For Roger Marquis, the 26.2 miles he chooses to run quite frequently as an athletic pursuit is merely the marathon within the marathon.

Consider last weekend. The 44-year-old Old Town man awoke at 2 a.m. Saturday and left for Hartford, Conn., where six hours later the 14th annual United Technologies Greater Hartford Marathon was set to start.

He arrived with 30 minutes to spare – “I averaged 71 miles per hour,” he said. “If I had averaged 65, I wouldn’t have made it.”

Marquis’ ever-so-slight lead foot was rewarded with the fastest marathon he has run since first trying the distance at Kingfield’s Sugarloaf Marathon in 2002, a clocking of 3 hours, 9 minutes, 51 seconds that enabled him to finish 85th in a field of more than 1,600 runners.

While other runners were still crossing the finish line, he began the 343-mile drive home, arriving back in Old Town around dinner time.

After a short night’s sleep, he awoke early Sunday and drove to Bar Harbor to compete in his second marathon in as many days – and sixth in 22 days.

He was unable to match his Hartford time, but didn’t reveal himself to be all that leg-weary as he finished the sixth annual Mount Desert Island Marathon just 10 minutes slower than he had run the same distance a day earlier, in 3:19:51. That was good for 31st place among nearly 900 participants.

“I feel great mentally,” Marquis said after his 12th marathon of the year and 29th overall. “Physically I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I got on the start line and tore off like a mad animal. I went out pretty hard, and finished even harder.

“I’m very happy. I got my best time by five minutes [Saturday], and [Sunday] I ran 3:19, which is still a Boston [Marathon] qualifier.”

Marquis plans a similar schedule this weekend, with one marathon to run in Newport, R.I., on Saturday, followed a day later by another near Saint John, New Brunswick, where he hopes to pace others to personal-best times or Boston qualifying efforts.

“I’m actually doing nine marathons in 36 days altogether,” he said. “What for I don’t know, I’m just having fun with it, that’s the key for me.”

Marquis’ passion for marathon running is fueled by a bit of sibling rivalry.

“I grew up in a family of nine and we were all competitive,” said Marquis, a 1981 Old Town High School graduate who has worked for General Electric in Bangor for the past 24 years. “Five in my family have run marathons, and two [brothers Tim and Steve] run very competitively. [On Saturday] I got the family PR for nine brothers and sisters, and I let the other two who run the most competitively know about it.”

Marquis typically runs about 50 miles a week, but confesses to a not-so-typical conditioning method that he believes gives him an edge – he’s an Eastern Maine board-certified soccer official.

“Believe it or not, officiating keeps me in shape,” said Marquis. “When you officiate two soccer games back-to-back, you’re out on your feet for 21/2 or three hours and it’s almost marathon-like. Being an official, you’re burning it up and down the field, watching for offsides and making runs with players on the field, and that really helps a marathoner.

“I don’t think most do, but marathoners should do a day or two a week of speed running. I think it really helps, and I just do it naturally when I’m reffing.”

Marquis may or may not maintain his current marathon frequency in future years, but expects to continue competing at the distance for years to come.

For him, it’s too much fun to stop.

“People get a runner’s high, and I think I get that from marathons,” he said. “I’d say it’s addictive. At some point it might not be, but as long as I’m healthy it’s a good addiction for me.”