and finishing 52nd overall, a number which foreshadowed later events in his life.

Barely a month after this race, Rauschenberg took a shot at the Presque Isle Personal Endurance Classic, a unique event where runners traverse a 1.0 mile loop on Presqle Isle State Park, in Erie, Pennsylvania for 12 hours. The total mielage of each runner covered over the 12 hours declares the winner. Running on very little rest from this previous marathon, and taking it upon himself to raise money for the American Cancer Society (which was extremely poignant given the fact his grandfather developed cancer, took ill and died quickly just a few short months after the race) Rauschenberg traveled the first 26 miles in 3:33, or just a few minutes slower than he had ever run a marathon. When the day was done, Dane has surpassed the course record with a distance of 84 miles.^[6].

Moving to Washington, D.C., Rauschenberg trained harder than he ever had for the Marine Corps Marathon. Raising money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Rauschenberg was once again disappointed with his time but pleased he had assisted a good cause.

Having now had his first three attempts at a marathon not showing any particular promise, Rauschenberg decided to try one more marathon before switching to different events, possibly ultras (given his success at the Personal Endurance Classic). In his 4th marathon, he learned the lack of correct hydration had previously kept him from finishing properly. Subsequently, when colder temps prevailed in his fourth marathon and loss of fluid was not a significant problem, he lowered his time from 4:12:07 in his first marathon to 3:09:50 in his 5th.^[7]

Still acutely aware that his time was rather pedestrian in the grand scheme of running, it was not until he ran the PT Cruiser Challenge while visiting his brother in Tampa, Florida that Rauschenberg realized what may be his speciality. Even though he had run a marathon just a few weeks before (the 3:09 finishing time), Rauschenberg won the PT Cruiser Challenge with the lowest combined time of his 15k (1:00:54), 5k (18:59) and marathon (3:10:31)^[8]

Soon thereafter, Fiddy2, the idea to run 52 marathons in 52 consecutive weekends, was hatched. Rauschenberg then tested his legs by running 5 marathons in a little over two months, lowering is personal best two more times, bucking conventional wisdom about running marathons in a short time span. Now certain he could hold up to the rigors of 52 marathons in one year, Rauschenberg decided to test himself twice more with marathons in 2006, and lowered his personal best again at the Marine Corps Marathon in 2005.^[9]

As a final test, just 3 weeks after running the MCM, Rauschenberg tuned up with his second ultra by running the JFK 50 Mile Race with little to no training, finishing in a respectable time of 8:32:57.^[10] Besides, the Presque Isle Endurance Run in 2003, Ruachenberg had never run over 26.2 miles at once.

[edit] Fiddy2

Notably, Rauschenberg's attempt to be only the third person to ever run a certified marathon every weekend in one calendar year was done to benefit the Mobile, Alabama chapter of L'Arche Internationale. Raising over $40,000 to date (March 2007), Rauschenberg continues to attempt raise $52,000 through his website Fiddy2. Rauschenberg successively completed Fiddy2 while he continued to work full time as a licensing associate in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Ironically, Rauschenberg's marathon career did not begin until after he had already broken his collarbone three times, underwent surgery on his quadriceps muscle, and severed four tendons in his left elbow and ripped his bicep muscle in a rugby accident.

It appears Rauschenberg has just scratched the surface of his running talent and he will take on his first 100 mile race in June at the Old Dominion 100.

“

There are many things in this world we cannot do. Trying is not one of them.

”

caption=Dane Rauschenberg competing in the 2006 Richmond Marathon during Fiddy2.

[edit] Awards & Recognition

Rauschenberg was selected by the Washington Running Club as the Male Runner of the Year for 2006.

Rauschenberg was nominated for the Road Runners Club of America's Runner of the Year for 2006 for his efforts.

The 50 States Marathon Club nominated Dane Rauschenberg as one of their two representatives for the MBC Han Gang Marathon in Seoul, Korea to be run on April 29, 2007.