Julie Weiss, an accountant from Los Angeles who took up long-distance running in 2007, has just finished her 52nd marathon… in as many weeks.
Weiss, 42, undertook this incredible series of runs in order to raise awareness for pancreatic cancer, the disease that took her father’s life. She dedicated each of the 52 marathons to a different victim of the deadly disease.
Meditation powered up Julie Weiss for 52 marathons
Completing even one marathon – a distance no less than 42 kilometres long – is an excruciating task both for the body and for the mind. In an interview given to Prevention News, Weiss shed light on her mental preparations: 
“Running a marathon every week, your emotions are up and down. You get so tired—it was exhausting. I really try hard to surround myself with positive people and positive things: flowers, quotes, whatever I can to keep my spirits up. I do Transcendental Meditation twice a day to keep me balanced, and it’s been working very well. I couldn’t let any distractions take me out of where I was headed.”
Weiss’s final marathon was on March 17, in Los Angeles. How did she celebrate?
“Sleep!” she exclaims. “Treating myself to sleeping in!”
