Published: April 30, 2008 03:56 pm            

Ex-Fox runners complete Nashville marathon

By CHARLES PENDELL

Sports correspondent

McLEANSBORO — Once a runner, always a runner.

That's the mindset of two former high school cross country runners, Marcie (Sentel) Clark and Sam "The Butcher" Wilson.

On Saturday, Clark and Wilson ventured down to Nashville, Tenn., for the Country Music Marathon, a 26.2-mile event.

Clark graduated from McLeansboro High School in 1997. She excelled in basketball and softball and didn’t really start running cross country until her junior year.

“Coach Roger Lee talked me into running my junior year," Clark said. “I got a chance to run with some super gals, like Hillary Phillips, Loren Hood, Rachel Hutcheson, Heather Brashier and Evana Lemke, just to name a few. I really enjoyed running in high school.

"I really look up to coach Lee and I really appreciate him very much. He taught us a lot."

Clark enjoyed running so much in high school that she continued to run in college for the next four years at Oakland City University in Indiana. There, she made it to the nationals but didn’t place.

After graduation, Clark returned home and began teaching second grade at East Side School. She also became a volunteer assistant cross country coach under her former high school coach, Lee, and was head coach of the junior high girls track team.

Clark has been teaching for the past six years and coached for five. She is still teaching, but stopped coaching last year to be a mom. Now she spends quality time running with her 1-year-old daughter, Calynn.

“I still enjoy running, and it is a good way to stay in shape, both mentally and physically," Clark said. "I often run with my daughter to stay in shape, and I have been working hard for this marathon."

Clark finished 640th overall out of 4,365 runners who finished the full marathon There were 1,910 females who finished the race.

Clark ran the race in 3 hours, 44 minutes.

“I wanted to break four hours, and I did. I had lots of fun, and I’ll do another one and try to get a better time in the next one.”

Wilson graduated from McLeansboro High School in 1998. He started out playing football for the Foxes, and he would run after football practice to get better for football.

He changed sports in his senior year and began running full time. It was a good move for Wilson, because the 1997 Foxes cross country team not only advanced to state that season, but finished second in the state. The Foxes finished with a record of 155-1, losing only to Oregon by five points in the state championship race.

Wilson was one of the top five runners on that squad, which also included twins Dirk and Derek Miller, Ben Davenport, Daniel Nalley, Chris Hopfinger, Ryan Perryman and Mike Shaw.

After graduating from high school, Wilson was offered a "half ride" to run cross country at Oakland City University, but Rend Lake College was closer. He went to college there, first to be an architect, then he changed his major to computer networking.

After Rend Lake, Wilson moved on to Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, where he will graduate May 10.

He also taught computers for a time at Rend Lake College, and will soon be opening his own computer store and repair shop — and maybe even a computer café — toward the end of May.

On and off for the past seven years, Wilson has been volunteering his talents as an assistant cross country coach for the Hamilton County program.

“If Rend Lake would have had their cross country program going, I probably would have ran in college," Wilson said. "I regret not running in college, but Dan Shriver got me thinking about running, and so did coach Roger Lee. Coach Lee was a huge inspiration to me. He is a great coach and a great boss. He took real good care of us. He helped me out a lot, and I learned from him, and he also was a big reason why I am a volunteer assistant cross country coach for the Foxes these days.”

To get ready for his long trek through the country music capitol, Wilson ran about 20 miles every day to either Carmi, Eldorado, Wayne City and to Dahlgren and back.

“Running opens up lots of opportunities and travel, and you get to meet different people," Wilson said. “It's fun to do and it keeps you healthy. It’s not as hard as people think, but it does take dedication and you have to be committed.”

Wilson also had a good day at the marathon as he finished 720th overall and 560th out of the 2,463 males that finished the race. Wilson ran the race in 3 hours, 46 minutes.

Seventy-five hundred people ran in the full marathon, with only 4,365 runners finishing the race. Twenty-five thousand ran in a half marathon of 13.1 miles.

Wilson ran one other marathon three years ago in Indianapolis; he finished the 26.2-mile race in 3 hours, 20 minutes.

He ran in the Urbanathlon in Chicago in October. In that event, participants run a lot of obstacles in the middle of the 12-mile race.

Wilson also ran in a half marathon for three years straight in Indianapolis. In 2006, he finished in 360th place out of 35,000 people with a time of 1 hour, 26 minutes.

He said he plans to run in the Urbanathlon again this year, and down the road he plans to run a marathon in Antarctica, maybe in 2010.

“Running is a great way to let your worries go," Wilson said. “I really do enjoy running. And I like to test myself, to see what I can do. Mostly I just like the competition.”

        

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