Mark Bauman has never missed a single Detroit Free Press Marathon.
Not one.
When runners take off for the 49th edition of the race, the 76-year-old from Flushing plans to be among them, extending a streak that dates to the inaugural Detroit Free Press Marathon on Oct. 22, 1978.
For Bauman, it will be another 26.2 miles in a running career that has stretched across decades, roughly 190 marathons and countless changes to the sport, the city of Detroit and Bauman himself.
Long-time running career
Long before the Free Press Marathon existed, Bauman was already a marathoner. He completed his first Boston Marathon in 1970 after his junior college track coach in Flint took him to run the race.
He has been running marathons ever since.
Bauman estimates he has completed at least 190
of them. He has run all 49 years of both the Detroit Free Press Marathon and the Crim Festival of Races 10-mile race in Flint, and 57 consecutive Boston Marathons.Before it became the Detroit Free Press Marathon, he also ran the Motor City Marathon in the 1960s.
Bauman's 57 straight Boston finishes are a record for consecutive finishes at the race.
Watching the Detroit marathon change
Over nearly half a century, Bauman has had a front-row seat to the evolution of the Detroit Free Press Marathon.
“The organization is phenomenal,” he said. “They do such a good job.”
He has watched the course change along with Detroit, taking runners across the Ambassador Bridge, through the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel and past landmarks that have come and gone.
“Now we run over the bridge and through the tunnel,” Bauman said. “When it first started, we only ran through the tunnel. And over the years, they’ve had unique features to the Detroit Free Press Marathon.”
One stands above the rest.
In 1999, the year Tiger Stadium closed, marathoners crossed the finish line at home plate.
For Bauman, a baseball fan who attended many games at Tiger Stadium, that finish remains his favorite memory from decades of running the race.
“In years past, we’ve even finished on Ford Field,” Bauman said. “So it’s had different, unique features to it.”
Bauman’s fastest Free Press Marathon was about 2 hours, 37 minutes.
But he has never run to beat the person next to him, he told the Free Press. He isn’t even necessarily running to beat the clock.
“I'm just competing to get to the finish line,” Bauman said.
Training for 26.2 miles at 76
At 76, Bauman’s preparation looks considerably different than it did in his younger years.
He now works his way up to about 30 miles a week while preparing for a marathon. In earlier years, he said, he ran as many as 100 miles a week.
But his basic strategy for getting through 26.2 miles hasn’t changed much: Train enough and don’t go out too fast.
“Ideally, you run the first half of the marathon about the same time you run the second half,” Bauman said. “So you’re pacing yourself early on so that you can do that.”
Then there is the one thing he can’t control: the weather.
“Let’s hope for good weather,” Bauman said.
His definition of good marathon weather might differ from that of the people lining the course.
“Cool weather,” he said. “Not spectator weather. Running weather.”
Running beyond the races
Bauman’s involvement in Michigan’s running community goes beyond the miles he has logged.
He is vice president of the Riverbend Striders, a Flint-area running club that he said has been around for more than 50 years and organizes races in the region.
He also founded Bauman’s Running and Walking Shop, which he said is Michigan’s oldest running store.
“It started out of the trunk of my car and in my living room,” Bauman said.
He began selling running shoes in 1974, initially as a way to pay for his own running.
“I kind of started as a hobby to help support my running addiction, help me buy shoes and pay to go to races,” Bauman said.
The business opened its first physical location in 1978.
Bauman retired at the end of 2021. Rather than sell the business to the highest bidder, he sold it to three longtime employees.
The price: $1.
“They were great employees,” Bauman said. “They’d been with me a long time and done a great job, and financially, I could afford to do it. So it was, to me, it was a no-brainer.”
Another finish line ahead
Bauman’s 49th Detroit Free Press Marathon would add another race to an already remarkable streak, but he has at least one more milestone in sight.
Johnny Kelley holds the record for most Boston Marathon finishes with 58, although those finishes were not consecutive. Bauman’s next Boston Marathon would be his 58th consecutive finish.
“If I’m lucky enough to get there,” he said.
And if he does, another Bauman plans to be there with him.
His granddaughter, Meredith Bauman, is preparing to run her first Boston Marathon with him in 2027, Bauman said.
After nearly six decades of marathons, records, streaks and finish times seem to matter less to Bauman than simply making it to the next race.
“I just want to keep going,” he said.
Nour Rahal is a trending and breaking news reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Email her at nrahal@freep.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: At 76, Mark Bauman prepares for his 49th consecutive Detroit marathon
