Photo: Carrollton brings out the runners who like to run marathons. Lots of marathons.

CARROLLTON (7/31/05) - Eighteen hundred and twenty-eight marathons. That was the total for five of us who sat around a table at the pasta dinner. With only 109, I had the second-lowest total in the group.

It's a warm end-of-July day in Michigan, and about the only regular road marathon in this half of the country is in Carrollton, a small suburb of Saginaw. That brings out the runners who like to run marathons. Lots of marathons.

Norm Frank was there, running No. 885. Don McNelly, 84, was on No. 675, his 106th marathon since turning 80. Lots of 50 States Club members - many of whom do marathons once a month, once a week, sometimes two per weekend - were at Carrollton too.

Interesting course? Yeah, in a perverted sort of way. It's an L-shaped, flat, out-and-back 5K course. First, a short out-and-back for the first 2.2K, go around a cone monitored by six Carrollton Lions Club members, then eight 5K repeats.

Several runners, including Norm and Don, took an early start. The rest of us didn't get going until 6 a.m. Along with the 20K participants, the throng of runners numbered nearly 130.

If you didn't know anyone at the start of this marathon, you would by the end - throughout the morning you meet, pass and run alongside the same people many times.

Just after starting my fifth 5K, the 5K and 10K races started, and we watched as fresh legs blazed by us: a pleasant diversion that would be over long before we slow-but-steady marathoners finished our race.

One kilometer out, I was passed by a two-foot-nine girl running in normal kid-fashion, i.e. go out hard and die a mile later. I encouraged the other kids who ran in similar fashion as I made the return trip.

I was lapped for the last of three times by eventual winner Mike Alderink of Durham, N.C., and congratulated him on the way past. Only three more to go.

The final lap is fun. Women's winner Nancy Knoll of Warren finished as I was making the final swing past the Lions who had been patiently checking off our laps all morning.

There were handshakes, high-fives and warm words exchanged between runners who had been meeting and running with each other all morning. I made a quick stop at the far end to thank the guy who had been sitting on the tailgate of a pickup watching us run around a cone.

All day long we'd been meeting each other, running together, smiling and encouraging each other. It was time to celebrate.

It's a unique race. Your brain never quite knows what mile you're on. The only convenient split is at the end of each 5K. No mile markers, just kilometers numbered one through five.

Carrollton is a race with its own character and a chance to have fun with friends, old and new.

And the adventure continues ... MR