In the final days of the Do Life tour (actually, in the midst of a 9-mile run in Portland) Pa and I started throwing around ideas for 2012.

We wanted to keep the ball going and are in love with the idea of being an online movement that’s based offline.

After about 30 minutes, we came up with the plan. And once the plan started to take shape, it became a no-brainer.

We would run 52 official marathons and put on 52 Do Life 5K/meetups in the 52 weeks of 2012.

Why? … Well, there’s a few reasons. Let’s go bullet-points at it, shall we?

• To raise money for awesome charities and causes that we, as a community, feel passionate about. The 52 weeks will be broken down into a charity/cause of the week so we can devote full energy to each cause. And we are going to open this up to the masses. If you are passionate about a charity or cause, nominate it in the comment section and tell us why it’s perfect for the tour.
• Because, if there’s anything we learned from the first tour, it’s that getting like-minded individuals together is a really inspiring thing.
• A one-year tour of marathons, Do Life 5Ks, and meeting new people and meeting up with old friends from the first tour? Um… yes, please.

So here are a few logistics:

• Every Saturday or Sunday, we will be running an official marathon. But that’s not all. We will be running as an unofficial pacing group doing 5:30-6-hour marathons. This way, new runners who might want to coordinate their first-ever marathons can run with us at a reasonable beginner pace. 
• Depending on whether the marathon is on a Saturday or Sunday, we will be coordinating and hosting 52 Do Life 5Ks on the non-marathon-day. The 5Ks will be much like this year’s tour. We will be changing some of the logistics, but the main premise will remain the same. And rest assured that the Do Life 5Ks will definitely be free of charge.
• We will be arriving into each city on Thursday of each week and seeking out speaking engagements in the city and the surrounding areas for Thursday and Friday. These might be in conjunction with the Marathon expo, some of them will be independent speaking engagements set up through local fitness centers, YMCAs, universities and high schools.

Now! We need your help.

We don’t want to just do 52 random marathons; we want to do 52 awesome marathons in 52 awesome places. We want to see it all.

Help us out by

• Nominating a marathon in the comment section. Please leave the date, the city, and the country (oh yeah, London, we’s a comin’ for you). Also, let us know a little bit about the marathon.
• Nominating some national and local charities. We think this will work best if we have a nice mix of big and small charities.
• Spreading the word. Sharing this link and mentioning this endeavor to your local running stores, fitness centers, news outlets, etc will help a great deal. 

If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comment section and we’ll be compiling a FAQ with some more information soon.

52 Marathons
52 5Ks
52 Weeks.

Pa, you thought you got tired of me this summer? It’s about to get a whole lot better.

See you out there.