Maniacs was founded by Roni Thomas, a running enthusiast who was pursuing the 2017 NYC Marathon through the 9+1 program. At first, the club had no name and was simply a WhatsApp group with a few casual runners from Johnson Park who ran for fitness. Johnson Park Grove 5 in Piscataway has been the meetup point ever since.

Roni joined forces with another running enthusiast, Jaswant Singh, who was also training for the 2017 NYC Marathon, to start a formal group to encourage other runners. The team grew to 15 members and trained for an entire year, with four members successfully completing the NYC Marathon. Roni created a NYRR club named Rise2Run and later handed it over to Jaswant to manage. Bala met Roni at the NJ Marathon and joined the team, bringing with him a group of runners from Budd Lake, NJ. Since then, Bala has helped all the North Jersey runners with the coordination and management of 9+1 logistics.

By this time, the team started becoming more competitive, and more runners joined the group. The group began incorporating strength training and structured training for marathons. Most of the team members had a goal to break 2 hours in the half marathon and later 4 hours in the full marathon. Manoj, Saby, and Jaswant Singh broke the 4-hour barrier, marking a very successful year for the team. The team was given the name 'Carpe Diem.' Roni created an NYRR club named New Jersey Marathon Maniacs to help the team with the 9+1 program. Four of the most deserving runners are picked every year to participate in the NYC Marathon.

This was the year when the team became more serious and gained exposure to the Boston Marathon qualifier and its process. The team name was changed to New Jersey Marathon Maniacs. The team transitioned from WhatsApp tracking to a Strava community, which provided better exposure. By this time, the group was participating in numerous marathons across the country. Roni and Manoj trained together to qualify for Boston. This year, the first female runner, Reeja Roni, completed her NYC Marathon.

In the Mesa Marathon, Roni Thomas and Manoj Ostwal BQ'ed for the first time from the Maniacs team. This achievement gave a lot of confidence to the team members and many other Strava friends to pursue Boston, starting a wave of enthusiasm. The team grew from 15 members to 40 members before COVID-19 put a halt to running. During COVID-19, the team organized 1 virtual half marathon, 1 virtual half marathon relay, and 3 virtual full marathons (NYC, London, Philly) to encourage runners to return to running. The response from the community was amazing, with around 40 runners participating in all 3 virtual marathons. The events were conducted at Henry Hudson Trail in Keyport. Vivek C. met Roni and joined the team, becoming one of its main influencers. Vivek introduced formal practices such as warm-ups, cool-downs, and strength training, which the team greatly appreciated as, despite achieving commendable heights, they were vulnerable to injury.

This was the year when the team got back to running. The team had a wonderful training session and ran their first in-person race at the Bob Potts Marathon, where both Roni and Manoj BQ'ed. Around 30 team members participated in the NYC Marathon, making it a very successful year. Vivek C. started coaching team members who wanted formal training. He introduced run-walk methods and various structured plans, and under his coaching, many of the team members achieved personal records (PRs).

The team expanded to 60 members with aspirations to achieve BQ and began pursuing the World Marathon Majors 6-star journey. Roni paced his team member Kannan for the first time, who was successful in achieving a BQ time at the Jim Thorpe Marathon. This year, Roni started his sub-3-hour marathon journey under the training of Coach Pavel, clocking 3:04 in Berlin and setting a new team record. In the same year, Pal also achieved his BQ time. Roni also paced Usman at the Philadelphia Marathon to help him achieve a PR.

This year, Roni became the first member to qualify for the Master Age Group Championship of a World Major Marathon. In the same year, three members pursued a sub-3-hour marathon (Gunjan, Harsh, and Roni). Gunjan was coached by TMB, Harsh had no coach, and Roni was coached by Vivek. Both Gunjan and Roni set new personal records but narrowly missed the sub-3-hour mark by 50 seconds and 100 seconds, respectively. Harsh achieved a significant PR, finishing under 3:10. The team changed its name to New Jersey Maniacs to avoid confusion with the Marathon Maniacs team.

The team continues to improve their timings across various age groups and is planning to develop team management tools, coaching plans, and recruit doctors and physiotherapists to assist the runners. Currently, Vivek is coaching nearly 15 runners. The team has also added a new female coach, Svenja, to support female and new runners.