Ebel keeps running with MS
John Ebel could have taken the easy road and stopped running marathons back in 1997.
That was the year Ebel was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Eighteen years later, the Appleton man is still running the Community First Fox Cities Marathon.
Ebel is one 18 dedicated runners who have competed in all 24 Fox Cities Marathons, and he’ll be at the starting line for No. 25 Sunday.
“I’ve done them all, so I can’t quit now,” said Ebel.
Ebel, 63, admits that having MS presents challenges in trying to navigate the grueling 26.2-mile course.
“Certain days you don’t have any energy,” said Ebel. “Hopefully, race day is not one of those and I feel good. For about the last two years, my right arm just sorts of hangs when I run or walk. But I love running and it’s just that time of year when I’m ready go for the marathon.”
What will make Sunday’s marathon extra special for Ebel is that he’ll get to run it with his son, Matt.
“My son surprised me back in June,” said Ebel. “He told me he was going to run it with me this year along with several of his friends. So we’re going to have a group.”
Ebel sees no reason to retire his running shoes.
“I know my doctor keeps saying ‘Don’t quit running – that it’s probably helping,” said Ebel.
Neenah’s Fred Umland, 66, will also celebrate his 25th Fox Cities Marathon and enjoys the annual challenge it presents.
“I see it as a way to keep motivated and keep running throughout the summer,” said Umland. “It gives me something to shoot for. And by now, the marathon is kind of a habit. I like to see if I can finish close to what I did the previous year. It gets a little harder as you get older, but I’m still not that far off my times from previous years.
“You get a sense of accomplishment when you do it. Every year I’m out there, especially around mile 20, I ask myself, ‘Why in the world am I doing this?’ But I keep doing it.”’
Umland’s most memorable Fox Cities Marathon was the first one back in 1990.
“I was somewhat reluctant, but people I know encouraged me to do it,” said Umland. “I was not pleased with how it went. I had a pulled muscle or something toward the end and struggled to finish. I kind of hobbled across the finish line.
“But I still finished in just over four hours. Then I said, ‘I’ve got to do it again.’ I did it the second time and got stuck on it. There’s been a couple times right at the end when I came in exhausted and told my wife that I wasn’t going to do it again. But I’ve always rethought that.”
Umland’s initial reason for pursuing distance running was family related.
“I increased my running about 35 years ago because my dad was having medical problems, heart problems.” Umland said. “He hadn’t been very active during his middle years. I figured that if I was more active, I could avoid some of the issues he was having.”
Dr. Anne Siegrist is another member of the Fox Cities Marathon’s “24-year running club.” The Appleton dentist will be running her 60th marathon Sunday, and she has competed in the big ones: running the Boston, New York City and Washington D.C. marathons twice.
“This might be smaller compared to New York City or the Boston Marathon, but it’s probably a better run event,” said Siegrist. “You have a water stop every mile. In New York City, you can’t even get over to the water stop because there’s so many people in the way. You miss several water steps because you don’t have a chance to get to anything.
“I think it’s special because you can do training runs for this race. I think that’s why this marathon is so well run. People go into it better prepared because they’ve done the training runs and know what they’re getting into. I like this marathon. You know where the hills are going to be and you can train for any kind of weather. If you can train in Wisconsin, you can train for anything.”
Siegrist remembers the first Fox Cities Marathon like it was yesterday.
“The first one was incredible because it was so unique to the area,” said Siegrist. “Some people didn’t really know what a marathon was. They had people lining the entire course – people on every block. It was so cool.”
Bill Vande Voort, 51, of Kimberly also has perfect attendance as a Fox Cities Marathon runner and will be tackling his 46th marathon, overall.
“I have this goal of running a marathon in every state, and I usually try and do at least one per year in another state along with this one,” said Vande Voort, an accountant. “I love the home-town atmosphere. I have a lot of relatives in the area and get great support.
“I’ve had no major injuries that have kept me from doing it. I remember running the first one and the 19th mile went right by our house. I figured, well, if I can’t finish it, I can just walk home.”
Both Vande Voort and Brian Moser — another seasoned runner with 24 Fox Cities Marathons under his belt — recall the 2005 marathon as their most memorable one. That was the year law enforcement officials in Kaukauna pulled several runners off the course in that area due to safety concerns during a thunderstorm. Marathon officials were not contacted prior to the decision. Some marathoners were allowed to continue at their own risk during the storm, while others weren’t given that option.
“That was definitely the weirdest one,” said Moser, 55, a Fond du Lac resident. “I was on mile 14 and at the time it was really only a light drizzle, but it was on the warm side and it looked like kind of debatable weather patterns. Then, a guy comes along on a scooter and tells me the race is being cancelled. I said ‘I want to finish’ and they gave me permission.
“Other people had to go onto this shuttle bus and a lot of them were disenchanted about that. As I was lumbering along, people were kind of giving me the evil eye and were like,’ Why is this guy allowed to go on and we’re not.”
It made for Moser’s slowest Fox Cities Marathon time, but he was just happy to cross the finish line.
“I finished in six hours and 49 minutes, but I finished it to keep my streak alive,” said Moser. “I had to stop probably three or four times before they gave me the OK to go on. A lot of the mile markers were down in the last half of the race, which made it very unusual but I kept barreling along.
Vande Voort also kept on trucking in the 2005 marathon despite the thunderstorms.
“I was almost in Little Chute and some people were picking up their lawn chairs and saying the race was cancelled,” said Vande Voort. “I was like, ‘Ahh, no, I’m not going to stop running. I can take a little rain.’ I wanted to finish, so I kept running in the rain.”
The Fox Cities Marathon is the only marathon that Moser still runs.
“At Fox Cities, you get great support,” said Moser. “It’s fun to give high fives to spectators along the course. I always gain energy from that which is very cool. I used to be really competitive and would run in the 3:20s. Now I just do it because I really like the race and course.”
Tim Froberg: 920-993-1000, ext. 423, or tfroberg@postcrescent.com; on Twitter @twfroberg
Twenty-Four Year Running Club
Jeffrey Alderton, Appleton
John Ebel, Appleton
Basil Hansen, Waupaca
Ned Hughes, Neenah
Joe Jilek, Madison
Mike Jovanovich, Neenah
Stuart Kolb, Green Bay
Kelly Luther (Andre), Appleton
Elaine Moore, Appleton
Brian Moser, Fond du Lac
Gary Nettekoven, Appleton
Forrest Pearson, Hudson
Henry Rueden, Green Bay
Anne Siegrist, Appleton
Joe Thoma, Oak Creek
Fred Umland, Neenah
Bill Vande Voort, Kimberly
James Vanden Branden, Neenah
Community First Fox Cities Marathon Presented by Miron Construction
Events
Friday: Guardian Kids Fun Run, 5:30-7 p.m. Fox Cities Stadium; Network Health Health & Wellness Expo, 4-8 p.m., University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley Field House.
Saturday: Affinity Medical Group Orthopedic & Sports Medicine 5K Run/Walk, 9 a.m., starts and finishes at Riverside Park in Neenah; Network Health Health & Wellness Expo. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley Field House.
Sunday: ThedaCare Half Marathon, open division, 7 a.m., competitive walk division, 7:05 a.m. Orthopedic & Sports Institute Relay Marathon, 7 a.m.; Community First Fox Cities Marathon, 7 a.m., half and full marathons start in front of the Barlow Planetarium at UW-Fox Valley and finish at Riverside Park in Neenah.