St. Louis High School woodshop teacher and life coach, Mr. Maxwell,  ran the Memorial Medical Center WhistleStop Marathon in Ashlund, Wisconsin this past weekend, Oct. 15. 

The WhistleStop Marathon starts in Iron River and ends in Ashlund. The course has very pretty scenery. Runners get a good view of things ranging from river to residential areas. There are people from all different skill levels running this race. It is a gradual decline to the finish and had okay footing, of a crushed gravel path. 

Maxwell had an outstanding day, and ran an impressive time of 5:12:44. His goal was to run it in under five hours, so he was close. This was his first-ever full marathon, but he’s done four half-marathon in the past. Maxwell finished 187 out of 219 runners. Maxwell started training hard in April. He started with only running 10 miles per week and increased his total milage to 40. He also started changing his eating habits. 

Maxwell had three goals going into the race: to finish, run under a 12-minute pace, and to finish in under 5 hours. He accomplished the first and was very close to his other two goals. When asked why he ran the marathon Maxwell responded, “I ran this race to help our students at SLHS see that if you have a plan, and follow through with that plan you can achieve just about anything.” He is always thinking of his students and putting them first. 

Junior Olivia Good. “I’m proud of Mr. Maxwell. He accomplished things he had never done before.”

Mr. Maxwells’s son, Luke, attends college in Ashlund which is where the race finished. This was a deciding factor when choosing to run the marathon and it gave he and his wife an opportunity to visit their son while they were there. Mr. Maxwell went into the race excited and confident. He was pushing himself to new limits and accomplishing great things.