MANKATO — Thousands of runners from all over are here to compete in the 2025 Mankato Marathon.
The 26.2-mile race, taking place Saturday, will guide runners through the heart of downtown, through wide-open country land and around the campus of Minnesota State University before arriving back where it started.
It’s not for everyone. But the motivation to compete may include stories for everyone.
For St. Cloud residents Joe Buckentine and Taylor Maiers, there’s motivation. But it’s on two completely different levels.
More than running
What started as a challenge from his days in the Army turned into a lifestyle for Buckentine.
When he steps onto the starting line Saturday this won’t be his first marathon. In fact, this will be his 127th marathon.
“It’s a lifestyle,” he said. “Once you’ve done it you want to keep in shape, but you always want to challenge yourself and not be upset with the results. Whatever I came up with, that’s what I end up with.”
The journey stems back to Fort Bragg in North Carolina in December 1985. He decided to compete in a marathon “just for the heck of it”.
Upon finishing he was glad he competed, but he also told himself he would never run another marathon again. But as the years wore on, Buckentine noticed he was becoming out of shape and putting on pounds he didn’t want.
And for the last 35 years he has been devoted to running, competing in marathons across all 50 states with his personal best time set at 2 hours and 50 minutes.
“Whatever I do now is for the fun of it,” he said. “For the challenge.”
Now 62, Buckentine does his best to run enough miles for endurance, hill workouts to help acclimate to elevation changes that come with nearly every course and basic speed workouts with laps around a nearby track facility.
When asked how long he wants to continue running, Buckentine said he wants to keep competing until he turns 80. His running club in St. Cloud has members that are still running at 80.
But until that day comes, he’ll continue to enjoy his favorite aspect of the sport.
“Of course, the finishing times always mattered to me,” he said. “But I’ve noticed over the years that, to me, it was the friendships, the car rides and the road trips. That’s what was always more fun to me.”
This one’s for you, Mom
Taylor Maiers, 23, was expecting a basic celebration when her parents called the family for dinner on the night of their 25th wedding anniversary.
But this wasn’t a night of celebration. It was the night where Wendy Maiers, Taylor’s mom, revealed she was diagnosed with spindle cell carcinoma, a rare, aggressive form of cancer that came from a lump on the bottom of her tongue.
Doctors removed 50% of Wendy’s tongue and replaced it with part of her left forearm.
“Her tongue is not what it used to be,” Taylor said. “She can’t taste on half of her tongue. It’s swollen. It’s hard to move. You have to retrain your entire tongue to talk again.”
So Taylor wanted to do something to help make sure her mother didn’t feel alone.
Ever since Taylor was in the second grade, the duo has been running 5Ks together, even recently competing in the 2024 Thanksgiving 5K in St. Cloud. The two had friendly competitions to see if one could guess how far the other ran that day.
So Taylor made a decision — if her mom could undergo surgery and chemotherapy in a matter of weeks, she could absolutely train for a marathon in two months. On Aug. 14, she began training for the 2025 Mankato Marathon.
“I’ve always been able to run long distances,” Taylor said. “But preparing yourself for being bored and continuing to do something you don’t like doing was kind of a big hurdle for me.”
At the same time Taylor knew her mom was going through her own grueling process — except in the form of numerous hospital visits and hours of chemotherapy.
“It’s hard to see the end result until you’re at the end,” Taylor said. “I told my mom (about running the Mankato Marathon) and she was overwhelmed. Now I feel all the support from my family.”