GREEN BAY (NBC26) — The Bellin Run returns Friday and Saturday, and the race is once again honoring its "Legends" — the 20 people who have started and finished all 49 Bellin Runs, dating back to 1977.
- You can watch a live stream of the race's finish line on nbc26.com on Saturday morning
- Check out the race website for additional registration and packet-pickup information
- Watch the video above to meet two of the people who have run the race every year it has happened
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details added for web.)
Green Bay's biggest road race is this weekend, and the Health and Fitness Expo is ready to go for festivities beginning Friday afternoon. It's the 49th edition of the annual race, and believe it or not, there is a group of people who have run every single one.
Paul Steckart has been there since the very first race in 1977.
"Back for the first Bellin, that's back when running — you were kind of considered a freak," Steckart said. "We're still considered freaks, but now it's a lot more acceptable."
He and George Wiesner are two of the 20 people who have run all 49 Bellins — making sure they plan their lives around the race.
"My family knows the second Saturday of June is off-limits," Wiesner said.
They even have the merchandise to prove it, all the way back to the first and second years. They've been through bad weather years, and even a health challenge or two — at least for George in 1993.
"I went to the doctor two days [after the race], found out I had pneumonia — so I ran the Bellin with pneumonia, but that's the closest I came to breaking my streak," he said.
The race's executive director, Randy Van Straten says the amount of so-called "Legends" here is more than any race — even the Boston Marathon.
"Having 20 individuals that are actively having a streak for 49 years is unmatched in the U.S.," he said. "it's just totally unmatched. It is a record."
Van Straten says 10 people had a streak of running Boston for at least 40 consecutive years, but only 3 of those streaks are active — so no other American road race holds a candle to Bellin's 20 people with a 49-year streak.
And Paul and George say there's no way they're ending their streaks, even after next year's 50th edition.
"I've had a number of people saying, 'The next year will be the 50th Bellin. Are you going to stop?'" Wiesner said. "I said, 'No, that would be antithetical to what the Bellin is all about!' It's about individual and collective community health, and I'll be doing this as long as I can keep moving."
