RUN ON!

On a cool Saturday morning in May 2005, over 2,000 people lined up on the Veterans Memorial Bridge for the very first Scheels Fargo Marathon. Among them were 59 runners who have run every single year for the last 10 years.

They’re called charter members and they will be among the over 24,000 runners who will participate in the tenth Scheels Fargo Marathon May 8-10, 2014. These charter members have a unique perspective about how the event has grown and changed over the years.

Marathon organizer Mark Knutson got the ball rolling with Knutson's Run for the Children Half Marathon, the precursor for the Scheels Fargo Marathon. Kathy Kanwischer, a data and communications representative from Fargo, has been running with Knutson from the beginning.

“And when he (Knutson) changed from that to a full marathon, I decided to give it a try,” she said. Kanwischer ran alongside her husband Marvin (also a charter member) during the Scheels Fargo Marathon’s inaugural year.

LeNae Lee, a dietitian and half marathoner from Devils Lake, remembers that first race well. “There were so few runners and the weather was cold – sleet and snow,” she recalled. “We started on the bridge and it was a small group of dedicated runners. Now it’s a nationally known race and draws people from all over the world. I love that it has many local runners who win too!”

Mary Van Nevel, a program advisor from Moorhead who has run both the half and full Marathon, said running in that first race was a no-brainer. “You don't get many chances to run an inaugural marathon,” she said. “It was hometown — no travel — (and) exciting to be part of the first one.” Continuing to run it was also an easy decision. “I get to sleep in my own bed,” she said. “I talk friends and family into being along the race course to support me – or run it with me!”

The event is also a family affair for Gwen Horter, a dietitian from Perham who has run both the Half and the full marathon since 2005.

“Nine years ago, I ran by myself,” said Horter. “Over the years, my older daughter has run the 5K. This year she's planning on running the half with her mom and my younger daughter would like to run the 5K."

“It's a very inclusive marathon,” said Cindy Lee Deuser, a full marathoner and a professor at NDSCS who lives in Fargo. “The course is truly flat, the crowd support is the best… and there is a race distance for anyone who isn't quite up for the full marathon.”

"You have to run Fargo,” said charter member Michelle Langton, a crime victim specialist from Grand Forks, who has run both the full and the half marathon. “It's so much fun, the community is so supportive, it's so well organized.”

“There are some wonderfully committed cheerleaders in Fargo-Moorhead that get themselves up and out of bed and in the cold (some years colder or wetter than others) to cheer on those of us that are running the race,” said Denae Grove, a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist from East Grand Forks. “These individuals and their signs are amazing and what makes me keep coming back.”

Grove kept running the Scheels Fargo Half Marathon through numerous challenges in her life. She ran when she was five months pregnant in 2006, ran again two days before a double mastectomy due to breast cancer in 2009, and ran to celebrate her last chemo treatment in 2012.

Every runner has their own reasons for participating and race day often brings on a whirlwind of emotions.

"I volunteer at packet pickup and it is the best job you could have,” said half marathoner and volunteer Andrea Hansen, who is retired and lives in Fargo. “Everyone is enthusiastic and I have seen people tear up when they get their bib number because they have worked so hard to be there.”

Anybody can run the Scheels Fargo Marathon, according to full marathoner Maureen Peniuk, a geomatics technician from Winnipeg – just “train well and you will come prepared for whatever the day brings.”

Knutson agreed. “I would have laughed pretty hard at you 25 years ago if you had told me I was going to run a marathon someday,” he said. “I think that has happened to a lot of people. Whether it’s a 5K or 26.2 miles, everyone has a finish line to cross.” [AWM]