Marathon Man: Sarasota's Apollo Lirio runs 6 marathons around the world to earn Six Star Medal

SARASOTA ― At least for the time being, in his home, Apollo Lirio is the mythological Apollo. His family thinks he’s really something special.

He’s in no hurry to see it change.

“I’m going to milk it,” the Sarasota dentist said, “for however long I can.”

The Milking Marathon?

Not running on empty: Sarasota runner competes in her record 42nd straight NYC Marathon

Lirio isn’t a hero at home simply because he ran six marathons over four years, an unlikely accomplishment given how sneaker hitting pavement never was on his athletic to-do list. He lettered in tennis in high school and in rowing at Georgetown University. But running? Lirio left that to his wife, who’s competed in more than 30 half-marathons.

Over time, his dental practice, his role as Riverview High team dentist, and his side business making athletic mouthguards caused Lirio, as he said, “to kind of fall off from sports.” Then, the pandemic forced him to fall off from work.

“They shut me down,” he said. “I didn’t know if I was ever going to work again. I was even having trouble sleeping.”

An ad he saw for the New York Marathon changed that, and changed Lirio. The pandemic prevented the actual running of the race, so a virtual one was held instead. Competitors were allowed to map out a 26-mile, 385-yard course where they lived. Once they ran it, and it was verified, they were credited with having finished the New York Marathon, and their medal soon was in the mail.

“That got me energized,” Lirio said. “That gave me something to focus on.”

Lirio, along with his wife, completed their virtual marathon in 10 hours. But afterward, he felt good and wasn’t about to put his running shoes deep in the closet after one race. But not even Lirio could have fathomed how that virtual marathon would serve as a springboard to a headlining bucket list entry. What really impressed his family.

“I just started thinking, ‘How crazy if I could do that?’’’ Lirio said. “‘I’m going to do it.’’’

The six marathons he entered ― Chicago, New York City, Boston, Berlin, London, and Tokyo ― are considered the six largest and most renowned marathons and thus are known as the Abbott World Marathon Majors. In 2016, the organization began issuing the Six Star medal to competitors who completed all six marathons.

Since 2016, more than 8,000 runners have earned the medal. Last month, when Lirio crossed the finish line of the Tokyo Marathon in 5 hours, 20 minutes, the 50-year-old, who ordered his running shoes on Amazon and made his own weights by filling up milk jugs with water, entered this elite running fraternity.

There was a celebration after Lirio finished, during which he was awarded his Six Star medal. He didn’t cry, as he did after finishing the 2022 Boston Marathon. His body didn’t seize up, as it did after finishing the 2021 Chicago Marathon.

“I just let out this huge scream of joy,” he said. Lirio improved his time with each marathon, from 10 hours to the virtual one he ran in Sarasota, to six hours at the Chicago Marathon, to the 5:20 he posted at Tokyo. The runner’s high Lirio experienced during that race was higher than usual.

“I was just so full of energy,” he said. “I just went. It was all adrenaline.”

Lirio has plenty of photos from his global running man adventures, and even more memories. He’ll remember the Boston Marathon, the country’s oldest, and to Lirio, the most energized. “Boston was just insane,” he said. “An amazing experience.” In London, cars drive on the opposite side of the road, as do runners run.

Lirio ran over the Tower Bridge and past Big Ben, finishing at Buckingham Palace. The Berlin Marathon ended under the Brandenburg Gate, where in 1987 President Ronald Reagan told the Soviet Union’s Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

It was during the Tokyo Marathon when Lirio felt the farthest from Sarasota.

“It really felt like another world,” he said. “It was like running on Mars. Different culture, different everything.”

Those differences included the yelling and cheering from the Tokyo populace watching the race. There wasn’t any. “It was a silent disco party,” Lirio said. “Very reserved. It was just quiet. You could hear the slapping of all the sneakers on the road.”

He wasn’t road kill. Instead, Apollo Lirio was a road warrior.

He’s got the medal to prove it. And the admiration of his family, for however long it lasts.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Apollo Lirio earns Six Star Medal for completing all six World Marathon Majors