BALTIMORE —

There are more than three dozen runners who have been competing in the Baltimore Running Festival for 25 years — as long as the races have been around.

They're part of an elite club, but they're strangers to one another. Dan Buccino and Ray Smith are running the 5K while Urbane Maust is running the full marathon, as he has done each year.

"When it started, it was just after Sept. 11. There was a question as whether it was going to happen at all. So, I thought it was important that Baltimore have a marathon," Buccino said. "I've sort of joked that I'll do anything for a T-shirt and a medal, especially."

Smith is proud that he has been able to keep running all these years.

"In fact, one year I had a foot issue and wound up doing the 5K on crutches," Smith said.

"Really bl

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