If you thought running one marathon was hard, try completing 52. In one year.
That the feat Julie Weiss, also known as the "Marathon Goddess," recently pulled off. After finishing the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday, the 42-year-old Weiss had run one marathon every week for the past year.
Weiss' inspiration was her father, Maurice, who died of pancreatic cancer one month after being diagnosed in November 2010. Weiss' goal during the past year was to raise money and awareness for the disease. And in addition to spreading the world in marathons across North America, she also raised upwards of $170,000 for charity.
"As I learned more about pancreatic cancer, I had to do something more to raise awareness and raise hope and raise money for this severely underfunded disease," Weiss told ABC LA, "so I decided to do something dramatic."
Making Weiss' feat all the more amazing is that she is a mother of two, and she managed to keep a 9-to-5 job for the past year. Each Friday, immediately after work, Weiss would board a plane to wherever her next marathon was. She would return to her home in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Now that she's accomplished her goal, she plans to take a short break from marathons. But she's still got work to do. Her ultimate goal is to raise $1 million for pancreatic cancer research, so she told the Today show that she may do another 52 marathons in 52 weeks at some point before 2020.
For more information about Weiss, and to donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, check out her website.
