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WASHINGTON -- The fun and games are over. Michael Wardian must go down.

After back-to-back-to-back wins in the first three National Marathons, the target looms large on Wardian's back. The problem is, no one seems to be able to catch him.

In 2006, Wardian won the race by three minutes and 37 seconds in 2:30:55. In 2007, Bryan Skelly trimmed the margin of victory by more than a minute, as Wardian took the tape in 2:26:35.

Last year race organizers thought they had it all figured out. They signed up three high-quality runners to not just challenge the Arlington, Va., native, but to flat-out beat him.

Didn't happen.

In fact, Wardian was even lonelier at the top, lowering the race record to 2:24:59, almost four minutes ahead of Samuel Gebremic.

"Every year I've run the race faster than the year before and I plan to do that again," he said.

So the organizers of the 2009 SunTrust National Marathon sought out three more outstanding runners to push Wardian to his limit. There's no way he can press his luck and win a fourth straight marathon, right?

"I know there's going to be a lot of guys -- they always bring in good guys -- and if they can run faster than I can, then they're going to win. So far it hasn't happened. It's like a football team that only wants to play Detroit. I mean, I want to play the best team."

It's not that race officials want to see Wardian lose, it's that they want to keep pushing down the course record time. Their goal: the 2:20 barrier.

"It establishes a barrier, like the four-minute-mile barrier," said Marc Davis, elite athlete coordinator for the Marathon.

Getting to that magic number of 2:20 would go a long way toward increasing the race's rep among the world's elite runners. That time would put it in the second tier of races, right behind first-tier events like the Boston, New York City and Chicago marathons.

"We want to get into that realm," Davis said.

So Wardian must be pushed from his comfort zone. Davis believes at least three participants will do just that.

David Cheromei, a Kenya native, is now a graduate assistant at Liberty University. His personal best is right around the 2:20 mark, making him a top competitor. Check out the experience he had in his first marathon in 2007 by clicking here.

Canadian Charles Bedley is another elite marathoner brought in to challenge Wardian. He certainly has the PR to do it (2:16). He's possibly the fastest Canadian marathoner out there, winning the 2007 Toronto Marathon.

And then there's David Mosop. He ran his first and only official marathon in October. So how can he possibly be the man to beat in D.C.? He posted a 2:15 in that marathon. Did we mention that the race was run at an elevation of 8,000 feet in Nairobi?

"That's probably in the 2:10 to 2:12 range on normal elevation," Davis said.

So with three high-quality runners like this, race organizers have to like the odds of a much more competitive race in 2009. Of course, they thought the same thing in 2008.

"All three are better than the best guy we brought in last year," said Davis, who couldn't believe the way things turned out in the 2008 race. "One got hurt, one didn't show up and one dropped out at 10k."