Steffen Schneider has raced in more than 200 marathons across the world and runs half-marathons on all of his “off” weekends. At 57, he aims to complete two marathons every month and would like to run a marathon in every country.

As Steffen Schneider laces up his Nike sneakers, he jokes with the people around him, seemingly oblivious to the seconds ticking down as the hour draws nearer.

With an easy smile, the 57-year-old adjusts his rumpled race bib. Waiting.

Bang! The gunshot echoes through the crisp October air, and Schneider takes off. A symphony of cheers erupts, muffling the steady heartbeat of feet striking the asphalt. Schneider settles into the familiar rhythm of racing. Mile after mile passes, but he doesn’t falter.

It’s just a 26.2-mile run — old hat for an accomplished runner like Schneider.

The end draws near and, drenched in sweat, he breaks through the New Hampshire Marathon finish line, relishing in the victory of yet another marathon. All around him, runners stumble around like zombies, as they nurse minor injuries and cramps.

But not Schneider.

While many of the runners will be hobbling around the next day, avoiding stairs at all costs, he’ll be hitting the road, doing it all over again.

Two marathons, two days. No sweat.

Schneider has run more marathons in his life than many of us have run miles. How many?

Nonchalantly, he says “222,” seemingly unaware of the magnitude of his running resume. Nearly 200 of those have been run in the past decade.

Schneider runs about 16 marathons a year, often running what he terms “doubles,” marathons in back-to-back days. In October 2014 alone, he ran four marathons in two weeks.

“Marathon running brings such an incredible quality of life, and I just can’t seem to get enough,” says the energetic insurance agent from Las Vegas, Nev. “It’s just something I love.”

For many, running one marathon in a lifetime is a daunting task, and, once upon a time, Schneider felt the same way.

As a kid, Schneider didn’t play any sports. No soccer or basketball or any of the other smattering of team sports many kids try. He went hiking occasionally with the Boy Scouts, but that was the extent of his athleticism. He never imagined he would one day become a marathon runner — or a runner at all for that matter.

“When I first heard about marathon running, I was incredulous that people could run that far,” he says. “Even hearing about my friends running four miles on a cross country course seemed so overwhelming.”

In high school, Schneider joined the track and field team at the urgings of his friends, confident that he would beable to keep up. Instead, he was the slowest on the team.

“Workouts were brutal, and I just wasn’t any good,” he says. “I had to stop. I was convinced I just wasn’t meant to run.” After that, Schneider dabbled in running to stay in shape, but it wasn’t until 1980 — three years before his first marathon — that he really got into it. A skiing accident on his 21st birthday had necessitated intensive surgery, and his doctors recommended he run regularly for rehab. That year, he ran his first 10k.

Surrounded by a sea of athletes, Schneider savored the intoxicating race ambience as he ran. As he crossed the finish line, he felt the weight of the finisher’s medal, heavy around his neck: a token of his hard work.

That medal was the first of many. Bitten by the running bug, Schneider ran his first marathon in 1983, the Deseret News Marathon in Utah, in an admirable time of 3 hours and 45 minutes, followed by two more marathons before the year was out.

“Running makes me feel the joy of living like nothing else does. It’s something I never get tired of. Sometimes, I feel like I could run forever.” Steffen Schneider

Now, a few decades later, medals swallow his counter space and fill the many boxes strewn around the house. As he opens his door, the medals on the door knob clink together, a reminder of the countless miles he has raced.

“Some people run a marathon and say ‘Never again,’ but that was never my story,” he says. “Running relaxes me and helps clear my head of the pressures of life, so for me, the longer the better.”

In the beginning of his running career, Schneider averaged two or three marathons a year — a big feat for a running newbie. His first 50 marathons took him 20 years to complete, but after he moved to Las Vegas in 2001, he picked up the pace. Hoping to find some running buddies, he joined the Las Vegas Track Club, where he met another running fanatic, Martha Corazzini.

“When we met, he told me how many marathons he had run — probably 45 or 50 — and probably thought I’d be impressed,” Corazzini says. “I said ‘That’s nice, I’ve run 60.’ I think he was impressed.”

Up until that point, Schneider had competed in the same handful of local marathons year after year. Corazzini, no novice to the sport herself, had recently begun running “destination marathons” around the country and invited him to join.

“At that time, it was very unusual for runners to run multiple marathons in a year,” she says. “I started traveling to marathons, began a marathon-a-month streak and began ‘collecting’ states. When Steffen heard about this he picked up on it too.”

Excited by the prospect of “destination marathoning,” Steffen threw himself into racing with renewed vigor, logging 60 miles a week. He vowed to race one to two marathons every month and has completed many in back-to-back days and weekends.

Schneider has run a marathon in all 50 states at least once and is now on his second go-round with 19 states left to go.

Schneider recently began doing marathons in Europe and has run five in Germany, where he was born and spent part of his childhood. He has also run marathons in England, Italy, France and Austria, and he hopes to add as many countries as he can in years to come.

“My travel plans almost always involve marathoning,” he says. “It’s really exciting to get to travel and see all of these new cities and new countries while doing what I love.”

Although Schneider likes to race in new places, he still has a few favorite races he runs every year. To date, he has run the St. George Marathon 26 times and the Deseret News Marathon — which was his first and 200th marathon — 14 times.

“Maybe he is addicted to it, but that is a good thing,” says Anne Watts, his sister who lives in London. “Steffen’s running is amazing. He doesn’t train for marathons. Running marathons is his training.”

Lately, Schneider has been running about 20 miles during the week — nothing excessive. On his “off” weekends, he almost always races in half marathons. He’s already lost track of how many, but he barters several hundred. For him, they’re just training runs. The appetizers before the main event.

He doesn’t weight train or strength training, like he admits he probably should. For Schneider, racing is just for the love of the sport.

“He’s more of an old-school runner,” Corazzini says. “While everyone is switching on their Garmins, donning compression socks, listening to IPods or trying out the latest sports drink or supplements, Steffen simply goes on a run without even wearing a watch.”

When it comes to racing, most marathon runners have a strict regimen that they follow religiously, but Schneider’s not fussy. He doesn’t keep a training log. He eats whatever he feels like and replaces his shoes with whatever’s on sale.

“In fact, he will sign up for a race or marathon with only a day’s notice,” Corazzini says. She’s seen him do it several times.

But those who know him wouldn’t call him impulsive per se. Instead, he’s more of a hardened athlete with an insatiable appetite for adventure and travel.

“Running makes me feel the joy of living like nothing else does,” he says. “It’s something I never get tired of. Sometimes, I feel like I could run forever.”

If Schneider had run in a straight line for his past three decades of training, he would’ve circled the Earth at least twice, based on his weekly mileage.

But despite his taxing running regimen, Schneider has managed to stay relatively injury-free, avoiding the overuse injuries and bummed ankles that plague nearly every runner at some point.

He had surgery in November in his foot for a hammer toe — something he’d been putting off for a few years. It had never affected his running — a slight annoyance, more than a real injury—but nonetheless, he had it fixed.

But even the invasive surgery, involving several pins through his bone, couldn’t slow him down for long. He rode his bike, despite being condemned to crutches for a few weeks, then competed in the Honolulu Marathon in Hawaii a mere seven weeks after his surgery, finishing his 17th marathon for the year of 2014.

Those who know him, know he has a wacky sense of humor. Pretending to run off to Africa as a child and munching on dog food to gross out his sisters were just a few of his childhood shenanigans. But Schneider has always been extremely driven.

“As a young man he was always ambitious and working hard to get ahead. He earned money mowing lawns and started a shoe shine business when he was 12,” Margrit Schneider, his sister, says. “He can do anything he puts his mind to.”

Schneider hopes to hit the 300-marathon mark in the near future and would like to run a marathon on every continent and in as many countries as possible. In the future, he would like to run 50 marathons in one year.

For Schneider, running is his stress relief. His joie de vivre. His fountain of youth.

“Running keeps you young, and it’s something I plan to do for the rest of my life,” he says. “One day I’ll be that 100-year-old man out there still running marathons. Just you watch.”