Late-comer to Grandma’s holds his own

OK everybody, here’s a one-question, multiple-choice quiz for you: Fifteeen-year-old Tyler Meihak of Mankato is A) an overachiever, B) slightly crazy, C) a determined individual, or D) all of the above.

The answer is D, and you’re about to find out why.

This past school year, the freshman at Mankato West went out for football as usual and then, for the first time, decided to go out for track. He gravitated toward the middle and long distances right away and enjoyed it enough to make a momentous decision.

“Right about the time track got over, I decided to run Grandma’s Marathon,” Tyler said. “I took about a week off at the end of the season and then started training.”

Keep in mind, the end of the track season for all high school athletes who did not qualify for state was right around May 27-28 this year. With Grandma’s Marathon slated for June 20, that left Tyler about three weeks to train.

“None of my friends thought I would do it,” he said. “That helped motivate me.”

Tyler’s mom, Jennifer True, had been a track competitor in high school and had also run a few marathons while her son was growing up.

“I think he’d always been intrigued by it,” she said, “but marathon training is pretty intense. I thought we’d better sit down and think about this, but he was determined.”

Tyler began training with family friend Steve Knowlton, who has more than 40 marathons to his credit. Tyler’s only competitive run, outside of track, prior to the start of Grandma’s, was the 8K Fun Run at Janesville’s Hay Daze about a week before. An 8K is a little under five miles, a far cry from a marathon.

“I ran a lot longer training runs,” Tyler said. “I was up to about 16 or 17 miles a few times.”

By the way, Tyler also worked out in summer drills with the West football team four days a week while he trained. He did that all the way up to Grandma’s, missing only the day-before-the-race practice.

Tyler’s goal at Grandma’s was to finish. He was hoping to get in under five hours but didn’t put any time restraints on himself.

Last Saturday — Race Day — turned out to be brutally hot in Duluth, with temperatures in the low-to-mid 90s. At the halfway point, Tyler was doing fine and was on pace to finish in 41⁄2 hours. By the time he got to mile 18, things had changed drastically.

“That’s when I hit the wall,” he said. “I started having to throw up, but I couldn’t throw up so I had the dry heaves.

“My mom was there. She didn’t tell me to quit, but you could tell she wanted me to.

“I just kept walking or jogging the rest of the way. I’d walk half a mile, then jog half a mile. Every time I tried to run I got sick.”

As could be expected, Tyler’s mom was on the verge of freaking out. More than 500 runners dropped out of the race that day, and each time she heard an ambulance, she assumed they were coming to get her son.

“I was going to go from mile 18 to the finish line, but when I saw him at 18, I decided to go to mile 22,” she said. “He didn’t look good at all. I was hoping he would quit, but he wanted to keep going.”

Tyler eventually made it across the finish line in 5:43:28. He said once he got across, he went over to a fence and finally threw up.

“I felt a lot better after that,” he said. “I wanted to do that the last six miles but couldn’t.”

Tyler said the skepticism of his friends is what kept him going.

“I wasn’t going to let them be right,” he said. “I wanted to prove I could actually do it.”

Tyler was sore for a few days afterward but is fine now.

“I’d like to do another one,” he said. “Next time I’ll start training sooner, like at the start of the track season.”

For your mom’s sake, Tyler, let’s hope you start sooner than that.



Jim Rueda is the Free Press sports editor. To contact him, call 344-6381 or e-mail him at jrueda@mankatofreepress.com.