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Seniors tackle course with ease
Published 12:01 p.m., June 7, 2009
When Bill Bauck’s teenage son joined Perham’s cross country team in the mid-80s, Bauck’s wife had a suggestion: Why don’t you take up running, too?
So he did. Bauck, who’d done little exercise throughout adulthood, was 55.
Fast forward over two decades and Bauck is still running. Now 78, Bauck has run in dozens of half and full marathons across Minnesota and Wisconsin, and on Saturday he was running Athletic Republic’s 5K in Fergus Falls.
Bauck, who lives a block and a half from the home where he grew up, drove school busses for the Perham School District for over four decades. As his running progressed he began to enter races, starting with a Detroit Lakes 4-mile in 1987.
In 1994, Bauck completed his first marathon: the Paavo Nurmi Marathon in Hurley, Wis., named for the man who dominated distance running in the early 20th century.
“He was a Fin, from Finland, and my wife, who I was thankful to for getting me started, is from Helsinki,” Bauck said.
When he finished that race, Bauck said he’d never run a marathon again. But he changed his mind and would go on to run several more, including two Twin Cities Marathons with his son, before finishing his last marathon race at age 70.
Bauck has attended countless of races with Jim Lee of Dent, whom he met at a Battle Lake race in the early 1990s. Lee, 68, also became a serious runner in adulthood and has completed 22 marathons. He has been the director of the Perham Turtle Fest 5K and 10K since 2000 and ran Saturday’s Athletic Republic half marathon for the first time.
Neither man has been immune from the effects of aging. Bauck beat prostate cancer seven years ago; Lee has had two episcopic knee surgeries.
Bauck’s race traditions include a pasta dinner the night before, prepared special by his wife. She was in Colorado visiting one of their children last week, so he planned to make macaroni and cheese for himself Friday.
Bauck estimates he’s collected about 200 T-shirts from the races he’s run, but there’s one he wears consistently during events: a shirt bearing the Finnish flag — a blue cross on a white background.
His pace has slowed over the years but Bauck says his running days will continue.
“It’s good for my body. It’s good for my soul. It’s my thing,” he said. “I’ll keep on doing it as long as my body can handle it.”
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