You can’t talk about the history of the Community First Fox Cities Marathon presented by Miron Construction without the name Mike Heidke.
As the popular fall weekend of races prepares to celebrate its 35th anniversary in September, Heidke has a distinguished place in the event as a three-time champion.
The 47-year-old Heidke, who lives in Appleton but calls Neenah his hometown, won the marathon in 2009, 2010 and 2011. He’s the only three-time winner of the event.
“Well, winning is pretty awesome,” he said during a recent interview near the finish line at Riverside Park in Neenah. “Even if you do it a lot, it’s still fun to win.”
Heidke, a longtime teacher and girls cross-country coach at Neenah High School, is proud of his place in the event’s history but even happier that his hometown event is thriving 35 years after its debut in 1991.
“It’s nice to see that the Fox Cities [Marathon] is still surviving,” Heidke said. “I think the community, the Fox Cities, are very proud of having that as a race. … You know, [it’s] an opportunity for the whole Fox Cities to come together all the way from Neenah all the way up to Kaukauna and just have one event together. I think it’s great.”
Heidke’s favorite memory from his many years involved with the marathon is his first victory in 2009. He was in a pack of three frontrunners as they approached the Jefferson Park area in Menasha.
Besides being a talented runner, one of his other roles with the marathon through the years is to help coordinate and assign jobs for Neenah High school athletes and parents who volunteer at water stations or fruit stations along the course.
Heidke knew where those friendly faces were positioned, and by the time he was running through with the lead they had texted each other to let everyone know their coach was ahead of the pack.
“It was really cool, even though you’re feeling pretty rough at the end of a race, to have all your athletes, their parents and your friends and family waiting for you to come in,” he said. “So that was a really fun experience and that really stands out in my mind. This is an awesome experience here at the Fox Cities Marathon.”
Julie Johnson, who took over as race director in May 2022, lauds not only the contributions of past winners like Heidke but also everyone who helped put the Fox Cities Marathon in the spotlight in those early years and helped it maintain its cherished place in the community.
“This has been a premier event in the Fox Cities for 35 years,” Johnson said. “Whether you’re a walker or a runner, it doesn’t matter. It’s the fact that for 35 years, this event has carried on in the Fox Cities and people still register and come from all over the place to do it. The Fox Cities is hosting these people with stories and goals and connections and whatever the case is, and we host them. And it’s not just the marathon, it’s every community hosts them.”
In the early years of the Fox Cities Marathon, organizers paid prize money to attract elite runners. But the focus is, and has always been, on making it an event runners and walkers of all ability levels can participate in and embrace – many times close to their home.
Heidke thinks that’s a big part of the enduring charm and legacy of the local event.
“A lot of times people who participate get to run in places where they work or where they live and they pass people that they know, their neighbors are out cheering for them,” he said. “I think it’s just really cool that they get a chance to be in their own community to participate and have the community cheer for them.
“Plus, at the end here at Riverside Park and Loop the Lake are some of the best places to run. So to have that as part of the course is really unique to the Fox Cities Marathon.”
Heidke doesn’t train or compete as often as he did when he was younger, but as a longtime runner and coach he still has plenty to offer the running community.
Asked for what advice he would give to novice runners, he said to start with a shorter race, work up to a 10K and then a half marathon before thinking about a marathon. He said it’s important to have a training plan – many are available for free online – be conservative when starting out, and don’t be afraid to slow down or even walk.
Heidke has done about 20 marathons, including Boston, New York and Grandma’s in Duluth, Minnesota. Last summer, he ran across the Grand Canyon.
“It was fun but not fun at the same time,” he said. “The end of that was really rough. From 24 to 28 miles across rim to rim, I thought it’d be cool to run that. I’m from Wisconsin, and flying down to Arizona to run across, I was not really prepared for that.”
Heidke said hitting the wall – commonly called bonking – is “a legitimate thing” for runners no matter their ability or experience, and it happened to him at the Boston Marathon last spring.
“Once you hit [the wall] the first time, all you really want to do is stop,” he said. “You think you’ve run 20-some miles and you got like 3 or 4 or whatever you have left to go, you can just finish it, but it is tough.”
His advice is to focus on nutrition not only leading up to the race, but also while on the course. Many runners are now using energy gels, or goo, for nourishment during races.
Heidke said those are helpful, but ultimately getting through the wall is simply a matter of perseverance.
“Anybody who finishes a marathon, no matter if they ran the whole way or had to walk most of it, you have to always give them kudos because it’s tough,” he said.
As a longtime advocate for runners and local races, Heidke hopes and believes the Fox Cities Marathon will continue to prosper and have an important spot on the running calendar for years to come after it celebrates its 35th anniversary with this year’s main event Sept. 20.
“The big races are really, really big, and I think the smaller races kind of have to figure out how to sustain themselves for the future,” he said. “I feel like the smaller races like Fox Cities are stable in terms of the participants and they really have to keep promoting the community event and getting people involved with it.”
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Community First Fox Cities Marathon holds special memories for Heidke