Michael Wardian can comfortably be considered one of the most prodigious pavement pounders in the world. He has averaged at least 10 marathons each year since the mid-1990s, running most of them no slower than the mid-2:20 range. Yet Wardian has run the New York City Marathon only once, in 1998. He claims conflicts with other races have prevented him from running the race more often.

This year, on race day, Nov. 7, Wardian will run for a United States team that will compete in the International Association of Ultra Runners 100-kilometer world championships. Wardian, the 2009 New York Road Runners ultra runner of the year, finished sixth over all and was the first American in the 2009.

“The first weekend of November has always been bad for me,” he said. “I’m usually always running somewhere else. It’s too bad. I’m hoping next year I can make an effort to run it.”

Wardian made some effort to run in New York this year. Thinking that the marathon might host the United States marathon championship race, as it did in 2009, he appealed to the I.A.U., to no avail, to not schedule the 100K world championships on Nov. 7.

Wardian ran in the 1998 New York City Marathon and finished 78th in 2 hours 45 minutes 44 seconds. His most prominent running effort in the city took place at the 2008 United States Olympic men’s marathon trials, most of which took place in Central Park. He boasted a still personal best 2:21:37 entering the race and took the lead by the end of the first mile. Wardian ran the first mile in 5:21 and held the lead through just beyond six miles. His position in the front surprised many race observers, prompting speculation that it was a stunt for personal publicity. Not so, he says.

“I went out pretty hard and I paid for it later,” he said. “I started feeling it at 10K. I felt like the Tour de France on a breakaway, Phil Leggett saying ‘the pack is going to eat him up.’ I heard the guys filming it saying he’s about to get taken. The next thing I know I get spit out the back.”

Wardian, 36, has run in the New York City Half Marathon the last two years. This year, he finished in 1:09:37 and first in his age group the day after winning the National Marathon in Washington in 2:21:58.

Wardian portrays a measured obsession to running that’s tempered by a stable family life (wife and two kids) and a steady job as an international ship broker. Many who run more marathons than seems humanly possible, as Wardian does, are either promoting a charity or a personal cause, or, like Dean Karnazes, using their running adventures to promote a way of life.

Wardian runs simply to run. He has been called a citizen runner, which he defines as someone “who goes to work, does the kid duty and does the running after all those other things are accomplished.”

“I like the fact I’m able to bounce between the two worlds, hold down a full-time job and compete at the highest level,” he said.

Wardian has accomplished unconventional and quirky running feats. He set a world record for running a marathon on a treadmill in 2:23:58 in 2004, as recognized by recordholders.org. The record has since been broken. In 2006, he won four of five marathons in 45 days. In 2007, Wardian set a Guinness world record for running a marathon in 2:42:22 while pushing his then 9-month old son, Pierce, in a baby stroller. In July, he broke an 82-year-old world record for an indoor marathon, as certified by the association of Road Racing Statisticians.

Wardian won a race he set up, the Grant and Pierce marathon (named after his two sons) on an indoor 200-meter track, finishing 211 laps in 2:27:21.

Wardian has also won the U.S. 50K road title the last three years. USA Track and Field voted Wardian its ultramarathon runner of the year in 2008 and 2009. This year he’s won 6 of the 15 marathons he’s entered, the most in any one year.

Wardian runs races ranging from the 5K to the marathon most weekends, sometimes on both Saturdays and Sundays, and wins many of them. Several times I’ve seen Wardian, of Arlington, Va., running in races in the Washington area, his trademark hat turned backward, often alone at the front.

Wardian has always been approachable and seems to relish in the simple delights of running what for him appears to be most of his waking hours. He says he has no plans to slow down. Perhaps he will find a way to exert some of his boundless energy soon in the New York City Marathon, a race he has managed to avoid for 12 years.

“It’s something in the future I hope I can rectify,” he said.