Jeff Barnett, No. 3949, finishes the Boston Marathon.

Paris, London and Boston in eight days might qualify Jeff Barnett for the jet-set crowd. Running marathons in each of those cities - all in those same eight days - qualifies the Ann Arbor man for something else again. That's what Barnett, a 47-year-old who works as a personal weight trainer, did last April. On the 7th, he finished the Paris Marathon in 3:30. A week later, he completed the London Marathon in 3:28, flew to Boston and, the next day, finished the Granddaddy of all marathons in 3:26: each time faster than the last. "The people in Paris and London thought I was crazy," laughs Barnett, "until they realized what I was doing and how much I'd planned. Then they were intrigued." Barnett didn't say what the people in Boston thought.

Much planning and training went into Barnett's adventure, beginning nearly a year before. "I saw that London and Boston were only one day apart," he remembers. "I asked myself if it was possible to run both." Barnett contacted Marathon Tours, a travel agency specializing in marathon packages the world over, about logistics. Representatives said it was doable. After more thinking, he decided to include Paris. "If I'm going over there, I might as well run all three," he explains. Of course. There were no books or guides available for planning. "No one had done this before," he says.

Barnett set goals, which are powerful forces in his life. He didn't want to "just finish" all three races, although that seems formidable enough. He wanted to do 3:30 - an eight-minute pace - for each. He reckoned, with proper training, that he could. He cranked up his weekly mileage from 60-70, to 100 - "17 miles a day, to condition my body for quick recovery," he explains. "I did all my training based on an eight-minute pace for each of the marathons." Slowing down was important; Barnett did no speed work and had no injuries. Instead, he did lots of weight training to build strength. "I was prepared physically," he says. Barnett has completed 76 marathons, most between 3:00 and 3:10. His PR is 2:59. "I love doing marathons," he says. "I stay in condition where I could run one any week. I enjoy the training." He does it all on a treadmill too. He prefers the treadmill because it's easier on his legs than running pavement, plus he can listen to his favorite music and run when he likes, "at three or four in the morning." He has no problem adjusting to roads for 5Ks, 10Ks or (obviously) marathons.

Barnett did adapt his training somewhat in order to do three marathons in eight days. For instance, last winter he ran a marathon in Houston, flew back to Detroit and ran long the next day. He completed a marathon in Indianapolis, then another in Columbus the following day. "I wanted to simulate what I planned to do as many times as possible," he explains. He did "about 10 marathons" during his training. "Each was part of the goal," he says. He arrived in Paris a week before the marathon to do sightseeing. "I was supposed to taper," he chuckles, "but I found this really-great training route and ran twice as much as I'd planned." The April 7 Paris forecast was in the 80s, but the marathon gods smiled on Barnett - as they did for all three races. "The weather was perfect, cool and cloudy," he says. "I didn't get beaten up by the wind or heat. I really had weather karma." After running his 3:30, "my legs felt good. I had picked a reasonable pace," he says. "My legs felt good to the last step in Boston."

Barnett flew to London the day after Paris and took it easy. During the week, he did lots of sightseeing. Everything there went according to plan with his 3:28, but the hard part was yet to come. The flight from London left at 6:30 p.m. and, because it crossed time zones, arrived in Boston at 8:30 that same night. Barnett tried not to sleep en route. "I had the flight attendants wake me up," he says. Barnett took a couple sleeping pills in Boston, went to bed at 9:30 p.m. and awoke at 6:30 a.m. to catch his bus for the race's noon start at Hopkinton. His Boston Marathon went as perfectly as the others. "Turning down Boylston (the final straightaway) was emotional for me, actually having done it," Barnett remembers. "As I crossed the finish, I thought, 'That's over and done. What's next?'"

"What's next" was the Cleveland Marathon two weeks later. There, Barnett clocked 3:22. "It was cool to do this," says Barnett. "But it didn't define me. It's not my identity. It was - How can I put this? - one of the most-incredible experiences I've ever had. But ..." Did he ever ask himself, "What am I doing? What have I done?" "No," he answers quickly. "The goal wasn't the end result. There are no guarantees. I could have missed my plane. I wasn't going to put all my eggs in one basket. Each training run was a focus of the goal."

At the Bayshore Marathon May 25, Barnett helped a client achieve a time goal. "That was as cool as running Paris, London or Boston," he declares. What's next? Barnett, who's been running about eight years, intends to continue. Anything like Paris-London-Boston in his future? Given what he considers "normal" training, he seems to do such feats all the time.

Ron Marinucci can be reached by e-mail at RMarin6424@aol.com