Maren Dougherty and Heather Hart, both Balboa Park employees, are participating in a marathon. This test of endurance, however, is of a different variety than the 30,000-strong Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon on June 5. This marathon is taking place over 26.2 days, not miles, and is set entirely within the confines of Balboa Park. In an effort to highlight the myriad attractions that fill the park to the brim, Hart and Dougherty, both 26, who work for the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, have agreed to eat, sleep and breathe Balboa Park day and night for 26 days. The pair started their park squat on May 30 and by the time they complete the “Museum Marathon” on June 25, they will have slept in 16 different cultural institutions. “A common goal of all these projects is to emphasize just how much Balboa Park has to offer locals and tourists,” Dougherty wrote in an email. “A lot of people plan trips to San Diego and only budget a few hours to explore the park. With 15 major museums, The Old Globe, Junior Theatre, more than a dozen gardens and so many attractions to explore, you could really spend a whole week exploring the park. Or 26 days.” Aside from exploring the institutions that make the park a tourist attraction to rival any beach, Dougherty said she and Hart hope to show the “behind-the-scenes people who make the park what it is.” “The volunteers who have been here for decades, the park rangers who keep the park safe and friendly, the educators who run summer camps and other program to spark kids’ interest in science and history… there are so many people who really care about the park and the community,” she wrote. Inspired by a similar project completed at the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago last year, the two were able to combine the resources of the numerous Balboa Park facilities to create their own version of the museum live-in. Providing an inside look at the parks world-class institutions, their experiences will include things like crashing a Girl Scout sleepover at the zoo and sleeping under the stars on the rooftop terrace of the San Diego Natural History Museum. Hart and Dougherty will blog, Tweet and post Facebook and online video updates about their adventures. They will also be publishing articles about their experiences on the San Diego Union-Tribune’s website. “Few people realize that there are more than 80 cultural, conservation and recreation organizations in the park,” Hart said in a recent statement. “We’re going to take people inside the Puppet Theatre, the WorldBeat Center, and the Model Railroad Museum — the largest model railroad museum in the country. I’ve worked here for more than two years and I still find out about new places all the time.” Readers can follow the pair through Twitter (@MarathonMaren and @MarathonHeather), Facebook (www.facebook.com /museum marathon), the Balboa Park Beat blog and signonsandiego.com.