Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE COUPLE that races together, stays together. Newlyweds, Mark and Bridget Wendt competed in the Sisu Ski Race Saturday in Ironwood. Mark has done many races before, but for Bridget, Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 Art teacher, this was not only her first race, it was the first time she has ever been on cross country skis.
By IAN MINIELLY
Ironwood - The eighth annual Sisu Ski Fest started 90 minutes late to accommodate cold weather and heavy wintry conditions, but for Ellen Weber, who has raced every Sisu except the year it was cancelled, the delayed start resulted in a much better race because it was not so brutally cold, like last years race. Weber said she races and works the registration desk, despite making the trek to Ironwood from the suburbs of Chicago.
For Bridget Wendt, art teacher at the Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 school, this years Sisu came 13 years late, but right on time for her and her husband Mark. Wendt received the proper gear to cross country ski 13 years ago, but she never even took the tags off the clothes. After marrying Mark December 29, who has ski-raced and competed for years, Wendt said she was, "Waiting on the right partner."
Bridget said she ski'd downhill 18 years ago, but this years Sisu was her first time on cross country skis. Bridget is a runner she said, so long time physical exertion is nothing new, which is how she met Mark. They were both running in New York where Mark lived while she was in New York painting the piano last year. Bridget said, "I would do it again."
The newlyweds are planning to run 8 half marathons this summer in New England in only 8 days. As if being newly married is not challenging enough, the two are adding many early hard-core miles together. Mark said Bridget, "is a trooper, she did great. She runs marathons and this is how we started talking." Referring to her time in New York last year painting the piano that brought them together.
Ralph King, another racer from the suburbs of Chicago, said to the Wendt's while hearing their story and between bites of his pasty, "I will leave you with one thought, triathlons." King was struck by a truck while bicycling five years ago and his doctors and family were certain he would die. King did not only pull through his terrible injuries, last summer he rode from Anacortes, WA to Long Island, NY, crossing the entire breadth of North America.
