Someone asked about Guinness standards for what constitutes a marathon for record purposes. Best I could quickly find was this (an interesting read):
http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/the-race-for-the-most-marathons-in-a-year
Here's a section of the article:
For starters, Guinness defines “year” by 365 consecutive days, not as a calendar year. There must be at least two independent witnesses who sign statements at each race, as well as photo and video evidence. (The independent witnesses must check the progress of the participant at the beginning and end of the race and at a minimum of five different points throughout the course.) Each marathon must be officially organized, open to the public and advertised as such (i.e., not organized specifically for the purposes of this record attempt) and all of the race courses must be professionally measured. In addition, a letter from the race organizer and one other independent witness must be provided for each marathon confirming the time it took the individual to complete the race. Finally, a printout of the official race results from every race must be included in the documentation, along with a link to the race results online.
Up to the SA crowd to determine if rules were followed.
At the end of the day, I don't care who has run the most marathons in a year or in a lifetime.